When She Met Jesus

John 4:6-30
​
Something happens when a person meets Jesus.  A person who really truly meets Jesus - he or she is no longer the same.
 
When we meet Jesus there is a transformation starting from within the heart, mind, body, even the soul.   When we meet Jesus our lives change.   I know for a fact that when I met Him my life changed. Thank God for the change!  As we will see there was this woman, she had an opportunity to meet Jesus and her life was changed.
 
As our passage starts in verse 6, Jesus here is talking with this woman of Samaria.  At that time the Jews and the Samaritans didn’t have any dealings with each other.  The Samaritans were a mixed race of people and the Jews didn’t have anything to do with them.
 
But at this time Jesus “being weary in His journey”, as we read in the scriptures, said to this woman “Give me to drink”.   The woman said, to paraphrase, Hey, you are a Jew and you are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for something to drink?
 
And Jesus, basically He says if you knew who I was you would ask of me and I would give you this living water. The woman goes on to say “Sir you have nothing to draw with”.   You see this woman was talking physically but Jesus was talking spiritually.  She said the well is deep and you don’t even have a bucket, you don’t even have a jug to let down into the well to draw the water.  How are you going to give me this living water? 
 
This woman is still thinking physically, she doesn’t realize that Jesus is not talking about water from this well.  She tells Jesus “Give me this water…”.  Jesus goes on to tell her in the 16th verse “Go call thy husband…”
 
In a sense Jesus says:  Woman, now if you really want this living water - if you really want it - you go and call your husband and bring him.
 
What a curious exchange.  When the woman says “I have no husband”, Jesus points out to her: You’re right, you have had five husbands and the one that you have now is not yours.   The woman goes on to say to Him “Sir I perceive that you are a prophet”.  Why did she say He was a prophet?  Because He told the truth.
 
After their exchange the woman left her water pot and went back into the city.  She dropped her water pots and left.  I look at it that when she dropped her water pots she became an evangelist.
 
She became a missionary.   She goes back into the city and she tells the men “Come see a man.”  Come see a man that has told me all things.    This woman (some might even look at her as a prostitute) goes back into the city and tells these men, and the men they come out to hear.
 
Jesus’ disciples came and they asked Hey, what are you doing talking with that woman? She’s a Samaritan!   In the previous chapter Jesus had said, “I must … go through Samaria” because He knew there was a need. 
 
See a lot of times - when you are talking about reaching across barriers, reaching people on the other side of the tracks, on the other side of the fence, or down in the alley - a lot of times we don’t want to go.  We don’t want to go down there because the boys down there are wearing their britches down.  The girls are wearing short skirts and toting babies on their hips.   We don’t want to go down there around the gang bangers and down in the hood and where those folks are that have no hope.   
 
But we see here Jesus is reaching across the barriers – reaching this woman that the other Jews didn’t want anything to do with.  Even the people there in the city, the other women didn’t have anything to do with her.  When she came to draw water she came in the middle of the day and she was by herself.
 
During that time when the women came to the well they came in the afternoon in a group.   But she was like an outcast - she was someone they didn’t have anything to do with, because of her reputation.  But we see Jesus reaching across, breaking down that barrier.
 
Jesus is winning souls.  If we are going to win souls we are going to have to reach across racial and denominational barriers.  We are going to have to reach over there because that’s what Jesus did and that’s what he’s calling the church to do right now, today.
 
The topic is “When She Met Jesus”.  There are people this morning brothers that are on the other side of the tracks, living that life, that need to know Jesus.   I’ve seen it on my way to church.   On our way to church you see families sitting on the porch - you see children playing in the yard.   They need Jesus too.  Folks in Metro Jail, they need Jesus.  People across the tracks, they need Jesus.  People like this woman - this woman needed salvation.  Jesus knew she was coming, that’s why He was at the well.  He was waiting on her.  He’s sitting on the well this morning, waiting on somebody to come.  Jesus is waiting. Have you met Jesus?
~ J. T.