Part 10 (1/2)

Our hearts sink too. Five husbands! No wonder she was so comfortable speaking with a strange man. How could any woman survive five husbands? Between warfare, famine, disease, pestilence, and fatal injury, men in those days didn't have lengthy life spans. Since a woman in that society was doomed to poverty or worse as a widow, it behooved her to keep remarrying.

Oh, but five weddings... Think of all the toaster ovens!

Clearly she wasn't a young woman, nor had life been kind to her. We can imagine the premature lines on her face, her skin leathered by the sun, her hands dotted with age spots and calluses. We can fathom the hope that was born in her heart five times, only to be crushed again and again, sending her on yet another search for someone to love her, support her, comfort her, and protect her.

Five husbands was one thing. Excessive but not illegal. But living with a sixth man who was not her husband...well, that was fornication. No getting around that.

”What you have just said is quite true.” John 4:18 Interesting that Jesus affirmed a second time that she'd spoken the truth. He did not accuse her of lying or twisting the facts. This wasn't one of those hairsplitting, ”it depends on what your definition of 'is' is” sort of debates. He was merely pointing out what was true, perhaps to give her the courage to admit what was not true.

So...did she confess her sin? Rend her garments? Reach for sackcloth and ashes? Beg for forgiveness? No way, not this feisty female. She looked Jesus straight in the eye and, denying nothing, offered an astute observation: ”Sir,” the woman said, ”I can see that you are a prophet.” John 4:19 Talk about your funny one-liners! This woman was ready for HBO or Showtime with that zinger. It's almost as laughable as Aaron's explanation to Moses of why he'd fas.h.i.+oned a golden calf in his brother's absence: ”They gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”2 Harrrr!

Like Aaron, this woman wasn't trying to be funny. She was merely grabbing for something, anything, that would divert attention from the sin that'd just been uncovered. I've done it myself. Caught with my hand in the cookie jar, as it were, I'll toss out some line meant to conceal my embarra.s.sment, which usually has the opposite effect-I end up drawing even more attention to my foolishness.

Notice that the Samaritan woman neither denied nor affirmed the Lord's prophetic word about the six men with whom she'd been intimate. Instead, she cleverly s.h.i.+fted their conversation in a completely different direction.

You're a prophet, eh? Then let's talk shop.

”Our fathers wors.h.i.+ped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must wors.h.i.+p is in Jerusalem.” John 4:20 Been there, honey. Before I knew Jesus as my Savior, if someone steered our conversation down a spiritual path, I veered off toward religion. Less personal, more debatable. It's always easier to talk about church than to talk about Christ.

Jesus had struck a nerve, so the woman reacted by pus.h.i.+ng him away using words that divided them (”our fathers” and ”you Jews”), concepts that were corporate (”wors.h.i.+p”) rather than personal, and places that were safely distant (”Jerusalem”) rather than frighteningly close. As close as her own soul.

The Lord might have been physically drained, but spiritually he was fully prepared to handle her diversionary tactics.

Jesus declared, ”Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will wors.h.i.+p the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” John 4:21 Note the strong language. ”Believe me, woman.” Ooh, I can hear that! Wake up and smell the coffee, sister. Jesus was trying to get her attention. And never mind Jerusalem or Samaria. The Father had another throne of wors.h.i.+p in mind altogether: her very human heart.

Even with his own agenda in mind, Jesus listened carefully to her questions and responded to them first.

”You Samaritans wors.h.i.+p what you do not know; we wors.h.i.+p what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” John 4:22 Oh, Lord, you name-dropper! Sneaked the word ”salvation” in there and pointed toward your very own name-Jesus, ”Jehovah is salvation.”

”Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true wors.h.i.+pers will wors.h.i.+p the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of wors.h.i.+pers the Father seeks.” John 4:23 The Father is not the only one who's in a seeking mode. This Samaritan sister-in-waiting had been watching the horizon herself.

The woman said, ”I know that Messiah” (called Christ) ”is coming.” John 4:25 Aha! The first mention of the Messiah-the Anointed One-and it came from her lips, not his own. Having pointed to the prophecy, she backed off again.

