The love of Jesus transforms us.

 

We all know the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and how Jesus changed her life and how she became the Lord’s disciple who became an evangelist who turned her hometown into Jesus-followers. We read this story in John 4.

 

In John 3 Jesus encountered a male Jewish religious leader, Nicodemus, who struggled to comprehend who Jesus was and what he taught.

But in John 4 the narrator contrasted the important and respected Nicodemus with his complete opposite, the unloved woman at the well, and because she is at the other end of the prestige continuum, she recognized with great joy not only who Jesus is, but also that he offered her a new dignity.

Jesus invited her not to be defined by her circumstances and offered her an identity that lifted her above the extreme tragedies of her life. And she accepted, playing a unique role in Jesus' ministry as she was the first character in John's gospel to seek out others to tell them about Jesus.

 

When tragedy strikes, or when we find that we are different from others in whatever way, or that things happened to us that influenced our self-image and our emotional security, we may know that the transforming power of the love of Jesus Christ has the capacity to give us a new character and a new sense of self-worth!

 

Jesus transformed her new reality into a life that rose above the judgmentalism of others and the chauvinism and pride of others. The love of Jesus for us helps us to rise above what others think of us, what tradition, culture and social opinions make us out to be - and turn us into joyful and powerful witnesses of Jesus Christ!

 

Jesus promised her a life where going to the well to collect water for someone else’s household did not define her anymore – where chauvinism and racism and culture and xenophobia did not define her anymore, and he gave her a life where the life changing, transforming, living waters that Jesus gives, defined her completely.

 

Thank Jesus for the transforming power of his love and for giving us the capacity to live a new identity as his followers, disciples and friends.  This is how the love of Jesus for us grants us the ability to live new, joyful lives as members of his Church and as children of his Father.