l believe the global church is at a tipping point regarding our work and our witness. After forty years of fighting the culture wars, Christians in America are more divided on social issues than ever. The walls we have built to keep us insulated from evil have proven futile, and we are left exhausted and embattled. All of this is done in the name of the one who gave his life to tear down the walls of division. Jesus calls us not to build higher walls but to build longer tables.
One of the core values at the church I serve is “we build longer tables,” not only because it’s the heart of Christian hospitality, but because the future of the church depends on what we will build over the next twenty years. Will we build longer tables or higher walls? The key to reaching our communities is not in creating better church services but in building better tables. It’s not in more effective marketing but in more effective disciple-making. We need tables at which people feel welcomed, loved, valued, seen, and heard.
The church has always done its most profound work at the margins of society. Why? Because we follow a Heavenly Samaritan who exists both at the margins and in the center. Throughout the Gospels, we find Jesus at the margins. Not only did he reach out to those who existed on the margins, he experienced life there himself. Born in a small village to a poor family, a shadow of suspicion hung over his birth from the moment word of his mother’s pregnancy circulated the community. From the moment he made his entrance into our world, he willingly identified with the marginalized, deliberately aligning himself with the other.
The point is not to bring Jesus to the marginalized but to meet him in his chosen environment, surrounded by the people he loves. Jesus was still seen as an outsider even as his ministry grew and he gained a following of notable people. He was expelled from his hometown and continually harassed by the ecclesiastical establishment. He was ultimately mocked by the powerful, attacked by the influential, and crucified outside the walls of the city. He personified the outsider who is always on the periphery. Perhaps for this reason, the author of Hebrews exhorts us to “go to him outside the camp.”
Could this be Why Jesus formed such a profound connection with the woman at the well? She is the epitome of the marginalized, not only in her own era but also in ours.
There is much that we don’t know about the Samaritan woman’s story, but one thing is clear. Their encounter is the beginning of a beautiful and enduring love affair that continues throughout his life and ministry. In his final moments, just before his glorious ascension, he entrusts his disciples with the task of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth—geographically and demographically. And he pointedly instructs them not to overlook his cherished friends, the Samaritans.
Everywhere I travel, I meet Christians who are wondering about the future of the church, faith communities, and religious institutions. How can we maintain relevance and faithfulness at a time when everything in the culture is shifting? And how can we change the world in and through coming generations? One key lies in embracing the radical love Jesus demonstrated toward the Samaritans. When our hearts are transformed by love, our actions naturally flow from a place of love. Leading with love enables us to invite others into the transformative beauty of reconciliation and redemption. Love possesses the extraordinary power to remove labels, erase scarlet letters, and dismantle divisive barriers, replacing them with longer tables of diverse people. This genuine love will redefine the church’s reputation, shifting it away from one of hypocrisy and judgment and toward a new character defined by kindness and compassion.
Who are the Samaritans in your world? Who are the ones who exist at the margins and in the shadows of life? May your love affair with them be as rich and full and rewarding as was the one Jesus enjoyed with his friends. Yes, even those friends in the village of Sychar.
Terry Crist joins Randy and Tammy this Monday on LIFE TODAY. Excerpted from Loving Samaritans by Terry Crist. Copyright ©2024 by Terry M. Crist. Published by Zondervan, a subsidiary of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Used by permission.
