We all want to be loved and recognized for who we are as individuals. No one wants to be known as part of a crowd. It feels good when people remember your name, and it feels awful when you forget someone’s name, or worse is when you call them by someone else’s name. There is one thing I know for sure: Jesus knows my name and treats each of us as an individual.
In John 4:9-4:27, we have the conversation of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus was on a journey with His disciples from Judaea to Galilee. The straightest route took them through Samaria. Most Jews would circle around the city to avoid the Samaritans. The Samaritans were considered half-breeds, and the Jews were highly prejudiced against them. They avoided contact with the Samaritans. Jesus set the example in John 4 of how we should go to those others avoid. Every soul is precious to Jesus. He created each of us as individuals, and he does not see color, intellect, position, wealth, or poverty. He sees us as sinners in need of a Savior.
He sees a woman who comes to the well for her provision of water. She is coming in the middle of the day when no one else comes. The conversation between her and Jesus reveals she is living in a sinful situation. She is not married to the man she lives with but has had five husbands. Her reputation was not one that would allow her to fit in with the other ladies of the village. Yet, Jesus speaks to her. In this culture, men did not sit and talk with women. They were treated almost as if they were property, someone to serve the family and the needs of her husband. To get the complete picture read John chapter 4. Jesus was concerned about her eternal destiny, and He used His need for water to help her understand what she truly needed in her life. Not only did Jesus see her as an individual, He also led her to an understanding of salvation. Her first order of business after her salvation was to go and tell others and bring them to Jesus. One individual to another individual.
John 4:9-10 “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”
John 4:15-18 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly”
John 4:28-30 “The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.”
We are to seek to be like Jesus in every way possible. The most important reason God has left us here after our salvation is to tell others about Him. It does not matter to God what their sins look like. It does not matter to God because, to Him, sin is sin. Christ died for all sins and all sinners. This woman needed forgiveness, not condemnation. She was already condemned. Jesus saw her one on one and met her greatest need. This is also our greatest need and our responsibility to tell others. We must ask ourselves if we see people where they are and realize we are called to share Jesus no matter what others think or if we are thought badly of because we are seen with them. It is time we meet people where they are no matter what the situation they need Jesus.
