“Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches” – John 5:3

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, used to come home at night bloodied and black and blue. His wife spent long hours at night praying, and you wonder whether a good portion of that was for his safety. Booth’s mission field was the pubs and dens at night, where he would wander in and begin preaching the Gospel. Needless to say, a few people took exception.

Throughout the Gospels, indeed the entire breadth of Scripture, God spent most of his time looking out for the poor and marginalised. Jesus in the Gospels, has a special affinity with those for whom the phrase “things can’t get worse” rang true. He reiterates that many times, with angular comments to the establishment; their attitude clearly didn’t impress him. Does ours?

This man at the pool had been sick for 38 years, lying in a hot climate and probably remaining there for days, even weeks at a time. Nobody wanted to look after him. The smell must have hit Jesus at a 100m, but those issues never seemed to bother him; hugging lepers, eating with prostitutes, halting the sermon to talk to tax collectors, Jesus was always stopping his agenda to tend to someone’s needs.

Where is this going? We’ve travelled overseas the past few weeks, largely to see family. It has been a delight, seeing family and friends we hadn’t seen for some time. We honoured parents long term marriage (and health) and feasted and celebrated. While occasionally things go wrong in our lives, we came away from that trip realising that life is as good as it gets, at least on this earth. We have had our share of problems, but compared to many, it doesn’t get much better. I don’t want to sound arrogant here, not at all – but for white middle class people living in Sydney, Australia, life is good. Add to that the security of knowing Christ, and I believe it is as good as it can be.

Two things, then: firstly, the church in the West is packed with believers who live a similar life. White, middle class – wealthy, educated, safe, secure and Christ to boot. It all looks pretty good. It wasn’t always like this though, and may not be for much longer, but that’s another story. The second issue is the crux, and that is this: what am I going to do with all that God has given me?

Reading Revelation at the moment, I am simply staggered at what is being held in trust for believers, and also by the magnitude of the authority and status of my Lord, Jesus Christ. Yet, for a few years he condescended himself to mix not just with humanity, but the lowest of the low. The people for whom there was no way out, found a way out in him.

He lowered himself to such a position as to ensure they felt they could approach him. Shunning robes, wealth and position, he made his dwelling in their neighbourhood. Further, he went out each day, seemingly looking for such people. Jesus knew, as the disciples knew, and as we have discovered what many thousands of missionaries already know, that the poor and the marginalised, the sick and dying are more responsive to God. Sadly it seems, and friends, this is something that God warns us of continually, those with a great deal of [wealth, status, prestige, power et al] will also have dual allegiances and a lacklustre faith. Undeniably, it is the story of the church in the West.

Throughout history, those who have made their mark for God in this world, are those who have gone out into it and preached to those who would listen. Those who would listen, are not usually those who already have it all. They usually have nothing, including much hope. These preachers have simply followed their Lord, realising that any sacrifice made here would more than be made up for later on. Sacrifice?  We can say without hesitation, that the joy of seeing someone come to Christ as their Lord, outweighs anything this world has to offer.

In our experience of going out to share Jesus, there is undeniably a similarity between those who receive him now, to those who received him then. In a word, the marginalised. People to whom others give little due.

We need to go and search for such people, as it is unlikely that we mix with them now. We must stop expecting anybody to embrace our white middle class church culture. That phrase may be offensive to some, but I have my doubts that he wants to be defined by such culture – he certainly didn’t in his day. Let us delight in the fact that Jesus has already prepared the hearts of many before we even go, he is just waiting for us to go.

What joy, when after 38 years somebody finally came not only to put him the pool, but to give him back his life. It’s the same when we offer Christ to somebody though, we offer them life.

Pray this week, that the Lord will show you someone to whom you can offer life. Don’t be surprised when it’s not someone you expect though.

“Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life….many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him, because of the woman’s testimony”. – John 4: 13, 39

Jesus gives the world eternal life. It is the most astounding offer a person could ever receive. The great unconquerable, death, is finally overcome in Christ, ‘the firstborn raised from the dead’.  It took a bit of time, but when that Samaritan woman finally grasped what was on offer, she dropped everything, forgot about her appalling life, and ran off to tell someone. As you read this passage, soak in what Jesus is actually offering you, what is your reaction? Are you inclined to drop everything, forget about all that is wrong with your life and run to someone…either him or someone to tell. She was mesmerised.

We see the power of Jesus come alive whenever we speak of him to others. His very name lights up people’s often miserable lives. What he promises, is that one day he will do that for eternity to all who put their faith in him. I can think of nothing more profound than that promise. Nothing else in this world comes close.

Last weekend, as my wife and me were about to go home after a fairly bland day on the streets, we stopped to speak to Gitte, Elizabeth and Lindsay. Between them, they shared more sickness than most; chronic stress, cancer, 2 strokes and traumatic stress disorder. Not bad for an odd little threesome on the street. We have rarely seen people welcome prayer more enthusiastically.  We shared the Gospel of Jesus equally enthusiastically with them, and they promised to remain in touch. Hopefully, they will be persons of peace and we can start a Discovery Bible Study with them when we get back. We are so genuinely excited!

We stopped to talk to them right outside a large and well-known ‘church’, where people go regularly to worship God. As Jesus said though, a time is coming when people won’t worship God either on this mountain (building) or that mountain, but in Spirit and in Truth.  All the time we are told that it is different here, that Aussies don’t want to hear the Gospel, that you can’t just roll up to people and start discussing religion, especially in this area, people are too closed. Instead, we ask them to come into a culture that they don’t understand, nor wish to know about and one that doesn’t always welcome them. Honestly though, I don’t see Jesus doing that at all in the Gospels.

