Wednesday, September 23, 2009

We're all the Samaritan woman at the well.

We were reading about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. Jesus knew her and everything about her without her ever uttering a word about herself. He knew that she had had 5 husbands and that the man that she was currently with was not her husband. Jesus knew and yet he offered her what He offers all of us, forgiveness and life eternal.

The woman was naturally shocked by Jesus. Not only that He knew all about her life, but also that He would even bother to talk to her. The woman must have been giddy by the end of the conversation with Jesus. She ran to get her friends and told them all about her encounter with Jesus. The Samaritan people came and asked Jesus to stay for 2 days and He did. Imagine the eyes and hearts that were open.

Would this be a woman your church or you would welcome with open arms? IF the answer is no, the next question has to be why not? I have walked into churches in my lifetime that "felt" immediately as if they were "judging" me. What happens next? People feel so uncomfortable that they leave and unfortunately many walk away from the Word and from Christianity because of it. This is NOT how Jesus would have done it.

One theme that cannot be ignored in the Bible is that of Jesus almost seeking out the poor and the sick. The sinners who are ignored and put down by the "believers". Well, ALL have sinned my friends. And Jesus has shown us more than once that He is for EVERYONE. Who are we or our churches to act superior.. are we superior to Jesus? NO!

I pray that we all will take another look at the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus was showing us that sin is sin..all sinners can and will be forgiven IF they believe. May we all follow Jesus' example and may we all come to the Word with the innocence and glee that the Samaritan woman did.