Sensing the Sync

"Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" (John 4:29)

I have always had a sense that these words have much deeper meaning than what they seem to be saying on the surface. It just doesn't fit or resonate that because Jesus said a few things about this woman's past that suddenly she was ready to believe that He was a prophet or the Messiah. This is actually one of the means of deceiving many people into believing and trusting in another person and accepting undo control over their mind and conscience.

Just because someone can surprise you with information about your private life that you were sure no one else knew anything about does not warrant implicit trust in that person's authority in your life. It is so easy to feel that if someone can blindside you by revealing the hidden things in your life that they must have the supernatural insights gifted to them by God and so they must be trusted in whatever else they may teach you or ask you to do. This line of reasoning is actually used to gain and keep control over the lives of many people in churches where this practice is used as the basis of asserting authority. But in reality the leaders of those kinds of groups are not really in sync with the true Spirit of heaven.

This is why I have probably felt uneasy about viewing this statement by this woman in the way that it is often presented – as a proof that her faith in Jesus was based primarily in His ability to expose what she thought was hidden from Him. Just because she stated her confidence in Him using these words is not enough to justify making this technique a valid way of proving authority. She chose these words partly because she may have felt this would have the greatest impact in arousing the interest of others who did know her past, but partly I believe it was because this was her way of expressing something that might actually have been more accurately expressed in a slightly different way. The accuracy of her language is not nearly so important as the passion and belief that compelled her to speak what she did.

I have not seen this in this passage before today, but what I now am starting to sense in these words is that this woman felt that Jesus understood her all of heart, could really understand and sympathize with her deepest longings and emotions and was the first man she had ever met that she felt like she could synchronize with at the deepest levels of her soul. Her life history showed that she was seeking for fulfillment, love, satisfaction and connection in ways that repeatedly ended in frustration of those desires. She was now living in a relationship that seemed to be a signal of defeat, a reluctant surrender to hopelessness and a resignation to the reality that she would likely never experience what her heart really yearned to feel.

And into this time of her life, into this emotional place of spiritual resignation and defeat, Jesus breaks into her emotional and spiritual life with the most stunning revelation of love, acceptance, understanding and compassion beyond anything she had come to believe could be a part of her life. Jesus suddenly offered her absolutely everything that she had ever longed for in her soul and all in just a very few minutes of conversation. It was not just the words that He spoke to her but much more the whole experience of love and kindness and respect and compassion that emanated from His whole being while they were together. Jesus was far more than anyone could ever condense into words and so her explanation to her fellow citizens was simply a crude attempt to convey in words what simply could never be put into language.

Just as Jesus' real message can never be comprehended by simply looking at the words that He spoke to her, I suspect that the dramatic effect of this woman's words on her fellow townspeople likewise cannot be appreciated by simply analyzing the content of her simple few words. Her whole body and facial expressions and tone of voice projected much, much more than her words could ever convey by reading them from a page. The clear message that was unavoidable, that generated such intense interest by so many people had little to do with the words she said and far more to do with the rest of her expressions. They knew who this woman was and what she was like, so what they now saw in her demeanor and expression was so radically opposite from what they had known before that they could not suppress their reaction to find out what had caused such a dramatic change.

She used to be covered with shame. Now she was bold and confident and unafraid.

She used to slink around and avoid looking at anyone. Now she was in their face and smiling contagiously.

She used to be intimidated by what everyone thought of her. Now she was obsessed with what some stranger outside of town thought of her.

She used to be easily manipulated and intimidated by a simple word or look. Now she was unflappable and confident.

She used to seem depressed and hopeless and had nearly given up on life. Now she was contagiously optimistic, full of hope and joy.

The dramatic change was so unmistakable that everyone had to investigate the cause. But why? What is it about someone's dramatic change in demeanor that causes others to feel so compelled to want to experience something similar for themselves?

Because at heart we all really crave the very same things. It is true that many people project an appearance of having it all together, of confidence and assurance and peace. But deep inside sin has left us all groping for something better and grappling with unmet cravings for love and acceptance. It is just that many of us have accrued all sorts of other means to subdue these cravings, to medicate them, to numb their effect in our souls. But the hunger remains no matter what we have done in reaction to it. And the hunger will always be there to haunt us until we truly encounter the same Man that this woman encountered.

But when we do encounter Him in such a way that we are synchronized with Him, in a way that causes us to realize that He can lock in to our needs, can understand our deepest longings and has everything that we need and want in life, we too may suddenly explode with irrepressible joy and contagious exuberance and an unstoppable desire to splash around in the living water that brings such deep inner fulfillment to our hearts. We will want to throw buckets of this water on others who we know are just as thirsty as we were so they can begin to taste real life and come to drink from the same fountain of real joy that we have finally encountered.

Come, meet a man like I have never known before.

Come, meet the man of my dreams – and of your dreams too.

Come, meet a man that can not only expose what you thought was hidden from everyone but will in that exposing only relate to you in perfect love, understanding, compassion and grace.

Come, meet the real man who is like no other man I have ever met.

Come, meet the only man who can show you what God is really like.

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (Matthew 11:28 John 5:40 NRSV)