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I’m struck by a particular detail in the story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4.  It’s not her outcast status or even the fact that Jesus took the unusual step in His culture of having a conversation (a theological one at that!) with a woman. 
 
What I’m struck by is what she says when she runs excitedly back into town.  “Come, meet a man who told me everything I ever did.”  She goes on to wonder whether He could be the Messiah, but her opening excitement is that He told her everything she had ever done – including that she had had five husbands and was not married to the man she was living with. 
 
And it appears to have been good news to her, freeing news to her, to meet a man like that.  The town knew the details of her life and they used them to shame her.  Jesus knew the details of her life and He used them to bring her into relationship with Him.
 
It makes me wonder.  When we interact with people, or when we introduce people to Jesus, do they come away feeling they’ve encountered “good news”?  News that produces freedom and life and relationship rather than shame and guilt and distance.  Do we speak of grace but in reality impose law?  Do we exude the abundant life Jesus promises or do we focus on what they have to give up?
 
Lauren Winner, in her book Real Sex (The Naked Truth About Chastity), says that the church has typically not done a good job of presenting chastity as “good news”.   I think it’s a common problem.  We wrestle with the call to holiness and the good news somehow becomes a list of dos and don’ts.
 
I’m not talking about tossing truth out the window or not ever addressing the issue of sin.  I also know we are called to live holy lives, that we are to be different than the world around us.  Discipleship requires us to address thorny issues.  Our actions matter.  Sin is not to be taken lightly.  Jesus Himself told the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more” – but He did so after a grace-filled interaction (John 8). 
 
At some point I will probably write about confronting people and speaking the hard truth, about facing consequences of unwise or sinful choices, about setting appropriate boundaries.  Scripture tells us we need to do those things and it tells us how to do them.  It’s not that I don’t believe those things are important.  It’s just that it is not what this post is about.
 
This is about the good news of encountering a God who knows everything about us – all the ugly parts, all the regrets, all the things we would like to keep hidden – but who speaks good news into that in a way that transforms lives.  That makes an outcast woman run into town and invite those who shun her to follow her back to the well because she has encountered someone who changed her life.
 
Jesus was full of grace and truth.  His conversations set people free.  I want to be like that.
 

8 responses to “Is It Really Good News?”

  1. Oh my goodness Betty. THANK YOU. Each new posting makes it more and more clear this is a great gifting you are working from. Keep ’em coming !

  2. Excellent blog Betty. The challenge remains to be true to the whole counsel of God (grace and truth) understand how it is framed as good news (especially when it deals with suffering or destructive behavior).

    You ask if those who come away from an encounter with us will think they have encountered Good News. Not all of Jesus encounters IMO set people free (“Woe to you…”). I am hard pressed to think that every encounter the disciples had with Jesus thought “Well that was good news.”

    IMO therein is the rub. Do we dismiss Jesus prophetic “not so good news” encounters with some as “Well Jesus can do that but I cannot” OR are we ever called to speak as plainly as Jesus did (to both the Pharisees and the disciples). “You wicked and perverse generation. How long do I have to put up with you” was apparently spoken to the disciples.

    This is an immense challenge to me. I feel that most of my life I have wimped on from the “truth” part with others.

    Thanks again. Keep the great blogs coming.

  3. Brad & I talk often (even just today)about this concept of Jesus being full of grace and truth- not half and half- but full of grace AND full of truth. 100% of both. As as His disciples, we are to be full of both too. But what does that look like on the practical level? It’s hard to know, there is no cookie cutter answer to allow me to feel like I have a handle on it. I’m sure that was on purpose by the ONE who does have a handle on it. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit and His care and compassion with me & those I encounter.

    I think this ongoing discussion of ours was prompted by the Andy Stanley book on grace that we read in the last year or so. It keeps me on my toes (okay, really it’s on my face or my knees…)
    Thanks for writing. I look forward to reading these each & every time.

  4. Bob – I felt that challenge as I wrote the blog. It originally had several “on the other hand” paragraphs in it that I cut – in part to stay focused and to keep the length manageable. Some topics are harder than others to keep to a reasonable length and I toyed with a footnote here that indicated I knew there were lots of “holes” and more to say. But I figured the comments section would let me expand if necessary.

    I agree – not everyone took the message as “good news”. And some were unwilling or uninterested in changing a lifestyle in order to follow Jesus. I also know there’s a “prophetic” call that sometimes has to jump in with a harsh indictment. And like you, I would say I wimp out on the truth part. But my wimping out on the truth part also feels like I dilute the good news part.

    In general though, this blog did stem from the particular thing I couldn’t shake from the account of this particular story. There was something in Jesus knowing everything about her that she received as good news. I remember at one point seeing something new in Hebrews 4:13 – where it talks about everything being laid bare before the one to whom we have to give account. The thought of everything being laid bare had always felt terrifying to me. But at one point I read that and felt relief – like a weight lifted off my shoulders. It had to do with feeling that Jesus was a “safe” place. That the laying bare was designed for my good, not my harm.

    Thanks for your encouragement!

  6. When we sin and ask forgiveness God purifies us and remembers our sin no more, but we still remember it. Though the sting is taken out, the memory remains to help us reach out to others knowing we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god.
    I appreciated this post, too. Thanks for the good writing and sharing.

  7. I have had some bad experiences in the church I have attended for almost 20 years. My pastor, who is a godly man, has always been more fixated on the old testament teaching of the law than on the new testament teaching of grace. In one sermon he stated that no one should ever act like it is good news when some unmarried couple announces that they are expecting a child. He made sure to point out that fornication is a sin, and never once injected that although it is a sin, God forgives, helps the fallen to get back up, and that a baby is a blessing no matter how it comes into the world. My heart was heavy as not even five minutes later, in the middle of the sermon, a young couple I had never seen before in the service, got up and quietly walked out. It could have been a coincidence, but something tells me not so. Those young people were in church that morning, not hung over somewhere. They weren’t sleeping in. They were in the house of God. Yet, they were already feeling condemned and needed grace and mercy more than anything else. What a shame! I too agree that fornication is a sin, but so is pride and a self-righteous attitude. How that must stink in God’s nostrils. Law with no mercy. God help us all.

  8. L.B. – Thank you for taking the time to share your heart. In the type of example you shared, I have known couples who find themselves in that unplanned situation and who are never affirmed for their good choice to preserve the life of that baby when there is another readily available option that many people choose. They are only chastised for finding themselves in the situation (and those couples who make a different choice are sometimes never “found out” and reprimanded). I do believe that as part of discipleship, you need to have hard conversations at times – but in the context of relationship and hopefully where the person already knows they are loved and valued by a loving God and by the person talking to them.