Declare All Things

Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:9)

"You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" (v. 12)

The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. (v. 19)

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." (v. 25-26)

As I put these verses together it becomes very obvious the quick progression of awareness this woman has of the true identity of the person she is talking to. First she sees him only as a man and a Jew who is acting quite out of character for a Jew or a man in their culture. Then almost immediately she begins to suspect that this man might be greater and more important that she first thought. Next she declares that she believes that He is a prophet which is quite a bold statement for someone to make. But to her astonishment she is not left to stop there even with that wild of a guess. She is challenged to go yet another step and be confronted with the most ultimate claim a person could ever believe – that this man before her is nothing less that the great God of the universe Himself, the Messiah sent to earth to save people from sin and evil and destruction.

I wonder what she might have said if the disciples had not shown up just at that moment. It seems rather clear to me that she immediately felt rather intimidated again once these men of seemingly dull understanding and still bearing an obvious amount of prejudice suddenly intruded on their intimate conversation. She no longer felt free to continue her compelling dialogue with Jesus, but by that time she had enough information and inspiration to send her racing back to her own town to unleash a surprise attack of compelling news that she felt sure would induce others to want to meet this man for themselves.

But if she had just had a little more time alone with Jesus I still wonder what she might have expressed. Maybe she would have repeated her previous statement with more revision. “I perceive now that you are indeed more than a prophet – you are the Messiah that we have been waiting for for so long.” And what more she might have said could have been quite interesting if she had just been given the chance. But of course, that was not to be given the sudden shift in mood and atmosphere caused by the appearance of the other men who were clueless about what was going on.

But there is another interesting thing I notice here. When Jesus shared with her His awareness of her marital situation much to her astonishment and embarrassment, later on this very issue became the central theme of her own evangelistic effort back in town with those who knew her all too well. It had also been the turning point that caused her to advance her own perception of Jesus' identity from just a prejudiced male Jew to that of a prophet.

But Jesus wanted to take her much further. He had offered her living water and she was already beginning to drink of it. Then as she responded positively in that experience she was thrilled to hear His amazing words about real religion, how God was not prejudiced like all the religious people she knew and that God might actually care about her just as passionately as He cared about anyone else on earth. This was indeed very thrilling to her soul and she was already beginning to feel the healing and life and refreshment as she absorbed more living water from this amazing man.

But Jesus still wants to take her to the ultimate destination in her faith. He sees that she is possibly the most open-minded and receptive person He has ever met yet up to this point which allows Him to share with her things that He cannot yet share with anyone else because of their unbelief and narrow-mindedness. He is permitted to introduce Himself to her as the very Messiah that she has just described to Him in her own words and from her own perception.

I find it interesting that she describes the Messiah as a person whom she expects to declare all things to people when He shows up. What did she mean by this statement? What does it mean to declare all things? And what was it about Jesus that suddenly struck her as fitting that description exactly much to her overwhelmed amazement and excitement?

Evidently the words of Jesus that showed that He knew her background and her life had not only caught her off guard at first but also served to confirm for her the truth of His identity at the end of this conversation. It suddenly struck her that her own predictions about what the Messiah would do had just happened to her personally and she had overlooked it up to this point. What had initially been her cause of fear, shame and embarrassment was transformed to become the very evidence that could confirm in her own heart the truth about the claim of this man sitting before her. She had just said that the Messiah would declare all things when He came and she suddenly realized with a jolt that Jesus had done just that already. It was her moment of truth, her epiphany that transformed her life from a marginalized woman afraid to be around other people in her community to a compelling evangelist that couldn't keep quiet if she tried.

This story has far more truth and insights into the nature of God and His relationships with us than is seen on the surface description. So much more was going on in this conversation than just the words being spoken. Hearts were communicating with each other, spirits were being informed and were interacting and changing, thoughts and emotions were racing in a whirl and everything from this woman's whole life experience suddenly coalesced together to make perfect sense and bring her intense joy. The immediate reaction of this woman and the subsequent effects of her testimony is not seen very often and is evidence of a far deeper encounter with God than the simple words recorded here in Scripture might convey.

As I sat down here this morning to meet with God again I told Him that I want much more than to just learn fascinating information about this story. I am hungry to experience myself what this woman experienced; I want to have my own dramatic conversion encounter with a personal Messiah; I want to have my own heart supercharged with an infusion of the very passion of the God who loves me and gave His life for me to love Him in return. I want much, much more than a correct intellectual understanding of the Bible as important as that is; I want the healing and transformation that will take over my whole life and turn me into what others might view as a raving fanatic sharing the kind of love that makes little to no sense to those who have never tasted it. I want to become drunk with this living water and the wine of the Holy Ghost. God, hear my heart's desire and come to meet me where I am just as You found this woman where she was.