We like to preach the comforting words of Jesus, but Jesus often spoke challenging words that unsettled people. In John 4 we witness an extraordinary conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Extraordinary because Jesus seems to challenge her very deeply, and yet without condemnation. His difficult questions didn't send her running away in defensiveness. Rather she was increasingly engaged and open...
What chance does Jesus have of getting through our defensiveness? We support and prop up our thinking with the voices of people who agree with us. We arrange ourselves in "denominations" and groups that agree so that we are constantly affirmed in our thinking. It is very hard to hear the voice of Jesus asking the difficult questions and unsettling our very stable ideas and attitudes.
One interesting observation from this story is that the woman came to the well and encountered a stranger... Later, of course, she wonders whether he might be someone significant - even the Messiah! - but at the outset he was just a lone stranger at the well, asking her strange questions.
What if that irritating voice that is threatening to unsettle our thinking on some issue, is actually the voice of Jesus - coming to us through the stranger at the well...? (It's unlikely that someone close to us, who has been carefully screened to see that they "fit in" is going to deeply challenge our thinking...)
or am I wrong? Do people close to us have the potential to really unsettle us and help growth and development of our thinking and attitudes?
I wonder if it's both. Strangers do unsettle us, but how many of them can do it lovingly? People close to us must have the courage to unsettle us gently. Perhaps we need to make sure that people know that we're teachable and that we welcome difficult words spoken in love.
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