The “cancel culture” claimed another victim this week.

This time it was the incoming editor of Teen Vogue magazine, 27-year-old Alexi McCammond, who was forced to resign over offensive things she said a decade ago.

When she was 17.

Two years ago, the National Association of Black Journalists had named McCammond their “emerging journalist of the year.”

Of course, the “cancel culture” is nothing new.

What’s different today is that social media demands that punishment be carried out instantly, in widespread public view.

In the “cancel culture” there is no due process and apologies aren’t allowed.

This week I’m preaching on Jesus’ encounter with a victim of the “cancel culture” of his day. The woman had gone to the well to draw water in the heat of day, evidently to avoid making contact with the people she’d offended. What got you shunned back then wasn’t offensive tweets, it was sleeping around.

But that’s when she met Jesus.

You often find Jesus in the places the culture finds offensive.

Rather than shunning her, Jesus engaged her. He knew everything about her, and yet he cared for her, spoke to her compassionately.

And his grace and truth transformed her.

And then something even more amazing happened. The woman ran to tell everyone she knew about her encounter with Jesus.

She was no longer afraid of being shunned.

And now they listened to her.

An encounter with the Living God has the power to transform us and the people around us.

We should never be afraid of being “cancelled” for speaking God’s truth in love.