I Am He...

July 19, 2011

John 4:15-26

V 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

I like the Samaritan woman at the well, why, because she is obviously caught up in sin, yet Jesus shows her love, compassion, and a way to forgiveness anyway. He, with great kindness and compassion points out His knowledge of all her sin and never beats her over the head with it. He is more interested in her seeing and understanding true salvation, than He is in making her feel like a worm because of her sin. He certainly doesn’t ignore her sin (verse 17-18) but He also doesn’t dwell on it either. I wonder if she ever realized what a gift Jesus gave to her here. He very rarely identifies himself as “The Christ” directly to anyone, and here He does, to a woman from Samaria caught up in sexual sin, no less. Jesus sees the heart of man, and will not be put off by what’s on the outside or by actions that may cause others to avoid us. You can be quiet certain that this was not a woman thought of very highly in Samaria; this is the reason why she is at the well so late in the day when everyone else came at a much cooler time of day. Jesus is our great example for everything, here He is showing us that you can’t ignore sin, it must be addressed, but the more important issue is true salvation.