Come See the Man Who Sees Me
I have a question for you, and it may seem like a “Bible Trivia” question, but it’s not a trivial question. So here it is: Who is the person that Jesus had the longest conversation with in all the four gospels? Who do you think was so important, and the content of their conversation so valuable—for all eternity—that the Holy Spirit made sure the gospel writer covered all the important details of it. The longest recorded conversation in the Bible between Jesus and another person is the exchange that took place between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.
Why her? Isn’t she is a nobody with a sullied past and sinful present? She doesn’t even get a name. The fact that the Holy Spirit inspired the recording of this conversation, taking up all that space, alerts us to the fact that there is something valuable in this story for every person who ever lived.
August 11, 2013
John 4:27-30, 36-42, Come See the Man Who Sees Me
Pastor Patti Ricotta, Brewster Baptist Church
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You’ve already heard most of the conversation. Remember we left off with the Samaritan woman telling Jesus that she knows the Messiah is coming, and Jesus clearly tells her that that’s who he is. Now let’s listen to the rest of the story.
27 Justthen his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you seek?” or “Why speak with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
So thinking of the whole passage, why is the conversation so important? Because the heart of the story is that the Father is seeking true worshipers—people who will worship him in Spirit and truth. And that is what this woman becomes. She doesn’t start out that way, or at least, she doesn’t see herself that way. But Jesus seeks her out and he looks into her heart. He sees who she really is and that changes her. She becomes what he sees—a true worshiper who changes the world.
That could be you! God is seeking you and he’s seeking me. He is. If you’ve been a Christian since childhood and you have a wonderful relationship with Jesus, I promise you there is even more. If you think that where you are in your relationship with God right now is all there is, and maybe all you want. I’m telling you, there is more and you don’t want to sell yourself short. We will see that it doesn’t matter what your life has been like or what it’s like now. God is seeking to have a relationship with you and me—a relationship that is deeper, more honest, more fulfilling and more creative, more dynamic and more productive, gratifying, beneficial and more worthwhile than anything we could ever imagine.
Even if you don’t know what you think about Jesus; he knows what he thinks about you. He loves you, and he’s not going to change his mind about that. If you haven’t made up your mind about whether or not you believe in him, you can know this: JESUS BELIEVES IN YOU! The Samaritan woman will help us see that. All you need is a willingness to seek the truth about him. This is a story about what can happen when we seek God.
Now let’s look at our text. At the beginning of the story in verse 4 it says, “Now, Jesus had to go through Samaria.” The Greek word for “had to” literally means, “it was necessary.” But Samaria was not a place any Jew wanted to go. It was a despised place and every self-respecting Jew thought of the Samaritans as racially impure. They were half breeds—a mixture of Jew and Gentile. What’s more, a Samaritan woman was considered unclean from the cradle. Jewish men were taught not to walk through Samaria because the spittle on ground might be from a woman and he would become unclean. And yet, scripture says that Jesus had to go there—it was necessary for him. That’s because he has a divine mandate to seek this particular woman. And we will see that she was seeking him too.
Picture this: it’s about noon time. Jesus is sitting alone at Jacob’s well. When the Samaritan woman comes, he’s already there. He shows up in her everyday life. When she comes out to draw water she is alone, too. So the narrator is writing in such a way as to give his readers valuable information. The respectable women go to the well together in the cool of the morning. But if a woman feels that she is not respected by the other women, she will wait until she’s sure no one else will be at the well, like during the hottest part of the day. That’s what is happening with this woman. So we already know that, as a Samaritan, she is viewed by Jesus’ contemporaries as a half-breed; as a Samaritan woman, she has been “unclean from the cradle,” and she is even disrespected by the other women in her community.
Have you ever felt like that, like people are judging you for things that are beyond your control? Or you feel trapped in a sinful situation, or a sinful habit and you feel there no way out, so every day you just keep doing what you’ve been doing and tolerate the situation?
God’s relentless pursuit of us is always happening. You may be thinking, “No he doesn’t seek me. I don’t feel God’s presence ever, or hardly ever. But re you seeking him? Think about how Jesus showed up in his pursuit of the woman at the well. He was there in the midst of her everyday life. In fact he was already there at the well when she got there.
Where are the places in your everyday life that Jesus is waiting for you? Where are the places you go that he might have always been waiting for you? In the morning when you have your coffee or tea and read the paper, is he on the other side of the table waiting for you to put the paper down and spend some time with him? When you’re driving somewhere, is he in the car hoping you’ll turn off the “talk radio” and talk to him instead? When you are at your desk going through your bills and scratching your head, isn’t he is just waiting for you to talk with him about how you are going to make these due dates. We have to train ourselves to recognize when he is right there, trying to get our attention.
When the woman gets to the well, Jesus asks her to give him a drink. He could have started the conversation with the “I know you’ve been with 6 men,” supernatural knowledge thing. Or he could have started with the “I am the Messiah,” savior of the world thing. But instead, he humbly asks her for help. He was tired, thirsty and he has no way of getting water unless she consents to do for him what he cannot do for himself.
Culturally, Jesus was the one with all the power: he was a Jew, a man, and a Rabbi. Because he is the one from the dominant culture he is considered superior in every way to her. Spiritually, of course, he has all power. But, he approaches her in a manner that acknowledges her value and his need for her. He begins by looking beyond the things in her life that are wrong and sees her significance. That begins to change her perception of her own value. We need to learn from Jesus when we are trying to reach people far from God.
