By Evangelist (Dr.) Noyo Anthonia Kubeyinje Edem – Hope For The Family.
Quite often, the community that people are born into or where they reside can be very harsh in its judgment of the lifestyles of its citizens. Communities have their own social norms of acceptable and appropriate conducts of people that may not necessarily conform to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Scriptures. While Jesus teaches us to be loving, considerate, merciful, and caring towards one another; our community norms could emphasize intolerance of what we consider unforgivable sinful behaviors of people living amongst us.
The story of the Samaritan Woman is a true reflection of an unloving, hateful and judgmental community of people who saw in the Samaritan a sinner that they believed was beyond redemption. To her community, the Samaritan woman was not fit to integrate and freely associate with other members residing in the community because of her sinful lifestyle. The Samaritan woman was not a wife of one husband; she has been married previously to five men and the man she was living with was not her husband. In most communities that is an abomination for a woman to marry many men and live with men that she had never been married to. She knew that they hated her and she obviously felt the rejection because she knew the way she was looked at by the people in her community. Therefore, she had to go to the well to fetch water after the rest of the people have fetched water from the well to do their daily chores. This community only had Jacob’s well so she did not have the choice of going to another well to fetch her water. She must wait until the righteous members of her community have their water from the well.
This woman was isolated, gossiped about with bitterness as we know humans would do in similar situations. She knew that she was hated and she kept to herself. She would only go to the well when she felt safe and knew that the people in her community would not be there. This woman avoided confrontation with the people in her community as much as she could possibly do.
Let us just imagine how this woman’s daily schedule would be in such an environment. She will constantly be running behind schedule each day because she would only step out of her house when the haters would not be around. Consequently, she will be delayed in doing the chores for her household. The story did not tell us if this worker had any children. Can you imagine a woman raising up her children in such a hostile environment? We truly need to change our perception of who a sinner is and how we should interact with a person that we call a sinner. We need to accept the truth that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one of us is righteous; it is the grace of God that we have all received. Therefore, we need to be more understanding, tolerant and loving towards people whether we approve of their lifestyles or not. We are called to pray for God’s children while encouraging and empowering them to live aright with the love of God and not to be negatively or hostilely judgmental toward the weak amongst us. We should see sin as a human weakness in character as we humans still in flesh and blood. We are fragile and prone to temptation in flesh and blood. This understanding of the frailty of humans should make us compassionate towards the sinner. This does not mean that we are encouraging people to become sinful; it only means that we are imbibing the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ who is merciful to the sinner and corrects the sinner in love. Jesus told the adulterous woman caught in the act of adultery and was about to be stoned to death by the crowd of angry, judgmental accusers to go and sin no more. This story revealed something about us humans who would hide our sins and be ready to condemn the sinner who is caught sinning.
We have individually or collectively struggled with sin, so why should any of us make yourselves a judge in another person’s life? Let us allow God to be the Judge while we allow people to live their lives freely.
There are so many people that can identify with the Samaritan woman in one way or the other because we are all humans and we do struggle with sins in our daily lives. Some of us may have also been isolated, gossiped about, and hated for our weaknesses. When we come to think about the people who hate, gossip and isolate us, we will find out that they are just as weak and sinful as we are or have been at certain stages of our lives. The difference is that their sins have not become public knowledge and it is not glaring in the eyes of people in their communities like this Samaritan woman or the woman caught in adultery by a community that was ready to stone her death if not for the timely intervention of Jesus in her case. Sin is sin, unrighteousness is unrighteousness whether seen or known by men or not. We must remember that God our creator knows everything and sees all our deeds even in the most hidden and secret places.
Let us learn to love and not hate as Jesus teaches us to do. We have received the mercy of God, so we also need to be merciful to the people around us.
It is a waste of time and energy to gossip and hate people because of their sinful lifestyles when we cannot change them to become better people. Despite the isolation, hatred and gossip of the Samaritan woman by her community, she had previously married five men and she was living with a man that was not her husband. This tells us that the struggle of the Samaritan was a struggle of the weakness of the flesh which no human is entirely excluded from. The woman’s struggle was real, which presented her with situations of life where she ultimately succumbed to the desire of her flesh in her longing to find true love. This woman needed love and help from the people and not hatred.
Love will resolve so many problems of life where hatred will fail. Love will make us become considerate towards people where we can empathize with their situations. When love and empathy are present, then it will be easy to correct people and help them to see what they need to change about their lifestyles. Hostility and gossip have driven some people away from their communities. They cannot integrate into communities that have isolated them or partake in community activities because they do not want to deal with the people’s hatred.
There are two important lessons to learn from this story. The first is Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. Some of us may think that it was just a coincidence that Jesus came to the well when the Samaritan woman was there fetching water for her household. No, this was not a coincidence. We should remember that it was through Jesus, God created everything and nothing was created that was not done in partnership with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is all knowing and he has always been aware of the situation in that community. He came to the well at the appropriate time to meet with a sinner that had been rejected, isolated and hated by her community. Jesus said that he came for sinners- the sick who needed a physician and not for the self-righteous who were not in need of either a Savior or a physician. He met with this woman and she believed in him that he could give her the Living water and she would not thirst again.
The woman did not hide her sin from Jesus Christ. In so doing, she inadvertently revealed her acceptance of who she truly was with a deep yearning for Jesus to accept her and help her resolve her life’s situations. She had found a Savior, a Messiah who has asked her, a sinner, to give him water to drink. She found the Savior who could give her the Living water that we all need.
Jesus transformed the life of this simple woman who her community treated as a worthless sinner. and he brought a light giving life and joy into her life. Instantly, the woman’s life was changed and she was no longer afraid of the people in her community . She no longer thought about how they felt about her sinful lifestyle or how she was hated and rejected. She received power and courage to run into her community to call the entire community to come out to meet with the savior, one who told her everything about her life.
The second lesson in this passage is seen in this woman’s demonstration of love for a community that had hated, rejected and isolated her. She wanted her community to meet with the messiah. Thus, she became an evangelist, one of Jesus’s foot soldiers who took the gospel message to an entire community that became saved through her invitation for her community to meet with the messiah. They listened to Jesus Christ and they believed in him. It important to note how the people told the woman that they believed in Jesus Christ not because of what she told them, but because of what Jesus told them. Was this human pride in display in the people’s reluctance to appreciate this woman and accept the role that she played in their conversion. This woman exemplifies Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount which states that Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God; blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the earth. This woman was poor in spirit and full of love for a people that had no love for her.
It is so amazing that one who was so hated had so much love to give to her community. We must learn to overlook the hatred of people and forgive the bad things they may have done to us for us to truly become disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Love does not keep a record of wrong doings; perfect love resolves all situations in life.
May we learn to love the people around us and forgive them when they offend us if we truly want to enjoy the good life God has promised us. May we live for God and not be men pleasers. The Samarita woman has taught us how to love and win souls for our Lord Jesus Christ. We should not allow the evil of the people around us to turn us into evil people. May God help us all to be loving, merciful, forgiving and compassionate toward people. During this season of lent as we engage in our Lenten exercises, let us always remember the example of the Samarita woman and pray to God to give us the grace to be like her in showing the love of God to the people around us in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
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