It was one of the weirdest conversations I’ve ever had. We had just moved to New Zealand and were living in a temporary home until the rectory of the church we were planning to stay in was completed. As I was a newcomer, I wanted to get to know the neighbors, and when I saw someone in the garden to my left, I stuck my head over the fence to say hello.
We felt welcomed.
He was very friendly and interested in who I was and where I was from. I felt welcomed and like I could make friends. Then something strange happened. “This is truly a perfect country,” he said. “And it would be perfect if it weren’t for the influx of *** immigrants. They’re taking over our country. This is an absolute disgrace.”
He kept going on and on about how bad immigrants were…and then stopped, stuck out his hand for a handshake, and said, “Nice to meet you. I hope you’ll be very happy. Welcome to New Zealand. I’m really happy to be here.”
I felt like, “Well, I don’t know what it was. Should I feel insulted and defensive because I’m one of those horrible immigrants who are ruining the country, or should I accept his welcome at face value?”
Slowly it dawned on me. The welcome he gave me was as warm as it was genuine. He was glad I was in the country and glad I was his neighbor. Even though I was an immigrant, he didn’t think of me as an immigrant. why? I don’t really understand. I clearly told him where I was from and he asked lots of questions about it.
But despite this, he didn’t think of me as an immigrant. Maybe it’s because English is my first language and I speak it pretty well, or maybe it’s the color of my skin, or maybe it’s because I started by giving him a few lemons from my tree – I don’t really know, but whatever the reason, he thought of me as part of ‘us’ and not part of ‘them’.
It’s great to belong, to feel like part of something.
It’s great to belong, to feel like you’re part of something and that you fit in. But so many people don’t.
Remember the amazing account recorded in John 4. Jesus talked with a Samaritan woman who was drawing water from a well in the middle of the day.
If you are familiar with Jewish culture at the time of Jesus, you will have enough clues to warn you that this conversation should not have taken place. Putting them together is as follows.
Although Jesus was a Jew, he was passing through Samaritan territory. Jews and Samaritans hated each other in a way that only relatives “of a sort, but not really” can do. In fact, the Samaritans were part of Israel until the conquest of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 BC, when their land was destroyed and intermarriage with the victorious Assyrians became common. Although the Samaritans retained vestiges of Judaism, they intermarried, worshiped in separate temples, and understood the Torah differently, which was beyond the norm for Jews. Jews and Samaritans kept their distance from each other. Second, Jewish men did not have casual conversations with women. That would be considered highly inappropriate. Realistically, it would have been strange for Jesus to start a conversation with a Samaritan man and then do it with a Samaritan woman. What was he actually thinking? Thirdly, this was midday and the woman was fetching water by herself. There’s a big hint there. In a highly sociable society, why was she fetching water in the heat, even though it was her first day’s work?You don’t have to be very wise to decide that she is an outsider. The other women wouldn’t talk to her. She was ostracized and forced to make a life for herself. And soon the reason becomes clear. Fourth, not only was she an outsider, she was the most questionable outsider. She has been married a whopping five times. To make matters worse, the man she was currently living with was not her husband. By the standards of the time, she was clearly bad news and not the kind of woman a husband would want to talk to.
So why did Jesus stop and speak to her?
That’s a good question. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in looks. Because this was not a “look good” moment. People will question his judgment on this.
So why does Jesus speak to her?
Jesus sees her as a woman made in the image of God.
Because Jesus sees her in a way no one else sees her. While others dismissed her as a dangerous Samaritan woman with a compromised past and an equally compromised present, Jesus saw her as a woman made in the image of God, a woman who was seeking God and His presence in her own way. Strip away all the superficial details and what you see is not a compromised woman, but a wounded woman longing for home, longing for God, longing for belonging.
It is Jesus’ deep empathy that helps him see beyond the surface and see the image of God in her.
In a world divided between ‘them and us’, ‘insiders and outsiders’, new perspectives are needed. There is my way of seeing the world, and there is also Jesus’ way of seeing the world. What conversations would change if I could see the world through Jesus’ eyes more often?
Originally published on Brian Harris’ blog. Republished with permission.
Dr. Brian Harris is based in Perth, Australia. After decades of church ministry and 17 years of teaching theological colleges, he now directs the Avenir Leadership Institute, a forward-looking consulting firm that helps develop the kinds of leaders the world needs. Brian is the author of seven books, the most recent of which are Why Christianity is Probably True (Paternoster, 2020) and Stirrers and Saints: Forming Spiritual Leaders of Skill, Depth and Character (Paternoster, 2024).
