Death of a Salesman

    One interpretation of this Samaritan encounter floated in “sales-pressure evangelism” circles some time back. It went something like this:

    Jesus asked for water. The woman became curious and was disarmed by Jesus’ request. When Jesus saw that he had her interest, he manipulated the water bit around to living water. The woman grew more curious. Finally, curiosity made her vulnerable, and Jesus zapped her with a trick question about her husband. She ducked her eyes and tried to dodge the question with a half-true answer. “I have no husband.”

    Then Jesus sprang his trap, caught her in her dishonesty, and said, “You are right. You have had five husbands, and the one you’re living with now isn’t really your husband at all,” as if to say, “Aha! Gotcha! You are not only a multiple-affair adulteress, you are also a liar!” At this point, realizing she had been trapped, the woman tried to wiggle out by changing the subject. She posed a theoretical religious question about which temple is the true temple. But it was too late. Jesus nailed her!

    Now I ask you, does this sound like something Jesus would do?

“Leaving her water jar...”

    I find it hard to believe that Jesus crossed his fingers behind his back while asking this woman for a cup of water! It’s even more difficult to imagine Christ viewing her as a “spiritual trophy” and the water as bait. No, he saw a person precious to God, a stooped and beaten woman with an authentic heart, and he offered her a fragment of acceptance. By asking for a cup of water, Jesus was saying, “I don’t feel the way others do. Your race, your religion, your gender, your past-these don’t matter to me. You are a person. You mean something to me. In fact, I need your help! Could you give me a drink of water?” This account doesn’t imply the emotional brutality that many suggest. Skip down to the result of Jesus’ conversation. We find this stirring response: “Leaving her water jar, 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).

    Does she act like a woman who has just been caught lying about her sordid past? Just been snared in the trap of her own embarrassing failures? Why would someone who had just been humiliated by a total stranger run to praise that stranger to her family and neighbors?

    And, be honest now, if the town tramp ran up to you and said, “Guess what? I just met a guy at the well who told me every bad secret I was hiding. Come meet him so he can do the same for you.” Do you think you and the whole town would rush out to the well? Not likely! Right? But John says the whole town went out to see him.

    What happened then? The key that unlocks this story is found beside the well: the abandoned water jar. And, somehow, I don’t think she ever retrieved the thing. She had no more need to water the last dry sticks of a dead-end relationship. The abandoned jar speaks eloquently. It says that Jesus stirred a slumbering hope to its feet. It declares that this wounded woman found a joy so deep that she forgot to do what she came to do and took off to tell everyone the news, “The Messiah is here!” Instead of lugging heavy jars of tepid water to the house of a demanding human sponge, she piped in living water to all the hearts of a grateful, thirsty village.

 

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Excerpted from The Jesus Touch, ©2002, Howard Publishing Company. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Title: "The Abandoned Water Jar, Part 6"
Author: Lynn Anderson
Publication Date: August 29, 2002