Conviction with Love and Grace

“If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 14:7-9

Throughout the Gospels, God is revealed in Jesus. We can know more of what God is like by looking at Jesus’s life! One story in the Gospels that I really love & I think shows a lot of God in Jesus is the story of Him at the well with the Samaritan woman in John 4.

Jesus asks the woman for a drink, which is already strange because He is a Jew, and she is a Samaritan. In that day, they would not be found mingling and would definitely not be drinking from the same cup.

This is the longest interaction that Jesus has with any other individual in John, and it is with a woman of another race. The fact that she was alone and drawing water in the middle of the day could also suggest that she is an outcast. So according to social norms, she really really is the last person Jesus should be talking to.

Immediately in the story, Jesus is revealing God. Meeting people where they are, not concerned about their race, social status, job. Just there to sit and interact with them.

When she asks Him how he could ask her for a drink, Jesus replies

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water”
 in verse 10.

Again, here is God. Offering something better than what we think we deserve and better than what we currently have. Here, Jesus is offering her eternal life. Living water.

The woman and Jesus go back and forth a little bit about how one would never be thirsty again after this living water. He is patient with her in helping her understand. When she asks Jesus for this living water, He does something strange. He tells her to go and get her husband.

The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. - John 4:17-19

This part of the story has always intrigued me. It obviously shows Jesus’s power and knowledge from God. But I have always wondered why He chose to ask her about her husband. There is something deeper about His choice in words (per usual).

If you keep reading, her reaction is eventually, she runs into town telling everyone to come see the person that has told her everything that she has ever done (verse 29). It has never made sense why someone would be excited that Jesus knew about her not so perfect marriage record. Until I put it in the context of who she was talking to. The way that Jesus presented the information about herself to her was through love and grace. He doesn’t skip out on the truth, but He always delivers it with love and grace. I think that makes all the difference.

And there is God again. Convicting His children with love and grace. Because He has better for us.

Romans 2:4 says that “…God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”

It is out of His love for us that He calls out the sin in our lives. He wants better for us. He has better for us. He has living water!

Author | Ashton Brantley