The Power of Presence
The Nation of Israel at one time in the Old Testament was divided in 2.
There was the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.
The Southern Kingdom houses Jerusalem which—in that time—was where all Jews were required to go and offer sacrifices to God who dwelled within the temple.
A certain King in the Northern Kingdom told the inhabitants that they no longer needed to travel south to worship in Jerusalem. Instead, they set up idols in the Northern cities of Dan and Bethel, causing anger to rise up amongst the southern Jews.
Then, the northern Jews began to intermarry with the enemy Assyrians—leading the southern Jews to permanently disown what they ( and we) call, “Samaritans” meaning, “dogs” or “half-breeds.”
As you can see, things were heated, and it led to disturbing division amongst the Jewish people and a rivalry was born that we see all throughout the New Testament.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you had to interact with someone different than you?
Perhaps someone whom society would say you should be ashamed of interacting with?
Someone who scared other people? Hurt other people? Who was looked down on by other people?
I once met and interacted with someone like that. His name is Priest.
Priest was who I was tasked with guarding in a basketball game that my team played at a local jail near our university. At the time, I was 21 years old, Priest was 20 and after the game, Priest and I sat down to talk and we came to find out that we had A LOT in common.
I found out during our conversation that Priest loved basketball, so did I.
Priest had a lot of tattoos, I had 6 at the time so I could relate—sort of, haha.
Priest had his ears pierced as did I.
Priest loved to read, and we started to talk about what books we were reading.
He said that one day, he’d love to come see me play in person but that he didn’t think that was ever going to happen. It was in that moment that the conversation took a hard turn.
I asked Priest what his life had been like up to this point. He said it was hard.
He was abandoned at an early age, forced to hit the street corner to sell crack cocaine and marijuana as a young boy just to make money to eat. He played ball through grade school and middle school but in high school, he couldn’t keep up his grades and he had no support at home, so he just started wandering. It was at this point that I asked him what had led him to Miami County Correctional Facility. His eyes started to well up with tears, his voice got all choked up and he proceeded to tell me that in a rush of anger, he lost control of all his self-awareness and he shot and murdered two people.
20 years old.
Locked up for life.
Committer of double homicide.
And as he explained this to me, I felt my body begin to tense up. I felt myself growing hot and anxious. “I’m not supposed to be talking to you. You’re violent. You’re dangerous. You’re not safe to be around.”
And as I began to reflect on that interaction, I started to ask myself why my first inclination wasn’t to lean in? Because as a follower of Jesus, we see Jesus constantly befriend and defend the worst of the worst, the lowest of the low, the outcasts, the sinners, the liars, the thieves and the crooks. Jesus—in that moment—wouldn’t have tensed up, no, he would’ve used that opportunity to unlock a compartment of compassion that perhaps no one had ever shown to Priest.
Now, you may be thinking, “yeah, right, Micah. Jesus would not ask you to love a murderer. He wouldn’t ask you to befriend someone who was seen as a danger or a threat to society.”
But I disagree.
Because throughout Scripture, we see Jesus befriend the outcast. We see him love someone whom Jews would have seen as the enemy and not just the enemy, but as literally worthless.
And this raises a question that we—as apprentices of Jesus—HAVE to answer and it’s this: Why are we so afraid to love those different from us?
How do we step into a different cultural, ethnic, societal, socio-economic, popularity relationship and lean into the tension that’s present?
How do we love the person whom society would deem—either explicitly or implicitly—“the other?”
In John chapter 4, Jesus departs on this journey from Judea to Galilee. Now, most Jews in this time would have taken the long route—a route that would have added almost 2 extra days of travel—just to avoid Samaria and the Samaritans. That’s how much the Jews hated the Samaritans.
But Jesus doesn’t avoid the hated outcasts, he approaches them. Jesus understands that there’s power in being present. And on his journey, he goes through Samaria and he stops at a well which is where we pick up the story:
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?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 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) (John 4:6-9, NIV).
Skipping down to verse 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?” (John 4:27, NIV).
No one asked. But they were all thinking it.
Jesus, what are you doing?!
Why are you talking with HER?!
Why are you conversing with HER?!
Why are you sharing a drink with HER?! She’s not like us! She’s the enemy! She’s an outcast.
What are you doing with her, Jesus?!
See, Jesus understood this fundamental truth that transcends color, it transcends race, it transcends origin, it transcends sexual orientation, it transcends wealth, it transcends gender, it transcends ethnicity, it transcends everything. And it’s this: There is power in presence.
May we—as followers of Jesus—be people who present tho those that God puts in front of us. Regardless of our differences, may we be people of love, kindness, and harmony.
The world as we know it could change if we embodied this value.
May it be so.
Be encouraged.
