Sharing Jesus with Families and Friends (Monday Mail)

Greetings!

Yesterday at St Jude's we were thinking particularly about how to share God's love and the good news of Jesus with our families and close friends. I said I'd found one book in particular really helpful, which was Bringing the Gospel Home by R. Newman (the link is to the IVP online bookshop, where it's only £5 at the moment...) Incidentally, Newman's earlier book Questioning Evangelism is also really good for thinking through how to share the good news in our conversations more generally.

We looked at the theme yesterday through the lens of Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria in John 4. As so often in John's gospel, the story serves to illustrate a lot of what has already been said about Jesus. So in John 3:17 we read that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him", and in John 1:17, John sums up Jesus' message as "Grace and truth". And that's exactly what we see Jesus showing to the woman.

Grace is in many ways at the heart of Christianity. God doesn't accept us and adopt us into his family because we somehow earn it; he does it because of his grace – his underserved love which he shows us in Jesus. We see Jesus' undeserved love for the woman in several different ways.

We see it in his acceptance of her. She was on the wrong side of every prejudice going at the time – she was a woman, a Samaritan and a sinner. She was so unaccepted that she was even avoiding her own people – going to collect water in the middle of the day, when all the respectable people went in the early morning when it was cooler.

Time and again Jesus could have taken her on a guilt trip, but refuses too. He values her and respects her. He lets her ask questions and listens to her without interrupting. He gives her answers that aren't just put downs or long explanations; he makes comments that get her thinking for herself.

We see it too in the gratitude that Jesus shows. If I'd been at that well in the middle of the day I'd have been grumbling about all kinds of things. But Jesus sees the good in the situation and in the woman. He notices that even if the Samaritans worship God wrongly, they are still searching after God; he sees that the woman's continual quest for satisfaction is actually searching after being in a real relationship with God.

We also see it in his vulnerability towards her. He could have created the water directly if he wanted to, but he chooses to ask the woman for a drink, putting himself in her debt. So often we try to put on a good front, to pretend that we've got everything sorted, even to stand over others and look like we're condemning them, when actually we'd get on much better if we let them see when we're weak and how we trust Jesus when times are hard as well. It's been well said that when we share Jesus with someone we're like one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

But Jesus also comes to bring truth. If we just bring truth without grace, then we show that we don't really believe the good news that we don't deserve God's love and end up condemning people. If we just bring grace without truth, then we sweep things under the carpet and don't actually do any lasting good. Strong relationships don't just sweep stuff under the carpet. So Jesus is clear that he knows about the woman's relationship status; he is clear that she needs to ask him the Spirit and to worship God in Spirit and truth. But he is clear in such a way that there can be no doubt that she is accepted and valued by him. (for lots and lots of examples, listen to the recording of the sermon or read the book...)

May God grant us wisdom to show something of his truth and love to those around us this week!

God bless,

John