”When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” John 4:25 Had she grown weary of all the discourse? Was she suddenly anxious to dismiss both the topic and this stranger who knew too much, who saw too much? ”He'll fill us in when he gets here,” she insisted, perhaps thinking that would be the end of it.

Jesus refused to let her off the hook. Instead he did an extraordinary thing: He revealed his calling and his ministry to her.

Then Jesus declared, ”I who speak to you am he.” John 4:26 Wait, Lord! What were you doing? Casting your pearls before swine? She was a...she! And a Samaritan. And a fornicator! And she was...

Thirsty is what she was. Thirsty for the truth.

Jesus saw past her hardened exterior to the parched interior of her soul and ”respected her enough to fill her with the living water of faith.”3 What a storyteller the apostle John was. At this crucial point in the narrative, he suddenly s.h.i.+fted the spotlight to stage right.

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ”What do you want?” or ”Why are you talking with her?” John 4:27 Way to go, fellas. For once the disciples didn't insert their dusty feet firmly in their mouths. They were surprised, but bless them, they were quiet. Such questions would have ruined everything. A former Bad Girl was about to make the decision of her life.

Did she challenge this stranger who'd called himself-gasp!-the Messiah? Did she shake her water pot at his followers and label them fools?

No, she did not. She believed. Believed! Having made such a leap of faith, she abandoned her search for plain water.

Then, leaving her water jar... John 4:28 Like an old wineskin, that earthen jar couldn't begin to contain the refres.h.i.+ng water she'd just tasted. Did she leave it on purpose or simply forget it in the excitement of the moment? It doesn't matter. She'd discovered something better, which enabled her to leave her sinful life behind her, forgotten in the dust, and move on.

Filled with living water, she sought other thirsty souls, eager to offer them a drink too.

...the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ”Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” John 4:28-29 Yes, it could, woman!

I think of the evangelistic b.u.mper stickers in the midseventies that proclaimed, ”I Found It!” This woman must've been sporting a dozen of them, stuck all over her tunic. Not only had she found the gospel for herself, she wanted everyone else to find it.

”Come, see...”

Two things happen when we meet the Christ and see him for who he really is: (1) We confess our sins openly, and (2) we share the good news of forgiveness freely. That confession-testimony, if you will-comes effortlessly. It's the fragrant aroma of a heart set free.

After that, sharing with others the who-what-when-where-why is only natural. We'd call a friend if we discovered retired Beanie Babies on sale, right? Then why wouldn't we tell the whole world if we found the gift of grace at the best price-free?

People often ask how I can share my past without blus.h.i.+ng. No problem. The shame is gone because the sin has been forgiven and (thank you, Lord!) forgotten. As to sharing the gospel, I try not to make a nuisance of myself, but when joy bubbles up, it has to go somewhere.

Sometimes I manage to stifle it though, and then I am ashamed. On a live television appearance one December morning, the co-host turned to me with thirty seconds left in the show and said, ”Since you're an encourager, Liz, who encourages you?”

The door was wide open to share my faith. Did I smile and say, ”Jesus encourages me” or ”My trust in G.o.d gives me strength”? Oh, nooo. I was too worried about how that secular media personality might react, too concerned that I might look like some religious nut to the viewers.

Good grief, Liz, you are a religious nut! Why fight it?

Anytime I get my eyes off Christ and focus on myself, I'm in trouble. I drove home that gray winter morning, grieved and despondent, vowing I wouldn't ignore my next opportunity to gently, firmly honor G.o.d publicly.

The woman at the well didn't wait for a door to swing open; she kicked it down herself. ”Come, see...” Why did the men of her city listen to her, a woman with a shady lifestyle? Simple: She had seen the Christ. Now the people of Sychar saw the Christ in her.

A changed life gets people's attention every time.

They came out of the town and made their way toward him. John 4:30 Here they came, a little knot of people, expectant, even apprehensive. All their lives they had heard the centuries-old prophecies about the Messiah. Was it really him? What did he look like, sound like, act like? And what was he doing in their neighborhood?