Have you ever had a story that you just HAD to tell?  Didn’t matter who you told, you just had to call up everyone – your mom, your dad, your third grade teacher, whoever was online at the time???  ANYBODY and EVERYBODY.

I had just that sort of experience happen to me this past Thursday.  If you know me, you know that I’m a diehard Florida Gators fan.  If you don’t know me by now, we need to hang out on a Saturday this fall!  I drove up to Gainesville this week to visit a few friends and stock up on Gators gear.  It was great to walk around the stadium, check out the National Championship trophies, see all the orange and blue, and experience all the other cool stuff that goes along with college football.  Being the fan that I am, I decided that I was going to try and head to a practice and wait for the players to finish and see if they would sign stuff for me  .  I camped out on the corner, and players started approaching me and signing my poster.  One of them decided to take me to where most of the other players would be, so like a kid in a candy shop, I followed him!  Not 15 minutes later, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, Mr. Tim Tebow turns the corner and starts heading my way.  You can imagine how excited I was.  He signed for me, chatted for  a bit, and took a picture with me.   2 minutes – tops.  Great guy, amazing heart for God, and more humility and meekness than you would believe.  It was a great moment for me.  I can’t stop telling people about my encounter with Tebow.  I want to tell you about another person who met somebody she absolutely could not stop talking about.  

Looking at John 4, John recalls the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

Let me stop you right there.  If you research Jewish and Middle-Eastern culture around that time, you will find two things about this story that are downright scandalous.  1)  Samaritans were a “half-breed.”  They were descendants of Jews and Assyrians during the time of exile, and in Jesus’ time, they were considered trash.  They did things differently than Jews.  Jews hated Samaritans so much that they’d go out of their way to avoid even being in the same town as them during travels.  Remember reading the parable of the Good Samaritan??  Simply put, Samaritans and Jews didn’t talk.  2)  In that culture, it was not considered acceptable for a woman to talk to any man other than her husband.  So you can see that there is a pretty intense contextual background here.

The summary of the story:  Jesus goes into a place that the Jews didn’t dare enter (the Samaritan town of Sychar).  Jesus meets a person that the Jews didn’t dare meet (a Samaritan woman).  Jesus takes the time to talk/listen to her.  He showed compassion without condemnation, and he wasn’t afraid to say what needed to be said in a loving way.  As we read more of John 4, this woman’s life is altered after her encounter with the Messiah.  When you encounter Christ, your life will never be the same.  To me, this story serves as the ultimate model of evangelism and ministry.  Think back to when you came to know Jesus.  Do you still have that same fire and enthusiasm to tell others about how much your life has changed?

Now, I wouldn’t tell you all of this just because I like to type.  If you aren’t into challenges, now is the time to sign off.

We are called to be ministers of reconciliation.  We are called to be the body of Christ.  Most of us reading right now understand that concept.  But I want to ask both you and I, “Are we living it out?”  Are we truly acting as the hands of Christ?  Do we have the heart of Christ?  Are we willing to go beyond what is “acceptable” in our culture/society in order to find the lost sheep?  Are we still talking about it like the day it happened?  I am inviting you to take this challenge with me:  Make disciples at any and all costs.  Let God use your past and who you are today to show others your “encounter at the well.”

I’m interested to hear how you feel about this.  I welcome your comments, questions, and concerns in the boxes below!

Be Jesus Today,

Beef Branard

 

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