Misunderstanding Jesus

The woman misunderstood Jesus on several levels, expressing them with questions. First, she could not understand why He asked her for a drink of water . . .

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:7–8)

Jesus came to her like He comes to everyone — offering living water, a euphemism for eternal life. Her question was also the question of many. It could have been phrased, “Why are you bothering with me for you consider me a sinner?” She didn’t understand that Jesus came not to condemn but to seek and save sinners.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:9–10)

She didn’t realize her part in this offer of eternal life, first of recognizing that this is a gift and second that this is God in human flesh offering it to her. Who better qualified? But she didn’t get it.

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:11–13)

She thought that the offer was about temporary things, the good life here on earth with others willing to help her get it. How many people think God is like this, a genie in a bottle to grant their wishes? She didn’t understand this either.

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13–14)

Now Jesus speaks directly to the nature of the gift and that water is really a metaphor for eternal life. She is starting to get it . . .

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:15)

But she is still thinking on the temporal level, about life here on earth. The eternal life part is beyond her grasp. What truth does she yet need to realize before she understands?

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. (John 4:16–19)

She, like all of us, first had to grasp and understand that she is a sinner in need of a Savior. As soon as she could see that, she was on her way to understanding who Jesus is and that her situation was far more important than water. She turned her thinking to worship and heard Him describe true worship. As the conversation went on, she finally got it. She dropped her water jar and ran to tell the people in her town that she had found the Christ.

I never noticed before the sequence in her confusion and enlightening. Jesus made the offer, but she didn’t get it until He pointed out her need for it. She was a sinner. Her thirst for water was a tiny picture of her thirst for love, for life, for completeness. She needed forgiveness and all that Jesus could offer her.

^^^^^^^^

Lord, I know this woman. I know the confusion and the thirst, the questions and that final revealing of my sin. You came to me and changed my life. Since then, I’ve been trying to explain it to others who go through the same misunderstanding and confusion. But only the Holy Spirit can convict of sin. I am able to accuse, but that is not what You want from me. It doesn’t work. I get it. Thank You.