Jesus: Our Answer, Or Our Accusation?

So often it has been said that the public sees Christians as people who are against things; against abortion, against homosexuality, against liberal politics, against socialism, against gay marriage, etc. Sadly, it is true that often times our natural inclination as people is to try to identify an enemy target and attack it with our thoughts, words, or actions. But as followers of Christ we aren’t to live according to our old nature, are we?

God is holy, and as His people we are called to be holy. We are on a journey of being made right for God, by God, in Christ Jesus; a journey which will conclude with His perfect work in us being realized eternally when we are the finished works of God’s glory. Like Paul said, now we only know in part but someday we will know fully as we are fully known.

Have you ever stopped to think about Jesus and how He is the answer? Have you ever considered how Jesus isn’t the problem, but the solution? I’m sure I’m not forming an original thought when I say Jesus didn’t and doesn’t bring accusations; Jesus instead gives the answer, and we know Scripture says Jesus is our Advocate. How often do we see in the Gospels where a scenario unfolded when Jesus went to an individual (not a group) and accused them? I cannot think of a time when Jesus personally went and accused anyone. But wait! One such time Jesus brought accusation against someone, a person could argue, was the episode with the Samaritan woman at the well. But is that exactly true? Did Jesus bring the woman at the well an accusation or did He bring her an answer?

Click here to read and compare John 4: 7-45. (Please pray and read carefully the words contained in this passage of Scripture and take note of the order of things, and if what you read in my words doesn’t jive with God’s Spirit and word... then please dispose of my words and forgive me.)  

Jesus engaged a woman in conversation by asking her to get Him water, a woman whom He shouldn’t have, by all rights, been engaging; a Jew talking with a Samaritan. Then in His very next words Jesus gave her the answer to her cynical, observational question regarding their differing ethnicities; an answer which could have unlocked the entire universe of life to her! Jesus identified Himself to her as the Messiah when He told her if she “knew the gift of God” and who she was talking to then she would have asked Him for a drink and He would have given her living water. Romans 6: 23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In just a few minutes and without a single word of accusation, in one short, blunt statement, Jesus had pointed a cynical, sinful woman... to the way leading to all of life! We have the advantage to know now that she was a sinful woman who was divorcing men and remarrying, and was actually having relationships with a man out of marriage at the time of her meeting Jesus. So take note how Jesus, knowing who that woman truly was, had already revealed to her His authority to give her eternal life, and it was before she had repented or admitted anything wrong about herself. Jesus was offering that woman who was deeply steeped in sin the answer to her sin without accusation toward her at all. She on the other hand couldn’t/wouldn’t understand, and thought Jesus was still talking about natural things when He referred to this living water; and she doubted Jesus. She wondered how we would get the water, and accused Him of trying to vault Himself above Jacob who she and the people had obviously considered great.

Patiently and continuing without accusation, again Jesus answered the woman’s natural statements with the supernatural truth that natural water would always leave her needing more, but when she would drink the living water He gives, it would become in her an infinite well of life. And with this statement Jesus had explained true salvation to the Samaritan woman while He still had not accused her of any sin or misdoing whatsoever. (How often, in Christ, do we either tell a sinner nothing of Jesus or instead think we have to make sure they’ve heard the law and tell them what God is against, before we think we can tell them about salvation through Jesus?)

In the very next verse the woman finally asks Jesus for living water. It seems, however, like she was still motivated by her flesh though, because she said to Jesus if she got the living water then she wouldn’t be thirsty anymore and she could save the long trips she had to make to Jacob’s well when she needed to get more.

In verse 16 Jesus responded for her to go and call her husband to come; and it is here where you could say, “Aha! See, eventually Jesus did accuse her.” But did He? When Jesus told the Samaritan woman to go and get her husband He hadn’t leveled an accusation against her. And notice He didn’t ask her to get her husband; as far as she knew he assumed she had a husband and he told her to get him. This left her the option of truth to well up inside of her without accusation from Him. Of course He knew her sin, but it would seem He was still giving her an opportunity to repent. And through His love offerings; His love offerings of a Jew engaging in social interaction with a Samaritan; His love offering of patiently teaching her; His love offering of telling her that He is the authority of salvation; and His love offering of giving her an opportunity to finally get honest about her life; Jesus was leading her to the whole truth. All of those actions were the answers offered by Jesus to her throughout their interaction. Yet she still wasn’t taking His gift.

So Jesus brought her to the place where with one statement He would leave her a serious choice. She could have been honest right there and confessed the truth about her relationships. But she stopped short of that. She was honest that she didn’t have a husband, yes, but that wasn’t truly honest. In actuality she could have told Jesus, “Well, the thing of it is I don’t have a husband right now. I’m busy with a man instead, and I’ve had 5 husbands in the past. I’m pretty messed up.” But despite His offerings she tried to hold back the truth from Jesus. So then, without a single ounce of doubt, Jesus told her that He knew the whole truth about her and the sin which she was ignoring in her life. Jesus words weren’t mixed or speculative gossip. Jesus words needed no higher authority to authenticate them as true. Jesus words were specifically chosen for a woman who was rejecting the truth; a woman who was given every opportunity of grace to receive His love. And her response to His gentle leading was... to lie to Him.     

And after all that Jesus told the woman what she knew was true, that she had 5 husbands and the man she was with at the moment wasn’t her husband. But note... that’s all He told her! Jesus simply revealed He knew the truth about her. And remember... He had already told her about salvation and didn’t go on to beat her up about her sin. Jesus was honest with her about her sin.

This brought at least a partial awakening to the confused woman. Of course at the end of their interaction, while she was calling Jesus a prophet and referring to a time when the Christ will come, He went on to make it crystal clear, in very plain language, that He is the Messiah. Yet she still didn’t seem to go all in. The word never tells for sure if the Samaritan woman came to faith in Jesus. It says she testified to the men in the city that she met a man who knew all the things she had done, but as she testified she questioned in verse 29, “This is not the Christ, is it?”

So, who knows the answer to that particular mystery? That's another topic for another time.

But what we can know is that Jesus offered Himself up for all of us on the cross and died for the sins of the world. He is risen so that we can testify Jesus is the Christ! Jesus is for sinners! Jesus isn’t against sinners. If Jesus were against me or you, we would be in very deep trouble. Today is the day of salvation! Today is the age of grace! People need to know that Jesus isn’t about changing their politics or cultural behavior, but that He is about saving them from their sin! Jesus is for us, not against us! He is the one who brings us to change. He is the one who revealed the Spirit and He is the Truth.

Let the Spirit of God reign free in our heart, as the word feeds us, and both work perfectly together to lead us. Let us trust in nothing but the blood of Jesus as we go on into this battle with our flesh every day. There is victory in Jesus! Let us walk with Him every day! Let’s love Him and love everyone else, and let’s keep proclaiming His name!

Thanks for reading.