The woman with the red head wrap was in town just to visit her friend for the week. She was bored here. She made a joking comment about how it was too hot here. She hadn’t done much here except hang out with her friend and then try to find things to do in the township to keep her busy while her friend was at work. The woman was glad she was leaving to go home the next day. She wanted to know why we were hanging out in Video, the township, that day. We told her we were going around to meet new people and tell people about Jesus.
She told us that back home she goes to church rather often. She went to church on and off growing up with her family. The young woman made a decision a few years ago to start going to church more regularly and to stop going out with her friends when they went out to party. She said she would stay in instead and wait for them to come home. She thought that that was all there was.
But going to church doesn’t save you. Doing “good” instead of “bad” doesn’t save you.
No one ever explained to the woman with the red head wrap why Jesus had to die.
Too often do people show up to churches and never hear why the good news of Jesus Christ is good news.
She wanted to know why He had to come.
I had the opportunity to share with her the story of creation and tell her that God created us to be in close relationship with Him. We were designed for to be known and loved and cared for by the Creator and to love Him in return. But, when sin entered the world, we could no longer get to God by ourselves. There was a separation.
But God had a plan.
And that plan was Jesus.
God sent His son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect, sinless life. While on earth, He performed many miracles such as healing the blind and making the lame walk again. Though He brought comfort to those around Him, some did not believe Him and in fact hated Him so much that they conspired to kill Him. They ended up beating and crucifying (killing) Him on a cross.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the cost of our sin is death. We deserve to die for the sins we have committed. We cannot come into the presence of God who is clean and pure, as Adam and Eve did originally in the creation story, covered in our sin. But, Jesus took on the weight of ALL of our sin; your sin; my sin; the woman with the red head wrap’s sin.
He paid that debt. You don’t need to clean yourself up first because “while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
And then He rose from the dead three days later to prove that He had conquered death and to claim victory over sin.
We are now washed clean. We can now be in a close relationship with our Creator as He intended through Jesus. We can now know that after we die, we will have eternal life in the presence of our King.
It’s a free gift. He’s offering it to all of us. But we have to receive it. The woman in the red head wrap reached out and said yes. She took the gift.
Will you?
