Do you ever feel like a flop, or a failure? A misfit or a reject? Well if so, then I have great news for you today.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the people that Jesus chose to interact with.
Matthew –
As Jesus was going down the road, he saw Matthew sitting at the tax collection booth. Come, be my disciple, Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Matt 9:9
First century tax collectors were a group of people that were rejected by most everyone. They didn’t get an invitation to the neighborhood cookout, the birthday party, or the high school reunion. Friends were likely few and far between for Matthew. His given name was Levi, a priestly name, maybe his parents had aspirations of having their son enter the priesthood. If so, he was surely a flop in his family circle.
Jesus asked him to come and be a part of his inner circle. Imagine what that may have felt like to this reject.
A sick woman –
We find the story in Mark 5:24-34. A large crowd was following Jesus. The synagogue leader’s daughter is about to die, the crowd is pressing in hard, and yet he takes time for this unclean, lowly woman with a disgusting disease. She can’t stop bleeding, and this has been going on for 12 years. Years of clinics, herbs, prayer meetings, and anything else she can possibly think to try and yet she is withering away and everyone has given up hope.
The story involves a powerful, influential spiritual leader and this pitiful, insignificant woman and yet when Jesus realizes that she has reached out to him, he shifts into park, turns off the key and stops to hear her whole story (verse 33).
Samaritan woman at the well -
A few things we know about this woman:
1. She was a Samaritan and so the Jews would have despised her for that reason alone.
2. She was likely despised by her own people since she had come to the well alone when most women would go together and have a good time socializing while getting water for their family.
3. She was unmarried and openly living with #6 in a series of men.
These three facts should have been plenty of reason for Jesus to leave this sinful woman alone and yet we see him engaging in conversation, showing an interest in her life. Offering what only Jesus can offer to those of us who find ourselves in over our heads. Living water; what a refreshing change from what the world is offering us.
Where do you find yourself? Rejected? Depleted? Sick? Guilty? Ashamed? Bring it to Jesus and let him welcome you into his inner circle and drink deeply from the refreshing, living water that he is offering!
Blessings on your week!
Phil