When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

-Parallel verses:
Matthew‬ ‭5:16‬
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

When I was in Junior College, I did not have a financial backer to help me get through. I had served as a youth intern at a church and was trying to finish out my second year. But I was in a tough financial position and I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for my final year of junior college. I called my Dad. I told him the situation. My Dad was in the ministry, and I don’t think he had a lot of money. But he called and told me that one of his supporters was going to send me a check for $5,000 as a loan. I was blown away. It was exactly what I needed. After I graduated from my 4-year school, Pacific Lutheran Univ., I was set to start making payments. I made the first two, and then this nice couple told me they forgave my loan. They didn’t even know me! I was blown away. What a great gift!

Jesus had given this woman at the well a great gift. She had lived under the impression that Jews thought of her as a “second-rate” citizen, not to be associated with. She, was hurting and Jesus validated her by speaking to her and asking her for help. HE ELEVATED HER above himself. All of the things that had pushed her down the societal scale: being a Samaritan, being a woman, and (as we will find out elsewhere in her story) being married multiple times, were, in one moment of love and care, erased. She almost couldn’t believe it was true. This is why she said: “How can you ask me for a drink?”

She was shocked and bewildered that Jesus, a Jewish “Rabbi”, would humble himself to show a place of need and ask her for help. That he would validate her, though she was a Samaritan and a woman … and THAT SHE IN FACT MATTERED! He treated her like a person first and not a member of a group.
And in this way he let his light shine before men! This is the light of God in action and it is EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE! When we seek out the needy and the hurting and value them, we shine God’s light into their hearts.

How can I live without boundaries today? How can I show those who are outcasts around me — that they matter to me and to Jesus too? How can I WOW them with kindness and humble myself in their presence?

Lord, thank you for modeling a piercing and surprising love for the outcast. Teach me Lord, teach me to elevate others and humble myself.