Monday, August 15, 2011

Unconditional Love vs Moral Guardians

 

The story of the  Samaritan woman at the well provides an example to us how to react to sin. Jesus did not mention the fact she had had five husbands and that the man she was living with was not her husband to confront or to judge or to "fix" her. He offered no commentary and dismissed it as not relevant to his primary concern. He mentioned it only to convince her that he was the Messiah. Jesus let her know he knew everything about her past and that his offer of "life" was still available to her, no questions asked. Knowing this the woman ran back into town and happily proclaimed  she had met a man who knew every thing about her, including her sin. If she felt Jesus shamed her or was judging her it would have hardly been a happy occasion.

 

The point of the story is not how Jesus fixes people's moral lives but how he loves people and how he offers everlasting life regardless of their moral lives. We are to: "walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." We are to see a need and meet it. . .no questions asked. We must not do what Jesus did not do: position ourselves as wiser, morally superior guardians and "fixers" of others. Moral guardianship was what the Pharisees did . . .not Jesus.

 

   

 

No comments: