John chapter 4 always amazes me, in this passage we have Jesus encounter with a mega-outcast. Firstly she is a Samaritan who were despised for being half gentile by their Jewish neighbours. Secondly she is a woman in a culture which is so male dominated that being a woman makes you a second class citizen. Thirdly she has had five husbands, and is now living with a man who is not her husband. Even other Samaritan's avoid her, which is why she goes to the well in the middle of the day, when the heat would be at its worst, as no-one else would be around. She knows she is an outcast and she knows she is despised but at the well she meets someone who is interested in her. Jesus' interest in her is unlike how her husbands had been interested in her, he values her as a person, someone unique, someone created in God's image. Jesus shows real compassion for this lady by engaging her in conversation, I am sure that she would not have looked at him and may have been embarrassed that he was even at the well. Yet he spoke to her, and she knew he was a Jew. He addressed her with kindness and compassion and spoke of her greatest need, her need to be forgiven, to be a new person. yet he also didn't shy away from dealing with her lifestyle, but he waited for this to come up. This is different to us, it might be why we avoid talking to someone of "ill repute" if we addressed them we might think we are being faithful by bringing up their alternative lifestyle first, Jesus didn't do this, he showed her his character first and pointed her to her greatest need, himself. I love how excited she gets when she realises he is more than a prophet and that the time to worship in spirit and in truth is right now. I love it that she goes and tells her friends about Jesus straight away. As I ponder this I wonder why our excitement is less than hers? I also wonder why we do not attract people to Jesus like he did himself. I have said before John's gospel is my favourite book of the Bible, and I love that John placed this story of the outcast of outcasts straight after his account of Jesus with the ruling elite Nicodemus, showing that the gospel is for everyone.
Shalom
Stephen
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