"There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink" ~ John 4:7
Jesus was not always gentle with those who were still locked up in the prison of themselves; He actually had true
empathy with them. Webster defines the noun
empathy as the "imaginative projection of one's own consciousness into another being." My [Eugenia Price, the author's] favorite newspaper columnist, Mr. Sidney J. Harris of the Chicato Daily News, defines it even more clearly: "Sympathy is feeling 'for' someone else; empathy is feeling 'with' him."
Jesus Christ is the master of empathy. He made complete identification iwth us, and no-one can doubt that He felt "with" those He met, when He was on earth. No-one who knows Him now doubts that He still feels and suffers with us. He didn't just sympathize with man in his lost condition, he
became Man. He was still God, but perfectly human too! One striking illustration of His ability to feel "with" someone else was His behavior at the well with the immoral, socially inferior Samaritan woman. Jesus was very tired. He had gone there to rest. But He was never too tired, even while carrying a Chross up a hill, to feel "with" those around Him. and to prove that He knew exactly how that outcast, guilty woman felt, He, the Son of God, put Himself in the position of helping her hold up her head a little. He used the same word "woman" in addressing her as He used in speaking to His own mother from the Cross! Jesus was human as well as divine, and He knew from His own experience that it does something for us to have someone say, "Thank you." We want to feel needed.
Jesus won this woman to Himself because he
was the Messiah, but also because he was willing to ask
her to do Him a favor.
"Woman ... give me to drink ..."
Jesus Christ is the master of empathy. He made complete identification iwth us, and no-one can doubt that He felt "with" those He met, when He was on earth. No-one who knows Him now doubts that He still feels and suffers with us. He didn't just sympathize with man in his lost condition, he became Man. He was still God, but perfectly human too! One striking illustration of His ability to feel "with" someone else was His behavior at the well with the immoral, socially inferior Samaritan woman. Jesus was very tired. He had gone there to rest. But He was never too tired, even while carrying a Chross up a hill, to feel "with" those around Him. and to prove that He knew exactly how that outcast, guilty woman felt, He, the Son of God, put Himself in the position of helping her hold up her head a little. He used the same word "woman" in addressing her as He used in speaking to His own mother from the Cross! Jesus was human as well as divine, and He knew from His own experience that it does something for us to have someone say, "Thank you." We want to feel needed.
Jesus won this woman to Himself because he was the Messiah, but also because he was willing to ask her to do Him a favor.
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