At first, she can’t believe her ears and says, “How can you, a man and a Jew ask me, a woman and a Samaritan for something to drink?” She had known all her life that a man like him believed that she was unclean trash. His simple request for something from her hand, was powerful and loving, especially because it would cost him socially and religiously. Not only does the request add dignity to her, it acknowledged that Jesus is genuinely giving her the right to make her own decision about how she will respond to him. Perhaps no other man in her life had empowered her like that.
Jesus is still empowering people today. He could change the world with one wave of his powerful arm, but he offers us the opportunity to partner with him. He shares his power with us so that we get the joy and blessing of working with him to make a difference in our world. If we look for it, he will show us that we are all—every single one of us—valuable to him, and to each one of us. He wants us to seek the value of others the way he sought and found this woman’s value.
As their conversation goes on, she is trying to figure him out. For every question she asks, he has a thoughtful, if not puzzling response. But she doesn’t give up on the conversation, and amazingly, neither does he.
How about us? When we read something in the Bible and it doesn’t make sense to us, do we give up, close the book and go watch TV? Or are we like the Samaritan woman. She kept asking her questions and the more she stayed engaged, the more Jesus revealed himself to her, and the more transformed she becomes by their shared experience together. That’s the way it is in our lives too. If we stay engaged, he will reveal himself to us more and more.
She is starting to see that there is something special about Jesus. When he starts talking about living water, she hardly has any idea what he is talking about, but there are two things she knows: this wonderful water was something to be desired, and he cares enough about her to give her some. Jesus does not want to give her the wrong impression about his feelings so he invites her to call her husband.
She answers, “I have no husband.” And, what Jesus says to her next is the most powerful, and the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to her. It’s the most powerful because Jesus shows his supernatural knowledge by telling her he knows she has had 5 husbands and that the 6th man she is with now is not her husband.
It is the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to her because of the words he uses to speak about this situation. Jesus doesn’t ignore her tarnished life, but instead of focusing on her miserable relationship patterns, he looks deeper and sees something beautiful about her. Did you hear what he says to her?
He says, you spoke honorably…you spoke truthfully about this. What Jesus sees in her was something to be honored—her truthfulness. Many translations miss this. Only the KJV comes close to translating the words the way they were inspired in the original language. Jesus is making a direct connection with the woman’s truthfulness and the fact that God is seeking true worshipers who will worship him in Spirit and truth. She certainly catches the fact that Jesus uses the same words to describe her, and the kind of worshipers God is seeking. Jesus sees a person who wants to become a truthful worshiper. Can you imagine how wonderful she must have felt?
You know, the way we see ourselves is like a ghost. It’s not something that is really seen, but it can cause a great deal of damage. These ghosts float around in our souls and tell us that we don’t deserve forgiveness and grace. That’s what had been going on in the Samaritan woman’s heart. The rejection of all these men had left deep, deep scars in her. She had defined herself by the horrible things that had happened in her life. But Jesus sought her out and redefined her.
And he can do that for us too. He can take the things that have hurt us, diminished us in our own eyes and in the eyes of others and he can completely transform us. The closer we get to Jesus the more clearly we hear him say, “I know you, and I love you.” Even if he has to say, “Yes that is sinful,” he never just leaves us there wallowing in our guilt and shame. He gives us the courage and the power to make right what can be made right, and to forgive ourselves and move on from what we cannot change.
By this point in our story, the Samaritan woman’s understanding of Jesus has progressed from his being a Jew, to sir, to greater than her ancestor Jacob, to a prophet. Now the only category left is Messiah. 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah, called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Did you know that there are only two instances when Jesus comes right out and tells someone he is the Messiah? He said it once in Mark 14: 62 to the high priest who was trying to kill him, and the only other time was to this Samaritan woman who was trying to understand him. She is also the only person to whom Jesus reveals that God is Spirit. He revealed these things to her because he trusted her to tell the world, and she did. That’s why we know these things.
What does Jesus need to tell the world through you? What is it that if Jesus doesn’t tell you, the world will never know it? What is the living water that can come only from the well that is in your heart?
The woman is so transformed now that what once seemed important before—collecting water—pales in comparison to her new occupation—dispensing living water! She came to the well thirsty, but once the living water of Christ began to flow through her, she rushed, like a river, into her town to bring that living water to the people. She was so completely and totally satisfied by Jesus that she could break free from all the things that had defined her. The people she once feared are now the people she seeks to save. That’s what happens to people who let themselves truly be seen by Jesus.
Jer. 29:12-13 says, ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
If you will seek Jesus, he will seek you right back! If you and I stay engaged in conversation with him he will reveal himself to us more and more. As that happens, the thirst that we have, which we are trying to slake with other things, will be more and more quenched by the Living Water of Christ. The more we are filled up, the more we will overflow with the power and love of Jesus, and the power of that living water will become like a rushing river that carries us in its current. Then we are able to accomplish things we never before thought possible. May today be the day we all start a new conversation with Jesus, and just see where it takes us. Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, culture-confronter, barrier-breaker, wreck-redeemer, speak to each one of us now. As we have listened in on your conversation with the woman at the well, help each one of us to see in her what we need to see in ourselves. Open our minds and open our hearts to see what you want to show us about how we have defined ourselves or let the world define is that is not in keeping with who you made us to me. Just as the Samaritan woman sought you by staying engaged in conversation with you, asking for clarification when she didn’t understand, help us to do the same. We ask this in your name Lord Jesus, Amen