Come see a man

Crash Course 4

            “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.”

           

             Back up an hour or more. A woman comes to the town’s well in the heat of the day to get the water needed for her cooking and household chores. She comes alone because Sychar’s other women accomplished this task hours earlier in the cool of the new morning.

           

             Jesus shows up, also alone, having sent his guys to buy food. Jesus and the woman have a lively conversation about customs, history, theology, the messiah, and her personal life.

      He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

      “I have no husband,” she replied.

      Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

        ^“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. (John 4:16 – 19, NIV)

           

            Would that be my response to a stranger who knew the personal details of my life? 

            In the movies, hit men are hired to silence those who know too much. In politics, candidates drop out of races when something unsavory is revealed from their past.

           

            Somehow the woman didn’t feel threatened by Jesus’ knowledge of her. Instead, she wanted her neighbors to also experience the love without condemnation that can only come from God. 

            That’s the love Christ gives us. That’s the love he wants us to offer to others.

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
John 4:29