JOHN 4:27-30 LET GO AND LET JESUS

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

The woman has found (or been found by) the “Living Water.” As she stood by Jacob’s Well she drank in all that Jesus said to her. The woman who left the well was not the same one who came to the well. That is the way it is with anyone who drinks in the Word of God.

The woman came to the well at an odd time and many a commentator has surmised that due to her checkered social history this was done on purpose in order to avoid people and their disapproving looks and comments. Yet Jesus not only brings that past to light, but he reveals to her the purpose and direction of God in the world. Her transformation is so complete that she rushes back into town to give witness to her experience of the Christ to the very people she was trying to avoid minutes earlier. St. John includes the detail of her leaving the water jar behind, which is symbolic of her turning away from her old ways of the old age in order to share the Gospel of the new age with others.

Jesus comes to us and reveals himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. Through the Holy Spirit we are convicted of our sin, so that we might repent of our ways and believe in Jesus. In contrast to the woman, our focus tends to remain on our sin. While the woman acknowledged her sin and shifted her focus to Jesus, we like to barter, rationalize or ruminate over our sins. All the time that we are moaning about, justifying or reliving our sins, is time that we are not listening to what Jesus has to say. To repent is to turn away from our sin and turn to Jesus. As the woman found out at the well, when we acknowledge our sin and acknowledge that Jesus is who he is, then we are ready to listen to him. Listen not to the remix of your sins, which is the Kool-Aide of the world. Rather, listen to Jesus, who is the Living Water of the kingdom. While the former will kill you, the later is the source of eternal life.

Jesus, you dealt with my sin on the cross of Calvary. When I come to the cross empower me to truly give up my sins, turn away from them and leave them at the cross. May I take my eyes off my sins and look intently and undistractedly at you so that I might see the truth and be transformed into a better witness to your grace and mercy. Amen.