come and see - john 4:5-42

Saint Patrick of Ireland understood John 4. This missionary lived in the 5th Century and through his service to the country he became known as “the Apostle of Ireland”. What made Patrick such a wonderful evangelist was his desire to truly get to know people, to build relationships with them, and through those relationships come to share Christ. 

Building a relationship is exactly what Jesus did that day at the well. He came across someone who didn’t know him - didn’t know of his fame. When he looked at this woman, he saw her brokenness, it was etched on her weary face. It was demonstrated in the fact that she was coming to the well at the hottest point in the day, when no one else would be there. But he told her that he would like a cup of water. 

Jesus was reaching out to this woman across so many barriers. By all social standards he shouldn’t have been talking to her. She was a woman. He was a man. She was a Samaritan. He was a Jew. She was a sinner. He was the Messiah. But Jesus didn’t see all of the differences when he looked at her with his compassionate eyes. By asking her for water, he affirmed that she was worthy, no matter what others may say.

As with most people when they first encountered Jesus, the woman didn’t understand. She didn’t know who he was. She simply though he was a stranger in need of a drink. The woman also didn’t understand that this stranger was about to turn her life upside down and offer her the living water, the water of grace, that she had never tasted before. 

Over a cup of water the woman and Jesus start to get to know each other. However, she only tells him half truths about who she is, what her life is like, where her husband is. But Jesus, Jesus reveals the whole truth to her. The transforming truth. The Truth that she has been hiding from in the middle of the day. Because they built a relationship across and despite their differences, this woman became an evangelist. Leaving behind her water jug. Leaving behind her burdens. And runs to tell the very people that she had been avoiding to come and see. The woman met the One who could offer her living water and she moved to deep belief, from darkness to light, from being parched to having her thirst quenched. And from being ashamed to being one who proclaimed.

This is one of my favorite texts in the Gospels. It tells the story of someone who was a nobody in everyone else’s eyes who was deeply loved by Jesus. What a reminder for us as the Church, the hands and feet of Christ, to not let our hearts and eyes judge others, for our tainted natures may not see people as Jesus sees them. This text is good news for anyone who ever felt like a nobody. Ever felt like no one understood them. Or they didn’t belong. Or weren’t good enough. This text tells of Jesus’ heart which desires to be in relationship with us, no matter how other people label us or treat us.

When I was in seminary we had to teach an interactive Bible Study for one of my classes. This particular class was taught by a professor who believed in the power of story. So much so that when it came time for us to present the text, she encouraged us to let it speak for itself. The text my particular group was assigned was this one - John 4. We asked a friend of ours to dance her interpretation of the story. And it brought tears to my eyes. Watching her dance first as a defeated woman, who met Jesus and through his love, became who Jesus saw her being. Friends, that is a powerful story. One that needs to be told.

This text is good news for anyone who has ever felt ashamed of their sins. This woman was carrying around the weight of the world. She had five husbands in a day and age where having two husbands would have been taboo. And now she was living with another man without being married to him, which was unheard of. She was so ashamed that she changed her daily routine in order to avoid the gossiping tongues and wayward glances of other women at the well. Remember that this was a social society. You needed other people to survive. And she was isolating herself because of her shame. 

But Jesus met her shame with honesty. He brought her sins into the light, not to condemn her but to set her free. When Jesus told her what she did, she was emboldened to run to the towns people and say “come and see this man who told me everything I’ve ever done.” Paraphrased it could be “come and see the one who has told me everything I’ve been too ashamed to face, but loves me anyway.” Jesus can take our shame and transform it by his grace into perhaps our most powerful evangelistic tool - our own story. The story of how our lives have been impacted by the love of Jesus Christ. Transformed by a grace that we have to go and tell about, because we cannot contain ourselves. 

This text is also good news for those who believe in Christ but still are blind to his ways. The disciples return to find Jesus chatting at the well with a woman and they are confused. Confused about why he would do this. And confused by what he tells them next about the harvest being ready. In an agricultural society everyone would have known that the harvest was four months away - so why was Jesus telling them that it was ripe now? Because he saw something they did not. He saw that the harvest of God - the people ready to hear and respond to the love of God - was ripe right in front of their eyes. The disciples didn’t understand about this harvest or that Jesus was the bread of life. The were like the world that couldn’t fully know Christ because they didn’t realize what they were seeing, even though they were his closest companions.

Church sometimes we miss the point and don’t see with the eyes and motives of Christ either. We foolishly seek out relationships just to covert people and then forget about them. We forget to see people as children of God and love them solely for this reason alone. We go around proclaiming with our words and actions “Jesus is the Messiah and you should believe in him now or else” when we forget that Jesus didn’t even approach people that way when he was alive. Instead he built authentic relationships marked by love that lead to discipleship. Lead to others spreading his message because their loves had been touched and transformed. 

The word “Gospel” means good news, and brothers and sisters, this story is overflowing with the good news of Jesus love and grace. Good new for the outcasts, the nobodies, the misunderstood. Good news for those carrying around the weight of shame. And good news for those who believe in Jesus but just cannot see as he sees. This story has the power to teach each and everyone of us, if only we let it sink into us, search us, and send us out with our own story of how we came to know and love Jesus Christ. What is the good news of this story in your life? Amen.