www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
March 9
John 4:27-42
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, 'What do you want?' or, 'Why are you speaking with her?' Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 'Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?' They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, eat something.' But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.' So the disciples said to one another, 'Surely no one has brought him something to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest"? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps." I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.'
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I have ever done.' So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.'
In Jesus' ministry, he often challenges the boundaries of who is acceptable and who is not. In this story, he not only challenges the boundary of a chosen people (the Jews) and a rejected people (the Samaritans), but also the boundary constructed on the basis of gender. Jesus engages in several scandalous behaviors: he talks to a woman in public, not just any woman but a Samaritan woman (the Samaritans were despised by the Jews); he reveals intimate details of who he is to this Samaritan woman and uses her as a witness to the townspeople; he treats the Samaritan woman and later the entire village as worthy recipients of God's grace.
The Samaritan woman's successful evangelization of her town makes it clear that Jesus did not see any of the following as qualifications for being a witness or disciple: being male; believing in a "right" interpretation of Scripture; belonging to an exclusive chosen group. The Samaritan woman failed all of the above tests, yet, because of her witness, the number of people who believed in Jesus grew. Moreover, once the town people heard the message of Jesus themselves, they no long needed the secondary witness of the woman, because they heard the message for themselves. Effective witness does not replace someone else's personal experience with God. Rather, effective witness leads the person receiving the witness to that experience.
What about the Samaritan woman qualified her to be a witness? First of all, she had a personal experience with Jesus. Secondly, she was willing to share that experience with her friends and neighbors. Once the friends and neighbors heard her story, they became responsible for going and hearing Jesus for themselves. The Samaritan woman was not responsible for the final result of whether her shared experience led to belief. She was only responsible for sharing her own experience so that others might want to have an experience of their own. It does not take a seminary education or a perfect life or being accepted by the church establishment to be an effective witness. It only takes a personal experience and the willingness to share that experience. Each of us has a story. We just need to tell it! cw
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