AN UNKNOWN, UNWANTED WOMAN

AN UNKOWN, UNWANTED WOMAN

Jesus walked through Samaria.  This was not the normal road.  He took a detour.  The disciples must have been uneasy about this.

He sent them into a town; they would be even more uneasy.

 

He was alone.

But a woman came to draw water.

At noon.

When no one would be there.

To shame her.

 

Jesus asked her for a drink.

She reacted, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan, and a woman.

(a shameful, worthless, despised woman).

How can you ask me for a drink?"

 

This unnamed woman! 

Nicodemus, a fine upstanding, educated, well-to-do person.

But this woman!

Unloved, unwanted, unnamed. 
      Worthless. Outcast. 
            Condemned.  Shamed.

 

Jesus! 

What condescension! 

Humility.  Mercy.  Compassion. 
     Kindness.

         Gentleness. 
             Tenderness.

Jesus!

To Jesus she was not the dregs of mankind and society.

This broken, devastated woman was precious to Jesus.

He went out of His way to meet her.

Jesus loved her and violated every law and social custom to speak to her.

This encounter with Jesus and His love for her changed her life for eternity.

I will meet her one day and, right now, I feel ashamed that I would not have loved her and seen the beauty and loveliness Jesus restored to her with His loving grace and goodness.

 

How easy it is for me to "pass by on the other side" to avoid speaking and getting involved with the unclean failures and misfits all around me.

 

Lord Jesus, will You make this old heart of mine tender and compassionate, like Yours, so I can love some one as You loved this one? 
Can I give Your love to someone so they can find new and eternal life in and with You?