I recently spent some time reading through Luke with a friend. While doing so I noticed that 2 of my favorite Gospel passages are not in Luke. Those passages are the woman at the well in John 4 and the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25. I have had the opportunity to preach on both of these passages multiple times, and I am truthfully kind of amazed I haven’t written a blog about either yet.
So, here we go!
Let’s start with the mind-blowing fact that John 4 comes after John 3. Crazy, I know! BUT it is significant. In John 3 a pharisee named Nicodemus sneaks out to talk with Jesus. Nicodemus starts asking Jesus all of these questions about the kingdom of heaven. In this conversation we get the famous John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
Notice anything? Why didn’t Jesus say, “For God so loved the world that He gave ME”?!? Jesus went out of His way to make sure that He didn’t reveal His Messianic identity to Nicodemus. Seems like He missed an opportunity, right? I mean Nicodemus is a known, well-respected leader. If you get Nicodemus on your side, you can fill stadiums. So, why would Jesus do that? We’ll get there!
Fast forward to John 4, and we have an opportunity that Jesus doesn’t miss. Granted it is an opportunity that seems way less “worth” it on the surface.
Jesus goes out of His way to go to a well in Samaria. He comes across this random woman. There is a long list of cultural reasons for why Jesus shouldn’t have engaged with this woman. She was a Samaritan; He was a Jew. She was a woman; He was a man. On and on. But like normal, Jesus didn’t give a flip about cultural norms. He starts a conversation with her.
Side note: There is a truth in that for us. It is so easy to give Jesus 95% control of our lives. It is so easy to say, “Jesus you can do whatever You want… as long as it isn’t weird or uncomfortable”. But following Jesus will cause you to step into uncomfortable, “weird” things. This woman’s life didn’t end up getting changed forever because of morality. Every single religion agrees on a universal standard of morality… it is the same across the board. Be kind, selfless, generous, humble, etc. But guess what? There is a HUGE problem with that standard of morality… that problem is that you and me have failed miserably at measuring up to it! And in the entire expanse of religion there is only one person that offers any help for that fact. There is religion after religion that will tell you that you have to just work harder. There are religions that will tell you that God just forgives everyone at the end of the day. But the only answer for this glaring problem is that He who knew no sin became sin. That Jesus traded His life for mine!
This woman’s life also didn’t get changed because of perfect logic. Her life was changed forever because someone loved her enough to jump across cultural boundaries. What LOVE?!
Jump forward into their conversation and things seem to be going so well. Jesus is imparting secrets of the kingdom to this woman. It is the easiest Gospel presentation ever. This woman literally asks how she can get this living water that Jesus is talking about. Then out of nowhere Jesus says something weird. He tells this woman to go call her husband. If you know anything about this woman, you know that things couldn’t have gone worse for her in that moment. For once a man cared about her. For once a man respected her. For once a man was speaking to her as an equal, and then this unbearable weight of shame comes crashing forward.
This woman responds by trying to hide. She tries to put the best possible twist on the situation. She tells Jesus that she doesn’t have a husband. Jesus tells her that what she said is true, she doesn’t have a husband… but in fact she has had 5 husbands, and the man she is currently living with isn’t even her husband.
Pause: Seems harsh right? Here is the truth. You will never be able to come to Jesus with a mask on. You will never be able to approach Him by trying to hide behind half-truths. He will only meet with the real you. See Jesus wasn’t being cruel here. Jesus was being unbelievably loving in this moment. Jesus refused to let the Gospel just be some easy believe-ism. Jesus refused to let the Gospel be anything less than healing this woman’s deepest shame. Jesus loved her enough to make her face that deepest shame. He was after something much deeper. He needed this woman to know that He wanted ALL of her. Not just her presentable parts, but her broken/ugly parts too… EVERYTHING.
See, this woman isn’t actually who I bet you have been told she was. My whole life (up until about 2 years ago) I was told that this woman was a whore, jumping from man to man to man. That is so contextually inaccurate. This was a 1st century, middle-eastern woman. The penalty for her in divorce was death. If she tried to divorce a husband, she would quite literally be stoned to death. There is no chance that she had the political, or personal, freedom to divorce 5 men. This woman wasn’t a whore. This woman was a reject. 5 times she gave her everything… the fullness of her intimacy… to a man, and 5 times she was told that her everything wasn’t enough. She was kicked out by all 5 of those men. And the man she was currently living with didn’t even value her enough to make her his wife. He made her a servant. He said if you go get the water, you can sleep under my roof.
