A World View

When the disciples returned from their shopping spree in town, they found Jesus at the well having a deep conversation with a Samaritan woman.  They probably could not believe their eyes.  Not only was he talking with a strange woman, but a Samaritan woman.  According to their world view, He was with the bottom of the social barrel.   Certainly, their response was different than some days earlier when Nicodemus showed up after dark for a private conversation with Jesus.  They were likely a bit in awe that such a pillar of the religious community would come for a visit.  According to their world view, Nicodemus was at the very top of the social order.  

As the stories are told, it seemed to make no difference to Jesus.  He was as comfortable with one as He was with the other.  He did not talk down to one and give deference to the other.    The two people who had their meeting with Jesus had nothing in common.  Actually, Nicodemus would not have spoken to the Samaritan woman, and the Samaritan woman would have had no regard for Nicodemus.  Each of them along with the disciples lived in a world where the things which divided people were so large that exclusion instead of inclusion was the order of the day.   

The gospel writer we know as John makes it clear that this world filled with the things which separate people was not the world of Jesus.  As John 3:16 reminds us, Jesus lived in a "whosoever" world.   And when the gospel writer wrote at the beginning of his gospel, "All things came into being through Him (Jesus)..."  (John 1:3), he was writing with a broad enough pen to include every single one of us.  While we may think differently at times, there is no one out there around us who is not one of us.  We all bear the markings, the essence, the spiritual DNA of the Creator and in such a world, there is no room for "them and us."