It seems personal with Jesus. Last Sunday it
was Nicodemus. This Sunday it is the unnamed Samaritan woman. Usually, Jesus has hung out with his disciples
or with the masses on a hillside. Lately, he has been with just one person at a
time. It is clear from the exchanges, Jesus knows these folks. He knows them, but these recent two could not
have been more different.
One, Nicodemus, was a
leader of the Jews. The other, the woman, had no status in the Jewish world. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. Jesus comes
to the woman during the day. Nicodemus wants something from Jesus. Jesus, for his part, wants something from the
woman. Nicodemus tries to use reason with Jesus and is confused in the process.
The woman engages Jesus in what turns out to be a theological discussion and
understands immediately who he is and what he offers her.
She cannot contain her
joy. She tells her friends about Jesus and they invite him to stay with them. As
a result, many more believed because of his word. For they heard for themselves,
and they learned Jesus is truly the Savior of the world.
I wonder how our own
life stories match those of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus knows us intimately and remembers even
those pieces of our lives we have forgotten or tried to push out of our
memories. On some occasions we have gone seeking Jesus, and on others, he has
come seeking us. Both happen and each will continue.
Much like Nicodemus we
go to Jesus when we need something, speaking to him our prayers of petition.
Just as likely, Jesus will listen first to our hearts. That is the place where
Jesus truly wants to engage us. It is with our hearts that Jesus fills us with
his profoundest wisdom, his greatest strength, his unlimited love, and his
saving grace.
Other times It seems
Jesus is not listening to anything in our lives. But the scripture is clear,
Jesus does seek us. I wonder then who
gets in the way and for how long before our frail and desperate attempts give
way to the one who has been with us all along. How long have those dry times lasted
before we still our own chatter and clatter to realize the low hum there in the
background has been Jesus all along trying to tell us about ourselves in ways
no one else knows. Then, in our reluctant silence, we hear him teach us things
about himself we certainly do not know.
Overcoming the din of
our life we learn Jesus wants something from us. Something we perhaps did not
know we have to offer. Something only God can want. We are God’s children and God
wants every possible ounce of us and every moment of our lives. So God sends Jesus after us.
We are not always
bashful with God. We call up our courage and try to reason out our situation,
our thoughts about our place in life with God, and how they might have meaning
together.
Yet, we also find
ourselves filled with doubt in the middle of the night and we struggle not
knowing to whom we might turn for help. All too often we do not really
understand how Jesus’ teaching applies. It lacks good reason. It does not fit
easily in the pie charts predicting a successful and prosperous life. All too often we see our lives in contrast to
his teachings and we are confused like Nicodemus.
So we dig safe
trenches into which we crawl for protection while we gather our wits for the
next assault. In such illusions we drift off and away from Jesus until the
night becomes so dark we seek him only in despair.
Then he breaks through,
and we learn Jesus has never left us. We learn from people like the Samaritan
woman who follows Jesus’ lead and not her own. In this way she not only begins
to understand who Jesus is, she begins to understand about her life and its
sole purpose.
For the first time in
her life she believes there is a nourishing possibility for her like nothing before.
She asks Jesus, “Sir, give me this water” you speak of. She opens her heart and
soul to Jesus. In her new found faith she holds nothing back and reveals
herself, her intellect, and her heart, confirming what Jesus already knows
about her.
She then offers her
life to him. Poor Nicodemus never made it as far. He never understood Jesus to be the Messiah. He never rose to her
level of understanding, belief, faith, or salvation.
But we can. We have
come this way before. We sought earthly nourishment of body and soul and found
that life’s offering may separate us from God. In our sinful nature we come to
the well for water at a time of the day when others are not around so we will
not have to be confronted by our sin. And we find Jesus has found us.
Jesus is waiting for
us and when we show up he wants us to give him a drink of this life we think is
so important. He will take it from us and give us in its place a new life. One
that will become in us a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.
The Reverend Arturo
Malicara is a friend from back in my days in Uvalde. He is the chaplain at the
hospital there. Often when I saw him in the halls he reminded me, so many
people were dying and they do not know Jesus. Each one of us, Arturo said, who
profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can help save them. We can, but sometimes they help save us.
You may remember Ali
Selem’s, “Sweet Land.” It tells the
story of the importance of love and the power that can help save someone from
even the deepest hungers and thirst for life. The film tells the story of a
young German mail-order bride, Inge, promised to a struggling farmer, Olaf.
Inge comes to
Minnesota in the wake of World War I. The local minister and town judge both refuse to perform the marriage ceremony because of the
prejudice of their times. Inge’s socialist affiliation, her inability to speak
English, and the common notion of loose morals and dissipated lifestyle of all foreign
women.
Without rights or
citizenship, with no family, and no community, Inge stood alone, facing a
hostile, unfriendly new world. Though
the marriage is forbidden, Olaf and Inge fall in love. Neighbors go to great
lengths to make sure Inga knows she is not welcome, does not belong, and that
she is despised.
Ignoring the
disapproval of the townsfolk, Inge struggles to make a home and a life through
hard work, and devotion to Olaf. Conditions worsen, and they risk losing their
farm.
There is a deeply
moving scene toward the end of the film where it appears the farm will be lost
and Inge and Olaf are once again denied marriage. They stand outside the
farmhouse with the local preacher. Olaf tells him that the farm is Inge’s home
now, but the pastor shakes his head and says, “It cannot be. She does not have the proper papers.”
Inge tells the pastor
she has a home and citizenship and a marriage in her heart. The preacher
responds, “That is not enough. It has to be real.” Inge than asks, “Do you have
God in your heart?”
The preacher stands mute
for an unbearable time, then nods, smiles and admits, “You are right. God is in
my heart and God is real.”
It is by the faith and
witness of a woman, an outsider, who lives with God in her heart that a
community is changed. The townspeople repent, accept Inge, and stand with the
young couple to save their farm.
We see in Inge the Samaritan women by the well. An outsider
who is found by Jesus and in the process, finds Jesus and a new life. Through
her encounter with Jesus, and through our own, we find something of true and
lasting worth – hope in God’s spring of water overflowing with everlasting
life.
Having this hope in God’s true love means we
are known to the depths of our being and honored and revered and accepted in
spite of all our failings, shortcomings, and sin. The everlasting love of God
is then a “sweet land” that becomes our home.
That is, if we have
God in our heart.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
032314.gpc
No comments:
Post a Comment