outsider x3

Thursday March 27^th, John 4:  21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." 25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."  26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."  This is the first and best example of Christ choosing evangelists in his ministry.  She is a Samaritan (outsider) woman (outsider) drawing water at noon because with her background in marriage the other Samaritan women most likely won’t let her get water with them in the coolness of the early morning or evening (outsider).  This outsider times three blessed and sent on her way by the triune God who is out ahead making things right in a world full of wrongs.  We often hear of her being a harlot, somehow attributing her fate to her actions.  Perhaps that is because as we look at ourselves that is often the case.  The story however says only that she was gathering water around noon and had been married five times and was not dependent upon someone to whom she was not married.  Were we to describe her as someone from our “tribe” or “group” or “belief system” we could perhaps see her as victim.  All too often however we see her as perpetrator or harlot.  Jesus saw her as neither.  Jesus saw her as child of God, created in the image of God and chooses her to be the first, and I might add quite successful, evangelists.  Jesus saw her and recognized her for who she was, which in Jesus’ eyes was a child of God.  Last week we heard of Nicodemus who couldn’t quite figure out who Jesus was.  This week we hear of the Samaritan Woman who perceived him as a prophet.  Both fulfilled their calling as a child of God.  What about you???