Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” John 4:29
Dear Lord Jesus, it would’ve been a holy joy to hear this broken, Samaritan woman reenact her collision with the gospel for her friends (John 4:1-42). Water from Jacob’s well was superseded by the water you alone can give-living water that slakes our death-doling thirst.
You exposed her sequential affairs with men then, instead of crushing her, you cherished her-you brought the gospel of the kingdom to the dark continent of her heart. And as she stood in the public square of her community, she was never so free. No longer any need to pose or pretend, she was “out there,” perhaps in the hearing of some of the six men with whom she’d been. “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
What but the gospel can give a man like me the freedom to be thoroughly known? Indeed, Jesus, you are the Christ-the Messiah… my Lenten Lord… the heart-knower… the lover of my soul… my righteousness from God… my only hope of glory…
Jesus, you’re the only one who knows every vain, foolish and evil thought I’ve ever conceived… every lustful, greedy fantasy in which I’ve engaged… Only you’ve heard every grace-robbing, grand-standing, gossipy word I’ve ever spoken… Only you know the ways I’ve failed to live up to the demands and delights of God’s Word, and the ways I’ve gone way beyond them.
Only you know my broken-cisterns of choice… my “empty-nothings”-my idols… my sequential attempts to find life somewhere else, other than in you. And as I enjoy your presence this morning, Jesus, I feel both indicted and invited by the gospel. I don’t have to mimic the words of my spiritual dad, I actually mean them… in this very moment. “Cheer up! You’re a whole lot more broken, needy and desperate than you think you are, Scotty. Cheer up! You’re a whole lot more welcome, accepted and loved than you ever hoped or imagined. Both are true because the gospel is true!”
Only this gospel can change me, and is changing me. What a wonderful, merciful Savior you are, Jesus… so very Amen, I pray in your transcendent and transforming name.