JESUS, FRIEND OF SINNERS

January 22

Bible Reading: John 4:1-18

John 4:7-8, “A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”

John 4:17-18, “The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

John 4:27, “Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman.”

As far as others were concerned, Jesus had no business talking to a woman like that.  For one, she was a Samaritan, and the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.  So deep was their centuries-old hatred, Jews would purpose to journey around Samaria rather than pass through it.  Besides that, she was a woman, and it was not customary for a Jewish man to talk to a woman in public.  In fact, they were not to speak in public even with women who were members of their own family.  Besides all that, she was an immoral woman—a fact that Jesus was well aware of—and no religious person of that day would have come anywhere near to a woman such as her.

It should not escape our attention that Jesus, “who came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), was not averse to conversing with her. She was surprised (John 4:9). The disciples were also taken aback (John 4:27). Nicodemus and his Pharisee friends certainly would not have associated with her (Luke 15:1-2). But Jesus was not bound by cultural expectations or phony social distinctions. He “came into the world to save sinners” and found in that woman one that was well qualified (1 Timothy 1:15). His ministry and message equally applied to the religious (i.e. Nicodemus) and irreligious (i.e. the Samaritan woman).

Jesus knew all about her sinful past.  Later, she would testify, “He told me all that I ever did” (John 4:39).  He knew all about all her sins and failures.  But none of these things worked to dissuade Him.  The religiously proud would have readily deemed her as being beyond redemption, but Jesus valued her and spoke to her of precious spiritual truths.  As hopelessly lost as any of us might feel, in Jesus, we find One who came to seek and save us (Luke 19:10).  That’s good news for us all!  He has sought you out.  And there are people in your world who even now desperately need Him now.  Jesus deliberately went to that well to meet with a soul in desperate need of Him.  Who can you pray for and seek out today?

“I live in a dry, barren land. All around me men and women die of thirst. Make me a channel of living water to those who desperately need it.” – Ray Pritchard

JESUS, FRIEND OF SINNERS
Oh, Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world
At the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh, Jesus, friend of sinners
Break our hearts for what breaks Yours

You love every lost cause
You reach for the outcast (every outcast)
For the leper and the lame
They’re the reason that You came

Lord, I was that lost cause (I was that lost cause)
And I was the outcast (and I was the outcast)
But You died for sinners just like me
A grateful leper at Your feet

‘Cause You are good, oh, You are good
And Your love endures forever
Oh, You are good, You are good
And Your love endures forever
-Casting Crowns; Songwriters: Matthew West, John Mark Hall.