The Story of a Sinner

Apostle John records the story of a bad Samaritan who became a good Samaritan. John chapter four begins with a valuable truth where we find Jesus giving priority to personal evangelism than to big baptism events (read vs. 1-3). This story therefore reveals to us the evangelistic heartbeat of Jesus. The following one-line sub-titles make us think on evangelistic strategies relevant to missions today.

“Give me a drink!”

John 4 depicts the story of an unnamed bad Samaritan who was a woman living in the margins, to whom Jesus shared the good news. Jewish men of her days praised God every day for not being born as a woman! As a Samaritan, she was also a victim of her ancestral past. Jews had got mixed up with idolatrous gentiles in her previous generations.  And as a divorced woman she would have been a suspect. And as a woman divorced five times she became an outcaste among outcastes, because she came to the well at odd noon hour. She was then living with a man who was not her husband. So unquestionably, the weight of guilt rested heavily upon her. A Woman, a Samaritan, a Sinner – which Jewish male would like to associate with her? Jesus did. Jesus’ evangelistic zeal is seen evident in this story where he clearly crossed boundaries and biases of gender, race and status to share with her the good news. He gave a pleasant surprise to the so called polluted Samaritan woman, when he said to her, “Give me a drink.” What a great unbiased start before sharing the good news!

We see a thirsty Jesus here in this story just as we see him in his dying moments in the cross. In both these occasions he was truly physically thirsty. In both cases we see his thirst for souls too. His food, he says in the Samaritan woman’s story was to do the will of God who sent him and to finish his work (v.34). Interestingly here in this story and at the cross, he uses these words about “finishing” his work. Biases and prejudices should not prevent us to finish our work in this world.

“I who speak to you am He!”

Another surprise is expressed in this chapter when the disciples of Jesus saw their guru speaking to a woman in public (v.27). We see here that gender is not incidental to the story but central to it. Hypocrites like the Pharisees would not speak to a woman in public, but would cause her to sin in private! In fact there were a group of Pharisees called the “bleeding Pharisees.” They closed their eyes every time they met a woman in the street, bouncing off walls and whatever else might be in their path. In chapter three of John, the strategy of Jesus’ personal evangelism was quite different with a man like Nicodemus. He willingly spent a night conversing with Nicodemus. I admire the wise strategy of Jesus with respect to gender in these two evangelistic outreaches among the many others. If it was someone to whom Jesus proclaimed himself directly as Messiah, it was only to the Samaritan woman! When she revealed her anxiety to see the Messiah, not knowing who he was, Jesus said to her “I who speak to you am He!”(vs. 25-26)

“Come and See”

Meanwhile, the Samaritan woman realises that Jesus is not merely a prophet who told her about her past, but a Messiah who would save her from her sinful past and give her eternal life. An outcaste, a hopeless woman now gets her self-esteem and realises her worth in eternal perspective. She kept her water jar, went back to the town and said to the people whom she earlier had avoided, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” The Bible says that many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. And because of Jesus’ words many more became believers. The Samaritans  called him as “Saviour of the world.” (vs. 39-42). Later Jesus challenged his disciples to witness in Samaria as a continuation to this mass revival (Acts 1:8). Philip opened a mission field in Samaria (chapter 8).

Jesus, a hard-core evangelist transformed and empowered the sinner Samaritan woman as an evangelist. Even today, we are called to b evangelists following the model of Jesus. Every believer is a missionary. Every non believer is a mission field. Missionaries and Evangelists all over the world have been reaching out to non-believers. What is our role in this task of evangelisation and how do we do it? It is time to think and act.