Pointing Fingers
Have you ever gotten out of bed in the morning, walked into the bathroom, quickly looked at your reflection as you passed by, and gasped because you didn’t recognize the person staring back at you? Or, you flip to your camera app on your phone only to see that it’s on selfie mode and you are startled by the reflection. Me too.
Sometimes, I look in that mirror and I like what I see. I’m having a good hair day. My make-up is on point. There is a lot to be said about a little mascara, bronzer, and lip gloss. Other days, I look at that reflection and wonder how on earth I survived the day without scaring anyone, I look so disheveled. I don’t particularly like my reflection on those days.
It seems a lot of us don’t like looking at our reflections. We much prefer the blame game and finger pointing. We have convinced ourselves that this is something that children do, but, it happens at every age and stage. Politicians. Moms. Dads. Friends. Siblings. Kids. We point that finger so often we don’t even notice we are doing it anymore.
What if we took responsibility for ourselves taking action to change from within in order to make our little corner of the world better instead of pointing fingers?
Jesus did this. He was the master of this. In John chapter four, Jesus encounters a woman at the well. They both went there to gather water. Yet, that wasn’t the true intent of the meeting. I will include the verses of this story below. For now, I will give you the summary. The woman was Samaritan. Jesus was Jewish. Those two groups did not mingle way back when. She was also living with a man unmarried. This, after being married multiple times before. She was at that well at that time because she was shunned by her community and most likely could not collect water when the rest of the town was there. Jesus was “passing through” on his journey. But, when researching the story, we know he was purposeful meeting her there.
Jesus asks the woman for water because he is thirsty. They have an exchange about how she was looking everywhere to quench her “thirst”, when, in actuality, the “Living Water” (Jesus) was right there. She ends up realizing Jesus must be the Messiah everyone was talking about and ended up telling her whole town about her experience. She is touted as the first missionary.
While there are many layers to this story, there is one particular detail that pastors, teachers, and commentators don’t mention: Jesus never got his water. He came to the well declaring his thirst, yet he never received his water. He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, but never relieved his thirst.
Jesus could have pointed the finger at the woman. He could have laid into her for her sin and the fact that she never gave him what he initially asked for. He could have blamed her for his thirst. But, he didn’t. Instead, he gave this woman life. While he was empty (have you ever been thirsty), he decided to fill someone else knowing she needed this “water” more desperately than he needed his thirst satisfied.
What if, we laid down our finger pointing and picked up that jug of water in order to fill the person that frustrates us so much? What if we stopped blaming others for all their wrongs, our wrongs, everybody’s wrongs and decided we are truly going to be a part of the solution rather than inflating the problem?
Jesus was running on empty. He had just traveled in the heat and was tired. Up walks a woman full of sin. He could have picked up his finger and started pointing. It would have been easy. Yet, he didn’t. Instead, he gave this woman life. And because he gave her life, she went to her town and life spread like wild fire.
How can we look at the reflection today?
How can we take ownership for ourselves?
How can we decide today is the day we are going to give life to others?
That reflection looking back at you is not scary. It is empowering. All that hurt, anger, and frustration you see in those eyes staring back at you can be transformed into grace, love, and mercy. Now that’s powerful. Much more powerful than pointing fingers.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 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.) 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.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.” 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.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” John 4:1-26; emphasis mine)