Articles
How Jesus Was Misunderstood (2)
“Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?” (John 4:11)
We immediately recognize these words of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well of Jacob. Jesus had shocked her by initiating a conversation; a Jewish man would never engage a Samaritan woman in public discourse. But Jesus was not deterred by shallow and discriminatory social conventions.
Jesus began with a polite request of a physical nature, then moved the conversation to a spiritual plane. He was patient even when the woman continued her material thinking. Even when He demonstrated miraculous knowledge of her personal life, she initially chose controversy over repentance (4:17-20).
This is a model conversation that we would all like to have. The outcome was unusual even for Jesus: an entire city came to belief. But are we willing to do what Jesus did? It is tempting to speak to unbelievers in “terminal” language; i.e., to pass a judgment and stop a conversation rather than pursue it and let it naturally unfold. Sometimes we are fearful that we will be stymied, so we tend to short-circuit the process. Let’s not worry about being misunderstood or rejected. Let’s just talk to people. Perhaps we will drop a pebble in their shoe.
