The Prophet

The power of testimony cannot be underestimated when we think of how the gospel spreads. The Samaritan woman in John 4 is an example to all of us when it comes to explaining to others who Jesus is. She wasn’t a theologian or religious leader. It appears that she wasn’t even a moral person. But after having encountered Jesus in the most ordinary of settings she had to tell others her experience. As a result, many of the Samaritans believed in Him.

Jesus set out from Judea to journey north to Galilee. He could have taken a longer route to get there to avoid the Samaritans, “for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (4:9)”, but Jesus knew what He was about to do. He took a break at Jacob’s well in a city in Samaria called Sychar, which was known at the time to be a city of drunkards. From the rigors of the trip he was weary and thirsty, and by divine appointment, as a Samaritan woman approached the well, Jesus asked her to draw some water for Him to drink. She seemed amazed that He would even speak to her. He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan. And not just a Samaritan, but also a woman. That He would engage with a Samaritan woman astounded her.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.
John 4:24

But even more astounding is that this weary, thirsty man told her things about herself that He could not have known unless He was more than an ordinary man. “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet”. Imagine the look on her face when Jesus said, “you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband”. The weary, thirsty man now has her full attention. Then as she tries to divert from the husband topic by pivoting to the location of worship. Jesus addresses her statement, not by saying where to worship, but how. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (4:24). In other words, worship God with your emotions and your intellect. At this point, it seems that she recognizes that she’s in the presence of the Messiah: “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called the Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (4:25). Jesus was declaring all things to her in this dialogue and he ends the conversation by confirming, “I who speak to you am He” (4:26).

The woman leaves her water pot and makes a beeline to the city to tell what happened to her (4:28-29). The credibility of one’s witness is not dependent upon how much theology they can recite or how eloquent they speak. A witness simply tells what they saw. Our testimony is about what happened to us. The Samaritan woman told her story in the city. The Bible says that “many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman” (4:39a). It is likely that the people knew very well (no pun intended) what kind of a woman she was. They see a change in her already. She’s different. There’s something about this weary, thirsty man who told her “all the things that she had done” (4:39b). And so they had to see and hear for themselves. Her witness stirred up their curiosity enough that they needed their own first-hand encounter with the Savior. And many more believed…

Who would even imagine that God would use such a person, whose life had been filled with brokenness up until that point, in order to accomplish His purpose of saving others? What does this story mean to us in our 21st century surroundings?

We have to leave where we are and go to where the people are that need to hear our story (4:28).
We need to tell our story with boldness (4:29).
We cannot leave out any details (4:29,39). What did she say in her testimony? We don’t know, but we can infer from the details in her encounter that she likely shared a couple things: an ordinary thirsty Jewish traveler talked to me, He knew things about me, He explained what true worship is, and then He declared that He was the Messiah.