Loving People Where They are At, Not Where we would Like Them to Be

In my previous blog we looked at the story of Nicodemus in John, Chapter 3.  In this entry I would like to move ahead to the next chapter of John's Gospel.  There we meet a woman with a very sordid past.  She had been married five times and currently living with a man she is not married to.  On top of the, she was a Samaritan, considered an unclean half/breed by any respectable Jew.  Jesus encounters the woman at midday, at a town well.  The theory is the woman was there in the heat of the day to avoid the accusing eyes of the other women in town.  Jesus does not ignore the women, or look at her with incriminating eyes.  Instead he approaches her with a heart of compassion.  Jesus knows her past sins, but loves her just the same.  He enters in a conversation, that turns out to be somewhat revealing.  Jesus asks some pretty probing questions, and gently offers some insights, but in the end the woman convicts herself .  She leaves the encounter a different person, with a desire to change her behavior.  The woman also has a desire to tell everyone about the amazing man she has met. 

One of the obstacles that the church puts up today is that we don't want to love people where they are at.  All to often we desire some sign of repentance, or at least a desire to change, before we are open to sharing Grace.  I have to wonder if that the Samaritan woman would be welcome in the church today, but then I am not so sure that she would have been welcomed in Jesus day.  In fact, it was probably a good thing Jesus had sent the disciples off to find food just prior to meeting the women.  His followers would have been none to happy or accepting of the woman.  Perhaps that is the lesson here.  We, as Jesus' personal representatives, need to be seeking out the broken and lost people in our world.  We need to love and accept them in their sin and filth.  By being Jesus to them we might be opening the door to an eternal, life-changing relationship.  Maybe they will leave the conversation with a desire to tell their friends about the amazing conversation they had with a complete stranger.  Taking it a step further: That conversation might be the beginning of a relationship with Jesus.

The church is called to be the "light of Christ" in a lost and broken world, but the church as an organized body has often failed to do that.  As individual disciples, it is our responsibility to live out that calling.  Even if the lost and broken people never set foot inside our church door, they will have met Jesus through us.  Love people where they are at; only then will we have the opportunity to move them to where God wants them to be.