This is my own reflection on “Who Sinned Here?”, a segment from the “Theirs Is The Kingdom” by Robert Lupton
Scripture: John 4:4-29, Luke 1:52-53
Gospel: The good news! It is said so much and so often that we lose track of its meaning and value. It becomes relegated to the good news of my ticket to heaven, or the good news of my material wealth, or the good news of my societal position. In this thinking of the gospel it is so easy to point and say, “Believe the gospel! And find a good job…and an education…and a spouse…and the right Bible translation.” But, did Jesus do this with the Samaritan woman at the well? No! Here is a Samaritan, despised by Jews; a woman, down on the hierarchy; a woman of many husbands, (although for what reason it does not say, which probably says more about our bias when we assume she is an adulteress and not a victim of abuse, but I digress) in violation of the Law. Jesus uses the evil done to her, and maybe even the evil she has done, to raise her up and give her value and launch his kingdom mission! What if she had not received this good news but had scorned it? We need to still see that it is inhabiting the true humanity of Christ to SEE the most despised and BE with them.
Self-sacrifice: In Mary’s song that proclaims the good news of her son, she looks forward to the mighty falling and the rich being empty-handed, the lowly lifted up and the hungry filled. In a time when there was no such thing as upward mobility, or climbing the success ladder, there was no option to soothe the scandal of the Jesus way of living. Now we soothe the scandal by declaring, “He’s that way because he is lazy” or “She’s that way because she sleeps around” or “If only ‘they’ would pull up by the bootstraps THEN I could help them” or “God helps those who help themselves”. On the contrary, God helps those who are helped by the rich and the mighty giving away their riches and their might.
justin is reading 