Reckless Love
Read John 4:1-26.
What Jesus is doing in this story is scandalous. It's reckless. In our day, it would be front page news: "Jesus Caught Alone With Immoral Woman at Well." It was scandalous enough in his own day, because not only were men not expected (or allowed) to talk to women alone, Jews also weren't supposed to talk to Samaritans at all. Jesus is breaking two hard and fast cultural rules here. But, as he repeatedly shows, he's willing to go anywhere and do anything to reach one person, to help that person experience the grace and love he came to offer.
If ever there was someone who needed that grace, it's probably this woman. She lives in a town where no one wants to be around her—evidenced by the fact that she comes to the well to draw water at noon (when it's hot) rather than early in the morning (when most people came because it was cooler). She's been divorced five times, and in that culture divorce was not a mutual thing. It was a matter of the man, the husband, deciding he didn't want the woman anymore and leaving her on her own. There were no settlements, no provision for the woman to be able to move on in life. The man she has now doesn't love her or care enough for her to marry her, again a scandalous thing in that world. Add to that her religious confusion. When Jesus wants to talk about her, she tries to engage him in an argument or debate about religious practice!
She is a woman bound up by rules, hurt by people, left on the sidelines by others and needing a touch of mercy.
That's why, John says, Jesus "had" to go through Samaria. He did not. There were other routes he could have taken. But I believe he came to this place just to meet this woman and offer her "living water," new life, hope that the life she knew wasn't the only life possible.
He will do the same for you. He will cross any barrier and do anything to offer you that same living water. That's what this week is about. Holy Week reminds us, more than any other time of the year, what Jesus was willing to do to show you that this life can be better than you imagined. He will even give his life if it might mean you could find yours, if it might mean you can find the life that really is life.
There's a song I heard last year that's become popular only recently (linked below) and the words that grab me every time are these:
What Jesus is doing in this story is scandalous. It's reckless. In our day, it would be front page news: "Jesus Caught Alone With Immoral Woman at Well." It was scandalous enough in his own day, because not only were men not expected (or allowed) to talk to women alone, Jews also weren't supposed to talk to Samaritans at all. Jesus is breaking two hard and fast cultural rules here. But, as he repeatedly shows, he's willing to go anywhere and do anything to reach one person, to help that person experience the grace and love he came to offer.
If ever there was someone who needed that grace, it's probably this woman. She lives in a town where no one wants to be around her—evidenced by the fact that she comes to the well to draw water at noon (when it's hot) rather than early in the morning (when most people came because it was cooler). She's been divorced five times, and in that culture divorce was not a mutual thing. It was a matter of the man, the husband, deciding he didn't want the woman anymore and leaving her on her own. There were no settlements, no provision for the woman to be able to move on in life. The man she has now doesn't love her or care enough for her to marry her, again a scandalous thing in that world. Add to that her religious confusion. When Jesus wants to talk about her, she tries to engage him in an argument or debate about religious practice!
She is a woman bound up by rules, hurt by people, left on the sidelines by others and needing a touch of mercy.
That's why, John says, Jesus "had" to go through Samaria. He did not. There were other routes he could have taken. But I believe he came to this place just to meet this woman and offer her "living water," new life, hope that the life she knew wasn't the only life possible.
He will do the same for you. He will cross any barrier and do anything to offer you that same living water. That's what this week is about. Holy Week reminds us, more than any other time of the year, what Jesus was willing to do to show you that this life can be better than you imagined. He will even give his life if it might mean you could find yours, if it might mean you can find the life that really is life.
There's a song I heard last year that's become popular only recently (linked below) and the words that grab me every time are these:
No shadow you won't light up, mountain you won't climb up, comin' after me...This Holy Week, may the reckless love of God overwhelm and change you like it did this woman at the well. He is coming to the well to offer you grace as well.
No wall you won't kick down, lie you won't tear down, comin' after me...
So thankful He came for us. We'd literally not exist without Him.
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