Thoughts On: John 4:39-45

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."

John 4:39-42, ESV

I think we've all felt like outsiders at some point. I work with middle schoolers now, and the pain I feel when I hear some of their stories brings me to my knees. It brought me to my knees tonight, not because I am great at my job or because I am trying hard to understand, but because I am beginning to remember what it all felt like. I've blocked out middle school for so long, now, that digging it back up hurts in ways I didn't imagine. There's a vulnerability that comes hand in hand with ministering to a twelve-year-old, and it brings you straight back to being on the outside. 

I don't think it's always a lie that we're living on the outside. There are times when we truly have no friends, or feel completely abandoned, or don't know if there's a safe place to turn. We feel it when we're twelve and I still feel it at twenty-three. But where there is despair, there is a lie, and I think one of the lies embedded in being on the outside is that Jesus will pass us by.

But Jesus did not pass by the woman at the well. A samaritan, a girl and an adulterer, she hit three check boxes under the label of "outsider". But Jesus did not pass her by. And when she went to tell all the rest of her outsider friends, and they asked to be with Jesus longer, he did not pass them by, either. He stayed. Jesus stays with the outsiders. 

I needed to hear this in middle school, and I need to hear it now. Even when I am on the fringes, unaware of what I'm doing or who I'm becoming or where I'm heading, Jesus stays. He always stays - and he always stays with the outsiders. And when we really dig into to it, when we get our hands dirty and do the work of seeing ourselves as we truly are, I think we all know there's still an outsider in each of us.

Jesus stays, though. When we feel left out, Jesus stays. When we are forced to look back on a past that we planned on forgetting, Jesus stays. When we step out in faith and into a calling we're not sure we understand, Jesus stays. He moves into our homes and into our hearts, and he invites us into the inside. He invites us into his kingdom and his purpose and his goodness, and I think we could all use a little more of this truth in our lives.