An Encounter with The Son of God (4)

We have seen how Jesus treated Mary Magdalene. But there are other stories of how Jesus treated women that are just as amazing. Do you remember the story of the impure Samaritan women at the well? Five husbands and living with her sixth. The disciples took one look at her and thought “That women will never become a Christian, no way, just look at her lifestyle!” Jesus looked at her and came to the opposite conclusion.

What Jesus saw in her frantic male-hopping wasn’t looseness. He saw how she sought to fulfill her human need for tenderness in the wrong ways. He saw underneath her lifestyle a hunger for God. He in effect said to the disciples, “Look at what potential she has, see how hard she is trying to find the right thing in the wrong places.”

Her life story was written in the wrinkles on her face. Five broken romances had left gaping festering wounds. He understood her pain because He looked into her soul.  Silently, the divine surgeon reached into his kit and pulled out the needle of love and the thread of hope and in the shade of Jacob’s well he stitched her wounded soul together. She may have been an outcast from her hometown, but now she was a citizen of heaven and the earth made new.

Jesus was and is in the business of restoring lives, no matter who they are. I like the stories of His encounters with women because they are counterculture. Like the story when Jesus was walking down the road and a funeral procession came the other way. Two crowds, one following life, the other following death. The mourners had no cause to stop, the large crowd following Jesus had no cause to stop. But when you read the story in Luke 7 it just says “When the Lord saw her he was moved to compassion.” He saw the look on her face and the redness in her eyes. If anyone knows the pain of losing an only son, God does. He simply said, “Don’t cry,” “Arise!” he told the boy. The dead man rose, and the devil ran. People were reminded that if you know the Author of life, then death is only the devil’s dead-man’s bluff.

What about the women who tugged on the hem of Jesus garment. She had nothing left. The last diagnosis had stolen her last hope. Her hemorrhaging had robbed her of the last drop of energy. She had no more money, no more friends and no more options. She shoved her way through the crowd as a last resort. Jesus doesn’t mind if we try Him as a last resort. That’s grace!

So here we have it. Four women; one bereaved, two rejected and one dying. They were all alone, one widow and childless, one lost her innocence six bedrooms back, one abused, her life destroyed, and one broke, desperate, and dying. All alone in the winter of life. Except for Mary Magdalene all had passed the peak of desirability. If Jesus had ignored them, no one would have noticed because it was a culture where women were only a grade above farm animals. No one would have thought any less of Him if he had walked silently past the funeral or ignored the tug on His robe.

After all, they were just women; worn, wrinkled, weary women, winter women. “Let them alone Jesus”, one could reason. Find someone with a bit of springtime in their life. By the world’s standards these four could give nothing in return. They had served their usefulness, they had borne their children, fed their families, and pleased their men. Now it was the time to push them out into the cold, and that is where Jesus found them. Shivering in the icy sleet of uselessness in the winter of life.

Sound familiar? We have our own people of winter. People who for lack of good looks or sufficient usefulness wander around like a cactus at a concert. Unwanted and unapproachable. People that society and the church don’t know what to do with. Jesus found a place for them all.

The story of Annie will follow these encounters tomorrow.