We emphatically believe that God put those people in front of us, because we bothered to go out looking for them, and he did so right at the end when we were about to go home. It was a source of great encouragement, quite probably for him and us. The point of telling you all this, is not to blow our trumpets – trust me, there have been many times when Sunday lunch or a Saturday surf is much more appealing than telling people the Gospel. No, the point is that anyone can do it and it needs to be done. Why? Not because we need to feel good about ourselves, although there is nothing like the feeling that comes after sharing Jesus. No, it needs to be done because Jesus commanded us, and because if not us, then who?

Jesus tells us that he offers people – all people, living water that springs up into eternal life. Nobody else has an offer like that to make to the world. The method by which he chooses to spread that message, is through you and me. I read this week, that in Manchester, 2 teams of 7 people, 14 in all spent a few hours on the streets. Before they went, the ‘church’ presented them with the same arguments as to why it wouldn’t work. Really? Try prayer and gospel sharing with 56 people, of which 4 people put their faith in Christ, 11 want to meet again to hear more, and many more were interested. Just in an afteranoon.

Do we believe that we go out into the world empty-handed? Jesus, the Lord of all the Universe promises to be there in person, to prepare the way, and to prepare the hearts of people he wants us to meet. He does almost all the work, we simply need to pray and show up.

As believers, we have something that many in the world are desperately seeking. You are quite likely the very person God wants to use to show them the way. You can have a vote in helping someone to eternal life in Christ, so can I ask, do any of us having anything better to do this weekend?

Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
– John 4

Perhaps one of the most well-known passages in Scripture, what can we take from this that would be useful to us this week?

We could look at things from Jesus perspective and see much that is remarkable in an unremarkable everyday passage. Historically, Samaria was the worship place of the northern kingdom of Israel, before it was taken captive by the Assyrians, never to be rejoined to the southern tribes (Judea) from which Jesus came. The nation split after Solomon’s reign, and the Northern tribes moved the place of worship from Jerusalem. But the nation became ‘contaminated’ after it was captured, and they intermarried to produce a mixed race, something the orthodox Jews despised because it contradicted their law.

Further, we get an important clue about this woman because of the time she came to the well. It was midday, the heat of the day. Normal people, women in general (who drew water in those days) came in the morning and evening. This was a person who was shunned, probably ashamed.
When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, it was in the night. He couldn’t afford to be seen with the Messiah during normal business hours, it risked his reputation. The conversation he desperately wanted had to be had at night.

But for Jesus, there was no pride concerning one race, or even gender over another. Decades later, Paul would note that we were all ‘one blood under Christ’, highlighting God’s perspective on his creation. The woman was surprised that he would talk to a Samaritan, and his disciples were surprised that he would talk to a woman. Only Jesus appeared entirely comfortable.

How often our pride gets in the way of our opportunities, as we choose who is suitable for the Kingdom of God. I was reading only this week, that bad people make great disciples because their deeds make good fertiliser. Do we know any bad people; do we go looking for ‘bad people’ or do we spend our lives hanging out with good people? As we walk and talk with people about the Gospel, we almost always find that the greatest interest comes from those who don’t consider themselves good enough, and are lacking in any religious background. Dare we say it, those of ethnic background seem so much more interested in our God, than we do.

When I look closely at Jesus’ conversations, there is almost always a vulnerability about him as he talks with others. The Lord of the Universe never seems to overpower, or take the conversational high ground, rather he comes at things with openness and humility, meeting people in their current state. There is no condemnation nor judgement.

We see also that people matter to Christ. In 1 Peter, we are told that all of the heavenly realm – angels, principalities and authorities (both dark and light) accept the absolute authority of Jesus Christ as Lord of all, and yet he deems a despised, adulterous Samaritan woman worthy of a conversation. It seems he almost went looking for her. To converse with such people, a woman especially, was considered by the Jewish elite to make oneself unclean before God, yet here is God’s Son, deciding that she needed his attention.

Recently I was cooking at a bbq for the Salvation Army, and I found myself with a hanger on, who talked incessantly; the man was out of his mind, addled by a heavy drug addiction and he made no sense. In a short period of time, he assured me that he had been a well-known surgeon, an explorer and a successful businessman in a life that was still quite young. I confess that I didn’t bother to give him the time of day, but every now and then in the conversation he would suddenly ask me if I was listening, or if I just wished he would go away. He caught me off guard with his perception of my patronising attitude and I was ashamed. There is none of that here. Jesus is on a mission and this woman was important.

The array of people that Jesus spoke to is simply staggering. He appears delighted to be in anyone’s company, and was willing to draw near to all; he simply shared, and shared simply the purpose of his mission without allowing any prejudice to get in the way. Prostitutes, tax gatherers, ethnic minorities, people with deep shame, the sick the lame, even the religious elite – Jesus went looking for them all.

What does he teach us? Firstly, that you, that I, – we, are important to God. He loves us all. Then, he teaches us that we must never assume to need to measure up before we come to him. We don’t measure up, he knows that and we know that, but we must come anyway. We shall not be turned away.

Finally, for those who believe we must change our thinking. In churches, too often I hear us tell people to come to Jesus, but before that happens we must take him to people. With one so great, so magnificent, so full of God’s grace, why would you want to keep it a secret?