Shocked By Grace

Shocked by Grace

The Woman At The Well

Read: John 4:7-10

Shauntelle stood in stunned silence as he walked away. She could hardly believe that she had been talking with him for the past ten minutes. He had been so polite and interested, asking about her job, her family, her future plans. It wasn’t that she never saw him—she occasionally caught a glimpse of him, but usually he stayed in his penthouse suite of offices. Shauntelle never expected the president of such a huge corporation to come down to the mail room, much less have a friendly conversation with her.

When the Samaritan woman approached the well and saw a man sitting there, she didn’t expect a conversation. Jesus’ request for a drink shocked her for several reasons. Men and women didn’t talk to each other in public, especially strangers. Because of her bad reputation, the woman had become used to the silent treatment even from her own people. Besides, Jews and Samaritans did not associate with one another. Why in the world would this man ask her for a drink? Didn’t he know that a Jewish man who drank from her water container would be considered unclean?

A female, a Samaritan, and a bad reputation—this woman had three strikes against her, but she was not out of God’s reach. Jesus had come to Samaria specifically for the purpose of sharing God’s love and forgiveness with this lonely woman whom society regarded as worthless.

In the same way, God goes out of his way to seek us out and draw us to himself. Jesus didn’t die for us because we deserved it or because we had anything to offer him. He sacrificed himself so that we could be forgiven and accepted by God regardless of what we’ve done. No matter how many strikes we have against us, we’re never out of reach of God’s shocking grace.

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Romans 5:8