Resume: So, Jesus calls out this DEEP pain, insecurity, and shame. He looks straight at it and says, I want ALL of you. And what comes next is remarkable!
In the face of her deepest shame, she responds with this: “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem”.
This woman looks at Jesus, the man who just called out her deepest, darkest secrets… Secrets that she was trying so desperately to hide. This is why she was at the well at noon. That was the hottest part of the day, and would have made the work miserable. Water was normally gathered at sunrise. She was hiding… She looks at Jesus and says, “I can tell you can hear from God. My one question is this: How can I worship in a way that pleases Him?” Her question wasn’t selfish. It wasn’t what are the lottery numbers. It wasn’t theological. It wasn’t why do bad things happen to good people. It was personal. It was intimate. It was how can I worship in a way that brings a smile to God’s face.
And that is the key that unlocks what comes next.
The conversation continues. This woman says, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus responds with something WILD. He looks at this broken woman and says, “I who speak to you am He”.
This is the first person in all of scripture that Jesus reveals His Messianic identity to. It isn’t the disciples. It isn’t Nicodemus. It is this random woman at the well who had a heart to worship.
That is the difference between Nicodemus in chapter 3 and this woman in chapter 4. Nicodemus came wanting an academic understanding of Jesus. This woman faced her deepest shame and responded with a desire to know God intimately. Nicodemus wanted to know about God. This woman wanted to KNOW God.
Then, this woman goes running back to her town. She starts banging on doors saying, “I met a man who told me everything about myself. Come and see.” And this entire town gets saved. Like what?! This woman had no theology. She wasn’t educated. She wasn’t eloquent. She simply had a story of personally encountering Jesus, and that led to an entire town being saved.
And that FINALLY leads me to my point. This woman was the world’s first evangelist. The first person to say: here is Jesus, come and meet Him for yourself.
Evangelism isn’t having perfect theology that can back someone into a corner. Evangelism is sharing testimony. It is sharing how you have seen Jesus and inviting others to come meet Him for themselves. The Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:16). The beautiful news of that truth is that it isn’t my knowledge that is the power of God. It isn’t my eloquence. It isn’t how dramatic my story is. It is simply the Gospel itself that is the power of God to save.
This got longer than I thought it would (shocker!). I promise I will be brief with this other passage!
Matthew 25. The Parable of the 10 virgins. This story is of 10 women who are waiting for a bridegroom. 5 wise women had extra oil for their lamps. 5 foolish women didn’t. The bridegroom got delayed. The 5 foolish women ran out of oil and left to go to the market to buy more. While they were gone, the bridegroom arrived. He let the 5 wise women in, and the 5 foolish women missed out.
I always read that as just a warning to have my oil ready. To live with urgency. I think that is absolutely true, but I saw this passage in a new light (pun intended) a couple of years ago. And that is this:
What made those 5 women foolish wasn’t their lack of oil. What made them foolish was that they left the doorstep of the bridegroom. These 5 women ran out of oil and started comparing themselves. They thought, there is no way the bridegroom will ever look at me when he sees how brightly these other girls shine… how beautiful, smart, talented, gifted, etc they are. So, they left to go to the market to try and make themselves presentable. While they were trying to clean themselves up, they missed the bridegroom altogether.
What those 5 girls should have done is laid on that doorstep. They should have said, I know I might not be as gifted, talented, or beautiful as she is… but all that I have is yours!
Their foolishness wasn’t in their lack of oil. Their foolishness was that they didn’t trust in the sufficiency of the bridegroom to be able to provide oil for where they lacked.
My point is this: Evangelism isn’t about perfect logical understanding. Evangelism isn’t having every single answer. Evangelism isn’t waiting until you feel prepared, gifted, and eloquent enough. Evangelism is sharing your stories of how you have encountered Jesus, and inviting others to meet Him for themselves. Sometimes it is as simple as “I met a man who told me everything about myself” or “I don’t know. What I do know is that I was blind and now I see” (John 9). Evangelism is being okay with looking weird. Evangelism is being okay saying I don’t know. Evangelism is simply sharing your personal encounters with the Lord and inviting others to come see for themselves.
Don’t over-complicate it. Don’t sell yourself short in shame, or feelings of inadequacy. Jesus wants ALL of you! Are you willing to step through that fear/shame? Are you willing to take your mask off? Are you willing to share your story, no matter how insignificant you might think it is?
