Our second story this week comes from John Chapter 4 and is the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in this gospel - and it is with a Samaritan woman, no less. To speak to a woman in public would have been unheard of, and especially a Samaritan. Jesus is once again showing that spending time with people on the fringes of society does not faze him.
The Samaritan woman is a model for discipleship in John’s gospel. If we compare this story to Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in the previous chapter there are some interesting contrasts. Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish man, comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness and struggles to understand what Jesus is telling him about being born again. Here we have a Samaritan woman meeting with Jesus in the heat of the day (v6). She is clearly an outcast in her community - nobody would collect water at noon unless they were trying to avoid everybody. Jesus suggests the reason this might be:
He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’
‘I have no husband,’ she replied.
Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. John 4: 16-18a [NIV]
The woman is broken. We don’t know the stories of these failed marriages - she may have been widowed, or treated awfully. What we do know is that any relationship breakdown has an effect on the heart and soul. In this encounter she has with Jesus she is known, she is accepted and she is loved. And this profound acceptance leads her to tell others about Jesus, and the whole town believes (v39). She is the first evangelist!
What a profound story of how the accepting love of Jesus can transform us on this journey of discipleship!
Emma Higgins
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