“Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that He
was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you
talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and
said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this
be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to Him.” (John
4:27–30, ESV) (Caps added to pronouns referring to Christ)
The conversation with the Samaritan woman began with the
disciples leaving before her arrival, and it ends with their return. In the
time between Jesus used asking the woman for a drink of water to lead her to
the point that she was being confronted with the need to decide if she truly
believed Jesus to be the Christ who was to give her living water. We already looked at the divisions between
the Jews and the Samaritans and the woman’s amazement that Jesus as a Jew would
speak to her, a Samaritan. Jesus made it clear that a time was coming when these
distinctions would disappear as people came to worship the Messiah (the Christ)
who came to seek and to save the lost from the Jews, the Samaritans, and the
whole world.
The fact that Jesus was speaking with a Samaritan did not
miss the notice of His disciples either. While our passage records that they
did not voice their questions to Jesus, it does record that they had the
questions among themselves. As they arrived the woman left and went away into
the town. But she did not return home quietly. Going back to the town she must
have been overwhelmed and overflowing with excitement as she had even left her
water jar behind. Arriving in town, she quickly told the people to come out and
see this person who told her all of the secrets of her life. She had met a man
who knew things no one could possibly know, and He claimed to be the Christ. As
she proclaimed what He had done, she raised the question to them, “Can this be
the Christ?” Her words must have been pretty persuasive because the passage
goes on to say that the people went out to meet Him for themselves.
Here we have this woman, known to the people of the town to
have a lot of blemishes, who came to them speaking of her incredible encounter
with this person who might be the Christ. The same thing can be said of all of
us who have trusted Christ for our salvation. He did not speak to her because
she had everything neatly sewn together and lived a perfectly model life without
any blemished. He spoke to a woman who had secrets which she probably would rather
that others did not know. He does the same thing for us. Not one of us is
perfect. We have all sinned, and have done so in many ways. Even if we didn’t recognize
the things we had done as sin, every one of us has failed in things according to
our own internal sense of right and wrong (Hmmm. Wonder where that came from?),
known as our conscience. We have all done things which have even fallen short
of what society’s standard for absolute right might be. In very simple terms
there is not one of us who has been able to perfectly direct our lives and
control every one of our steps. Every one of us was in need of an encounter with
the Christ—the perfect Son of God who took upon Himself the sins of the world
so that we might be fully forgiven and forever clothed in His righteousness. It
all began with hearing the truth, believing Him to be the Christ, and entrusting
ourselves to Him.
As we go out into our daily lives and contacts we encounter
numerous people who also are engaged in their own various activities. Many of
them may be performing the mundane, while others may be in the midst of
something very significant and life changing. What could possibly have in
common is that they might also be ready for an encounter with the truth of
Christ and being asked the question, “Can this really be Him?” If they are
ready to say, “Yes,” think of the joy of walking them through the process of
coming to know Him personally. I can’t imagine the woman staying back as the
people of the town went out to meet Him. I imagine her leading the crowd and pointing
the way with excitement.
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was
reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of
Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians
5:18–21, ESV) (Caps added to pronouns referring to God and Christ)
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