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Living Water for all

 

While surfing on YouTube recently, I came across a preview of a movie called Oversold starring ex-adult film actress Crissy Moran. The film’s plot revolves around a pastor who is visiting Las Vegas on a mission trip and becomes romantically involved (unknowingly) with a stripper. The story is fictional but is loosely based on Crissy’s experiences in the adult entertainment industry. A few years ago, Crissy decided to leave the sex industry and follow God. By her own account, it was a difficult time when she had little money and little certainty for the future, but her faith in Christ gave her the strength to start a new life.

 

Crissy’s story shares a common theme with that of the Samaritan woman in John 4 whom Jesus encountered at the well; like many women in the sex industry today who are deemed socially undesirable, Samaritan women were considered impure by Jewish people of the time. One way to study this passage revolves around the idea of the “living water” that Christ offered the woman. My interest in this story, however, takes a slightly different approach. I am more concerned with the social message Jesus sent by associating with a Samaritan woman. By talking to the woman, Jesus broke through many barriers in Jewish culture at the time. Not only was the woman a Samaritan, she was also known to have lived in sin with men who were not her husband.Jesus ignored these social taboos and conversed with the woman anyways and offered her the Living Water.

 

A comparison of Crissy and the Samaritan woman makes me wonder who the woman at the well would be today. Whom do we believe to be impure or unclean? I’m sure each of us could probably think of someone we have deemed worthy of chastisement because of his or her lifestyle choices, but how do we think Christ would interact with these people? If Christ were on Earth today, with whom would he associate? The Gospels tell us that Jesus surrounded himself with those who were on the margins of society, i.e. those who needed him most. The same would be true today. I find Crissy’s story very uplifting because it speaks of God’s compassion for us all regardless of our sins. The challenge for us is to demonstrate God’s love by welcoming and accepting everyone who seeks God no matter how great his or her sin. God’s love knows no boundaries and although we are flawed as humans, we can still strive to follow the example Christ set for us.