Scripture Reflections

One of the most beautiful aspects of the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 is the way she witnesses about Jesus: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
 
Most of us aren’t likely to walk into work, church, or even our own home and say, “All my deepest secrets—the places of shame and guilt and fear—are on the table! Come meet the guy who revealed them to me!” The normal human impulse is to hide the things that we have done that are shameful. Her witness is so uniquely bold—she has lost her sense of shame over her past.
 
We can acknowledge, at least logically, that when one person admits his or her guilt and shame, it opens the door for others to do the same. Most of us fear that we will be rejected if we speak the truth about ourselves, yet when people courageously confess to others, they usually find that the others have also struggled and sinned, and also need to confess in return. One brave soul can open the floodgates of honesty in a friendship, a small group, or a church.
 
But it is still profoundly difficult to take that first step. How was this woman able to do it? The answer is simple: Jesus knew her past, and she discovered that he did not reject her for it. The fact that the Messiah actually wanted her gave her the security to venture into the terrifying territory of speaking truthfully to the people in her town. “Even if they reject me, HE doesn’t, and that is enough for me!”
 
Our fear of confession to one another may reveal that we still struggle to believe that Jesus actually wants us. Our insecurity with him means that too much is riding on our relationships with others. But if he is who he claims to be, and if he actually accepts us, there is nothing to fear.
 
Even if my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in. (Ps. 27:10)
 
This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Ps. 56:10-11)
 
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38-39)
 
My prayer is simply that you know that you are accepted by the Messiah, and that this gives you freedom.
 
In Christ,
Steven+