“Come and see…” (John 4:29)
Have you ever been so over-the-top excited about something that you couldn’t keep quiet about it?
When I went to Disneyland for the first time in my life last year, it was the third happiest experience of my life (the first being when I said “I do” to Jesus, the second when I said “I do” to my king). Don’t get me wrong, there have certainly been other happy moments in my 45 years of living, lots, but there was something magical about the day I stepped foot onto Disneyland. The moment I ran into Mickey for the first time. The thrill of seeing all the Disney characters. The joy of seeing so many happy people serving in one place. The thought that in the midst of a world full of chaos and pain and suffering, there was this place that could bring tears of joy from within your soul. The parades. The fireworks. The songs. The happiness. The magic of it all was overwhelming to say the least.
I’m not saying those are the precise emotions this dear woman felt, and I for sure don’t mean to compare Disneyland to Jesus (although I do believe Disneyland will be in the back yard of my house He is building for me in heaven :-), but I can only imagine how overwhelmed the Samaritan woman was at the joy that was in her heart, in spite of her life. This sense of purity in the midst of her wallowing in a 6th relationship with someone who wasn’t even her husband. So much so, she couldn’t keep her sin, or the incredible news that she had been washed from her sin, to herself!
Not only did this woman run into town and tell everyone she could to “Come and see…”, she said to them, with no shame, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did” (v. 29)! She was aware the people in town already knew some of what she had done. You can’t really hide the fact that you have been with 6 different men; but she also knew there were things they didn’t know, couldn’t know, and in that moment, she let them all know…”There is a man who told me everything I did, and He has given me a kind of water that no longer leaves me thirsty for the things of this world! You gotta come and see…”
My first thought was that no one would listen to her. She had no credibility. To say it bluntly, she was the town harlot and I can bet many had their opinion about her because that is what we do. We see the outward actions of people, with no consideration toward the inward condition of their heart; the size of the gaping hole and deep wounds that have been generated from a life of self-hate, insecurity, hurt, pain and suffering…we give no thought to the things that might have contributed to some of their behavior and we judge them. We look down on them and we certainly will not listen to them. But this time; Jesus had so impacted the least likely of all the people in the village, He so changed her entire being that the people saw her and “…came streaming from the village” (v. 30) to see who she was talking about. Who in the world was at the well that could have such an impact on such a woman?
What would happen if you were to run into your job, or into the midst of your family, or into the midst of your city and shout, “Come and see!” Would people come streaming in to see what or who you were talking about, or would they look at you and laugh?
Oh dear ones, how I desperately pray our lives are so significantly and radically different from this world that people will want to come streaming to the well of LIFE! Fear no longer dear ones, fear no longer and run back to where God sends you, with a humble heart of love and kindness and cry out, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did and has left me thirsty no more!”
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