Control We Never Had--March 15, 2023

Control We Never Had--March 15, 2023

"Just then [Jesus'] disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, 'What do you want?' or 'Why are you speaking with her?' Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.  She said to the people, 'Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?' They left the city and were on their way to him." [John 4:27-30]

It's not just who Jesus includes as recipients of his grace--it's who he includes to share his grace with other people as his chosen messengers.

That's the turn this story takes at this point in the gospel, and I expect that sometimes, this is the part that we get hung up on.  Jesus doesn't just offer his gift of life to the Samaritan woman at the well--he equips her and sends her out as his messenger to others as well.  That's a big deal: she isn't just a recipient of God's love in this story--she becomes the face of it for her neighbors when she runs back into town, leaving her water jar behind, with the open invitation, "Come and see..."  Jesus isn't embarrassed to be seen with her or to acknowledge that he knows her.  He doesn't hesitate to let her be his public ambassador or the voice of his message, even for all the barriers and social expectations that were still at work in that setting.

This week we've already explored some of those barriers and the ways Jesus just crossed right through them like they weren't even there [because they hold no power over him].  We've seen how other people from Jesus' background would have been scandalized at the thought of crossing into Samaritan territory for any reason at all.  We've seen how the racial prejudice and fear of "the other" had nursed animosity between those ethnic groups over centuries, and how that by itself would have held many back from taking a seat at that well.  And we've looked, too, at how Jesus crosses the gender lines that would have kept men from talking to women in that context, as well as the fact that Jesus doesn't shame her or scold her for her past marriages or who she loves now.  All of that is pretty radical stuff if you think about it.

But now Jesus doubles down and allows her to be the public face of his ministry in that town.  That's where some people might get upset with his actions, honestly.  It's one thing to say that anybody can receive grace--after all, we're all sinners in need of God's forgiveness, right?  But to say that anybody--even this woman with the "wrong" ethnicity, culture, and religion, whose relationships don't fit the cookie-cutter mold--can be the one to speak for Jesus and offer his grace to others?  Well, that's the straw that breaks the camel's back for some.  And of course, that's precisely what Jesus does, even when the other disciples are astonished, uncomfortable, or upset with it.

Now, you'd think that having had this story told and retold to us for two thousand years, we'd learn from it and stop telling Jesus whom he can--and cannot--call to bear his good news.  But even in our own country's history in the last century and a half, we've been doing the same.  For a long time in many Christian denominations, people of African lineage could be told the gospel [at least an anemic version of it that still made room for enslavement], but those same denominations would not let those same voices preach the gospel to others.  For a long time, as well, women could listen to sermons and receive the sacraments, but their church hierarchies would not allow them to bear the Word or preside at the Table.  Even now still, church bodies are finding new variations on the same old hypocrisy that says, "We give permission for you to hear Jesus' message, but you are not worthy of speaking it to others," in spite of Jesus' habit of commissioning and calling folks that others deemed unacceptable.  Jesus doesn't tell the Samaritan woman, "I'll let you believe in me, but don't you dare tell anyone else who I am, because you're one of THOSE people."  Instead, Jesus tells his own disciples that when they're sent out to share the good news next, they'll be batting clean-up and finishing the work that this woman has begun, like reapers harvesting where someone else has first planted.

Today, the challenge in front of us is to let go of our need to control who WE think is worthy--both of receiving God's love in Jesus, and of sharing that love with others.  Because it turns out, it's not up to us to get to decide who is worthy, and it never has been.  That's always been Jesus' prerogative, and he has a way of choosing precisely the people we would have left off the list.  

Maybe it's time to quit fighting him on this one.  

Maybe it's time to listen to the voices he has put around us already.

Lord Jesus, be patient with us as we struggle to let go of control we never had in the first place, and instead to receive with joy the voices you send our way to speak your good news.