In John 4, Jesus breaks Jewish custom and goes through Samaria to get back to Galilee. While there, he breaks custom again and speaks to a Samaritan woman. “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9), yet Christ walks through their cities and speaks to their women. Jesus was truly human in every sense of the word, but I think it’s safe to say that His decision to walk through Samaria had less to do with needing a shortcut and more to do with the woman He went there to meet. He is also truly God, and God does all that He does with a specific, sovereign purpose in mind. God has no accidents and God does nothing at random. Jesus went to Samaria for a reason, and the significance of His encounter with the woman leads me to believe that she was the reason. After all, we know that God goes out of His way to find a single lost sheep, coin, or child (Luke 15).

The story gets more interesting, however. God does go out of His way for a single lost sheep. But God is “playing chess, not checkers”, so to speak. Oftentimes, one sheep is not one sheep, one coin is not one coin, and one son is not one son. God likes to use His people in powerful ways. He is the kind of God who grows mighty things out of a single mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32). More on that later. The story is also made more interesting by the fact that the Samaritan woman, we find out quickly, was living a rather promiscuous life, and had been doing so for quite some time. Again, though Jesus was truly human in every sense of the word, we know that He was not there to flirt, for He was without sin. He was there to see her, it is true, but not to get something out of her. He was there to give something: living water (v. 10), everlasting life (v. 14), and the true Messiah (v. 25-26). He was there, in other words, to evangelize. He was there to preach the gospel. He does this in the standard format: You are a sinner (v. 16-18), salvation is available to you (v. 10-15, 21-24), and it comes through Me (v. 10-15, 25-26).

Notice how much time Jesus spends on each portion of this evangelistic encounter. There are 3 verses about her sin and 12 about salvation through Christ. Of course, the “sinner” part of the equation is essential. Confession of sin is a necessary precursor to salvation and an integral part of growing in holiness. However, in both evangelism and Christian sanctification, it is not primary. Though it comes first in order of events, it does not come first in order of importance. This is because we are not of primary importance, Christ is. Our sin is therefore not of primary importance, Christ’s grace is. As Robert Murray M’Cheyne so beautifully said, “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ”.

In Evangelism, things are no different. When the woman leaves, she goes straight into the city to tell others about what has just happened to her. She says, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” The people then go to Christ, convince Him to stay with them for two days, and “many of the Samaritans of that city believed”. One lost sheep is not one lost sheep. In the plan of God, one becomes many. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, this woman is immediately moved to go share her testimony, and because of that many believe. She evangelizes, and she evangelizes like Christ. Just as Jesus pointed the Samaritan woman continually to Himself, she goes out into the city like “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness” (John 1:23). She was not the focal point of her story, Jesus was. Like John the Baptist, she is “not that light” but bears “witness of that Light” (John 1:8).

The most powerful portion of her testimony were the first two words: “Come, see”. This is the same message that Philip gives to Nathaniel (John 1:46) and that the angels give to Mary at the tomb (Matt. 28:6). It is the same message that you and I should be sharing anytime we want to evangelize. Come and see. At the end of the story of the Samaritan woman, the people in the city explicitly state why they came to believe. They say to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the World” (John 4:42). They are not won over by persuasive arguments or powerful conversion stories. They are won over by seeing and hearing Christ Himself. If you want to be effective in sharing the gospel, you must say with John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The greatest testimony you can ever give is the testimony of the woman at the well: Come and see our glorious Savior.

“Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues.  It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence.  Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all.  While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance.  The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.
– A.W. Tozer

Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash