Grace Goes Global
...Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, John 4:6-7
Text: John 4
Some quick observations from the verses above:
1. Jesus was tired. His physical body was exhausted, even though He was the Son of God. But He wasn't too tired or hungry for ministry. Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." - John 4:34
2. He asked the Samaritan woman for water. In that culture, men didn't usually initiate a conversation with women they didn't know.
3. Jews considered Samaritans to be unclean, half-breed Jews who refused to worship in the temple at Jerusalem. But Jesus initiated conversation anyway.
4. Jesus went against the social norms to ask such a loner and obvious sinner for a drink. Women typically went to the well together in the evening. She was all alone at the noon hour.
5. Jesus used an everyday experience and turned it naturally into a spiritual conversation.
As Jeff Dowdy reminded us yesterday, we are all called and empowered by the Spirit to represent Jesus wherever we are. Jesus showed us how to do this. His life was always about connecting with people who were lost and broken. He moves toward the unacceptable members of society like tax collectors and prostitutes. He moves toward women who were marginalized in a male-dominated culture. He moves toward blue-collar workers like fishermen. He moves toward outcasts who are sick or disabled. Why?
Jesus said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
