Dear Reader,
There are people in the Bible who have got labels that doesn’t
exist in the stories of their lives, but those labels have become the prevailing view of them.
Mary from Magdalene and the Samaritan woman are two
of those “labeled people” They have been valued, price-tagged and judged by
people who have made
long drawn conclusions from a few lines about their
lives
Mary Magdalene was healed from seven demons by Jesus.
That is what we know. We also know that when most people had abandoned Jesus she stayed
with him when he hung on the cross. Her endurance was rewarded by the Savior,
when he trusted her with the most amazing message of all time: “Go tell the
disciples that I'm alive!”
The Samaritan woman endured under her ethnicity as
well as being a woman. Five times she had had hopes for love and security and five
times she had experienced separation that must have given her lifelong scars. She had been crushed five times but had survived,
and now she lived in a household where she was not the wife but somebody’s idle
pleasure. She had accepted to be in a place that wasn’t her place to be.
Much
has been said about that she had five husbands but not much about that it was
the man who could file for divorce; not the woman. The men left and she was stuck
with a scattered life. Could she have lost her husband’s through death? Had she
run away because of abuse and violence?
We
don’t know this because it doesn’t say; so why bother to bring up the subject?
Simply because the life of another human being can never be known in full by
judging the surface or by making assumptions in order to put a “stamp” on that
person.
There was an old “wall” of differences between Jews
and Samaritans and both regarded the other as heretics. It had gone on
for centuries and neither side tried to tear down the wall, but they rather chose to live with contempt for each other. So when the
woman met this mysterious man; who obviously was a Jew, he didn’t fit into the everyday
life of her village; he didn’t fit into her life at all. But it was a very casual situation
and a small matter of a cup of water that opened up the conversation between the two and also opened up to a new
life with new hope.
All
pieces of the woman’s life puzzle fell into place and it was not just the religious question
marks that was straightened out
but also her personal life was liberated. Jesus brought clarity by pointing out
her weak position and that it was time to do something about it. When the woman left the water jar and headed
back to the village, silence had been exchanged into gladness; secrecy
to openness; and it made a life changing impact on those who heard her witness about
the man at the well.
The new inner joy
was manifested on the outside and it was so radiant that the entire village
walked over to the well to see who this extraordinary man was.
Jesus
had decided to go against tradition and had walked a road that was avoided if
possible. He went against tradition by talking to a woman and reaching out to
her in respect. He opened up a new way to reach the heart of God by pointing
out that time and place did not matter if God would answer or not answer prayer;
but a prayer born out of a humble heart could reach the throne room from any
place and would indeed do so from all over the world.
A
tired Jesus climbed over a wall because his Father had told him to. It was the
day the Messiah had come to answer all their questions and liberate more than just
one from a “label”.
Sincerely yours,
Ida
