Week 3: Jesus The Healer
Luke 7:11-17, Luke 8:1-3, John 4:1-30,39-44
Our Lord treated women with respect and due care, as image bearers of God. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He frequently spent extensive and quality time with women. Jesus was invitational and communal with anyone who trusted in Him; He showed no partiality – Jesus’ treatment of women was counter-cultural. The Jewish historian of the first century, Josephus, cited that while it was not unusual for wealthy women to support teachers, what was different was that these women journeyed with Jesus. What was important to Jesus was always first and foremost someone’s relationship with His Father in Heaven.
Jesus’ personal conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is a powerful display of His counter-cultural love towards women and racial tensions. Jews and Samaritans were adversaries, and Jewish people often looked down on Samaritans because of their mixed ethnicity, creating mutual dislike. On top of that, men customarily did not speak with women privately in Jewish or Greco-Roman society. The Samaritan woman recognizes Jesus’s societally unusual care toward her, wondering why He would speak with her in the first place (John 4:9).
Jesus is kind and always approachable, especially for the outcast. He knows her sins, and He does not chastise or mock her. Instead, Jesus points to Himself as the one who would provide far more than her physical needs, since He is the fulfillment of her faith.
The woman was only thinking about her physical need for water, but Jesus instead offered her something far greater. True kindness, true care that goes beyond the expectations of the world is sharing redemption found in the “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Others would have passed by, concerned only with what others would think of them; even the disciples were surprised after seeing Jesus speak with her (John 4:27). Unlike those of this world, Jesus stopped, asked questions, and cared for her soul, addressing her ultimate need of spiritual transformation.
Jesus had close followers, and friends even, who were women. In the midst of a culture devaluing the inherent value of women created in God’s image, we have the Son of Man who sets the true standard. He wants us to follow Him. He wants to talk to us personally. He desires to supply our souls with His saving power. He isn’t afraid to seek the outcast, to know and invite the very one the world misvalues into the building of an eternal Kingdom. Who is like our God, Resonate?
So whatever it is that leads you to believe you’re not of value or without purpose, know that the Creator of the universe knit you together in your mother’s womb, knows the number of hairs on your very head, and calls you by name. You are not disqualified from eternity, friend, let Jesus be the well of eternal life for you here and now.
