I love the movie The Help…but maybe for different reasons than others do. I see it as a movie about women and how we treat each other. There were all types of personalities and at one time or another, I have taken up all of them. I want to start with Celia Foote, who was from the other side of town! She was treated badly but instead of becoming bitter she ended up being the better person??? Think about that for just a second…and then look at today’s world. Mean girls actually grow up to be mean women…exclusionary girls grow up to be exclusionary women…girls who think they are better than other girls grow up to be women who think they are better than other women. The women in The Help did not even realize how they were…they did “charity” work but ignored the needs around them. Some were so strong others were afraid of disagreeing with them. Celia, in the beginning tried to be a part…she tried to do all the right things…the most moving scene in the movie was when she was bringing a pie to Hilly and saw all the women hiding and laughing at her. She left crying, pie in hand. But by the end of the movie, Celia came to grips with who she was and who the others were resulting in having the love of her husband and her dignity in tact.
One of the most wonderful passages in scripture to me is found in John 4 and is about a trip Jesus took to the place where the disciples did NOT want to go…In the Bible it is called Samaria but it could also be Sugar Ditch!! It is a place where people who are “less than the standard” live! It could be called the other side of the tracks…or where THOSE people live! It is where some women live who do things we in our comfortable churches would never do and with whom we would never associate. (After all, our mothers told us not to!!) But if what I said in the last session is true, (and it is!) that all women are the same and desire the same things out of life, then these women are also looking for love and acceptance but in the wrong places. They are you and me on the inside praying someone will really see them beyond their circumstances!
One of the ploys of satan is to have us confuse “the choices we have made” with “who we are.” Jesus on the other hand sees us all as daughters of Eve and pursues us with His everlasting, unconditional love to show us what we can be. That is what we find here in this story. Jesus broke all of man’s rules just to give truth to the soul of one woman.
Let’s read it: John 4:4-30;42.
· Jesus HAD to go….there was someone who needed Him
· Jesus SPOKE to this outcast and offered her freedom
· Jesus spoke TRUTH to her.
· She DIVERTED the truth to talk about spiritual things…trying to cover up who she really was.
· He offered her HOPE with dignity and no shame.
· She LEFT where she was and SHARED with others. She was changed.
This woman had sinned outwardly and was an outcast. It is so easy to look down on people with outward sin but if we look at Celia Foote in The Help…we find a woman who only wanted to belong…to fellowship with other women. Her heart was pure --even if her body wasn’t…I am going to say that again, her heart was pure even if her body wasn’t, because there are many women in our congregations who understand this…they only want to be loved, accepted and brought into relationships yet because of their poor choices continually find themselves on the outside looking in.
What about INWARD sins?? You know the ones we can hide from others…the ones that only God knows about??? Bitterness? Anger? Lying? Slander? Malice? Unforgiveness? Pride. Pride is the very thing that caused Lucifer, the angel of light, to fall and become the enemy of the daughter’s of Eve and son’s of Adam. This woman at the well knew who she was and was ready to admit it and take on the new life Christ offered her. She received freedom. The point is, when we admit….we receive freedom. However, denial is deadly. Next time we will take about the other women at the well…the ones that came in the morning…the ones lead by Mrs. Hilly Holbrook!!
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