John 14:6-7
Jesus Says He is the Way, the Life, and the Truth
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 4:1-42
Jesus Talks to a Samaritan Woman
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Luke 8:1-3
Women Work with and Support Jesus
1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him,2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Luke 17:11-19
Jesus Heals Ten Lepers
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Acts 4:12
Jesus is Savior of the World
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
There is a poem written by Emma Lazarus...The poem is called the The New Colossus...The New Colossus refers to the first two lines of the poem...The Colossus is about a huge strong man, one who is very strong, and independent, with conquering arms and legs...The first two lines are in reference to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world...The Colossus of Rhodes is a statue of a Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC...The statue is powerful looking and looks like something of importance...The Colossus of Rhodes was over ninety eight feet high...It was one of the tallest statues in the world until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 b.c....
The words of Emma's poem "The New Colossus" stand at the Statue of Liberty...And below are the words:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
When I hear or read the words, especially the words, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, the homeless and tempest-tossed to me - I think of Jesus...Those who are tired, and poor, the huddled masses, the wretched, the homeless, the tempest tossed (those agitated and overwhelmed) followed and follow Jesus...Those oppressed look to Jesus...They are much interested in what He has to say and His teachings...And in His day, the oppressed followed Him closely...He somehow attracted large groups of the oppressed...When I read about the Samaritans following Him, especially how He confided and conversed with a Samaritan woman in His day -that would be news...The normal teacher and Rabbi would not be teaching a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman...But what society thought did not concern Him, when He was helping others and helping the oppressed...
Lepers were outcasts and rejected by society...Jesus welcomed lepers and would help them...Jesus once healed ten lepers...Ten lepers had cried out for mercy to Him, and graciously He heals them...His mercy is immediate...And yet, we see that nine of the ten do not give Him thanks...And the one out of the ten who thanked Jesus was a foreigner and probably not the one we would expect to follow God...And as He did this miracle and many other miracles He did not look for fame or to build up His ego...In fact, He did quite the opposite going about and doing miraculous things...
The earliest of Jesus' followers were the oppressed and those who were outcast...The religious world He grew up in and around Nazareth and Israel seemed to cater more to the upscale, the mid-stream and did not have a plan for the wretched and the oppressed...But Jesus was selfless in those He helped, no matter who they were...And He seemed to champion the oppressed...There maybe two reasons for this...Maybe not so much that He showed no favoritism toward who one was, which He always did...But also, because the Rabbi's around Him seemed less likely to take in and take an interest in the outcasts and the wretched masses as disciples, members, or followers...And women who were often suppressed and oppressed in His time followed Him and supported Him in His ministry...Jesus' ministry attracted the poor, the wretched, the slave, women, and children, because of what He did...
Jesus is our potential of what being a person can be like...Jesus treats each of us, no matter who we are with full dignity and gives us full respect as a member of the human race -no matter who we are...This is why everyone is attracted to Him...In a world that is broken, and we ourselves often feel broken He tells us about a Way to God in His good news...
For society, since He came to earth, I think He is the New Colossus, the Real Colossus, Our Messiah and the Savior of the World...