Wait..what?! Jesus challenges the woman

Hi there,

Today's verses are bookended by two "wait...what?" moments, bringing two different truths into the light.

First, Jesus reveals he knows who the woman is—abruptly moving the conversation from the spiritual to the material. The demand to "call your husband" isn't simply a change of subject. It's exposing the woman's deepest wound and darkest secret.

Second, Jesus reveals who he is—clearly calling her attention to his identity, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Both are equally shocking in their own way.

But the conslusion is unmissable. Jesus knows our deepest need better than we do because he is our deepest need.

I've broken up the theological middle verses to make them easier for you to copy...so this looks a little longer than it is. It'll take about 7 minutes to copy.

Today's text is John 4:16-26

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Encouragement

“God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.”

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​C.S. Lewis— Mere Christianity​
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Andy

I published an overview of all Jesus' quoted words from the New Testament on my substack. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about the origin of the red letter Bible and how many of Jesus' words are captured in each Gospel, then you can read about it here.