I Said YesSample

An Outcast Meets Jesus

I remember joining a little league baseball team full of kids who had played together for years. It was intimidating enough being the new kid on the block. To add to it, I’d never played an inning of baseball before in my life! You can probably guess how well things went. 

After being hit by a fastball on my first day of practice, I became deathly afraid of the ball. I was afraid of the pitcher. I was afraid of being in the batter’s box. I didn’t even want the ball to come to me when playing in the outfield! The kids on my team could smell my fear and they loved taunting me. My batting average that year was a big fat zero. I felt like the ultimate outsider on a team full of insiders. Have you ever felt like that? 

Today we read about a woman from Samaria who met Jesus during her daily chores. In the days that Jesus walked on earth, Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other. Even though these neighboring regions had much in common, there was a palpable racial tension that existed for generations between these two areas. 

Jews considered Samaritans to be a gang of unclean outsiders. Samaritans considered Jews to be a bunch of bitter elitists. And for six centuries prior to this story, they had worked hard to put up cultural dividing walls between their people groups. In fact, even seeing a Jew walking in Samaria would have raised some serious questions! Which is what makes this encounter with Jesus, who was a Jewish man, so intriguing.

One day, Jesus chose to take a hike through Samaria with His disciples. It was around midday when he arrived at the local well of a nearby town. To give you some context, the well in any Middle Eastern town was a desolate place in the afternoon. No one wanted to draw water when it was so hot out. Women would typically go to the well early in the morning when the temperature was cooler to fetch the day’s water. They also traveled together in groups. They would talk about their plans for the day. They would talk about their families. They would talk about their dreams. They may even gossip about the latest news around town.

But as Jesus arrived at the well in the afternoon, in the smoldering dry heat, He found a lone woman fetching water. Strange, right? 

We come to find out that there was probably a few reasons she was she was alone at the well. You see, she had been married 5 times. Plus, the man she was currently living with was not her husband. She was probably the talk of the town - and not in a good way. She was not the kind of person you’d expect to be meeting a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus. She was an unclean outsider.

If you spend time looking at the life of Jesus, you’ll find that He loves meeting with the outsiders of our world. And when you read the conversation between this woman and Jesus, you might be surprised at his words given her past. You won’t hear condemnation or judgement coming from Jesus. Instead, He engages the woman with grace and offers her an opportunity to say “Yes!” to His Living Water – to be eternally satisfied by a restored relationship with God.

But that’s not the end of the story. In fact, it gets even better. John 4:28-29 tells us what the woman did after she ended her conversation with Jesus: 

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

When I first said “Yes!” to Jesus as a young kid, I couldn’t wait to share it with the world around me. I told my Mom. I told my brother. I even went next door and told my neighbors! I wanted everyone to know what had happened in my life – and for them to hear all about Jesus too!

God wants each of us to share the hope we have found in Jesus with others. When we share what God is doing in our lives, it makes a difference in the lives of others. That’s because changed lives change lives.

And look at the results in verses 39-42:

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

No matter how much of an outsider I felt like on my baseball team, I knew that I “had an in” with Jesus. He was my Savior who restored my relationship with God. 

No matter how much the Samaritan woman was told she was stuck on the outside, Jesus broke through and invited her in. She knew He was the Savior the world had been waiting for, and chose to have a brand new start with God. 

No cultural barriers, past mistakes or current situation can keep you from being included by Jesus. That’s some seriously Good News that we should share with others.

When you say “Yes!” to Jesus, He gives you the everlasting satisfaction of a restored relationship with God. That’s Good News worth sharing!

Reflection Questions

1. What do you notice about the way Jesus interacted with the woman at the well?  Why do you think Jesus treats her so kindly, regardless of her past sins and present circumstances?
2. What do you think a restored relationship with God meant to the Samaritan  woman? How do you think that changed her life?
3. Why do you think it’s important to tell others about Jesus the Messiah? Who do you want to tell?