John 4:29
“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ?”
COME AND SEE
There is something about the woman at the well that gets me every single time. She goes to that well carrying a whole lot more than an empty water jar. She is carrying history. Mistakes. Relationships. Shame. Probably whispers. Definitely baggage. And listen, I understand baggage. Some of us have enough emotional baggage that if Southwest charged us for it, we would need financing. 😂 But then she meets Jesus. And what amazes me is that Jesus doesn’t pretend her past isn’t there. He doesn’t give her a fluffy little motivational speech about becoming the best version of herself. He goes straight into the places she probably would have preferred to keep hidden. Jesus knows exactly who she has been, exactly what she has done, exactly where she has failed, and exactly what she is carrying. And He stays. That may be one of the most beautiful parts of this entire story. She discovers that being completely known by Jesus is not the terrifying thing she might have imagined. It is freedom.
I think sometimes we spend so much energy trying to clean ourselves up before we come close to God. I know I have. There have been seasons when I’ve looked at my faith and thought, I should be farther along than this. I shouldn’t still struggle with this. I shouldn’t still have these questions. I shouldn’t still get scared. I shouldn’t still wrestle with God. I have had moments when my faith felt incredibly strong and moments when I wondered what in the world was happening inside me. I’ve had seasons where I could encourage everybody else and then go home and have to remind myself of the very truths I had just told them. But John 4 reminds me that Jesus isn’t waiting at the well for the polished version of us. He meets the woman exactly where she is. And He already knows everything. There is something incredibly freeing about realizing that I cannot shock Jesus. I cannot tell Him something about myself that makes Him say, Whoa. Brooke. I was absolutely not prepared for that. He knows. He has always known. And He still invites me closer.
But what really gets me is what happens next. This woman doesn’t walk away from Jesus thinking, Well, that was embarrassing. Let’s never speak of this again. She runs into town telling everybody, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done.” Think about that! The very things that might have once made her want to hide become part of her testimony. The things she probably didn’t want people talking about are suddenly part of the reason she’s talking about Jesus. That’s what Christ does. He takes the places where shame once lived and begins turning them into places where His grace can be seen. I’ve learned that some of the parts of my story I would never have chosen are also the places where I’ve seen God most clearly. Grief. Fear. Anxiety. Seasons of questioning. Times when I’ve felt completely exhausted spiritually and emotionally. None of those things are the whole story, and I certainly wouldn’t put them on a vision board. But God has met me there. And once you’ve encountered Jesus in the places where you thought you might fall apart, you start understanding why this woman couldn’t keep quiet.
And notice how simple her invitation is: “Come, see.” She doesn’t have a theology degree. She doesn’t have all the answers. She hasn’t spent twelve weeks preparing her testimony and color coding her notes. She has barely met Jesus! Yet she knows enough to tell somebody else, You need to meet Him too. Sometimes I think we make sharing our faith much more complicated than Jesus ever intended it to be. We think we need to perfectly explain every difficult passage, answer every objection, understand Revelation without needing seventeen charts, and somehow have our entire life together before we’re qualified to point somebody toward Christ. But this woman simply shares what she knows: I met Jesus, He knows me, and something happened to me. Come see for yourself. That is a testimony. And every Christian has one. Maybe yours isn’t dramatic. Maybe it is. Either way, you don’t have to know everything about Jesus before you can tell somebody what Jesus has done for you.
There is also something deeper here that I don’t want to miss. The woman says, “He told me all the things that I have done.” Jesus saw her whole story, but He didn’t reduce her to her story. People have a terrible habit of doing that. We remember someone’s worst decision, worst season, worst breakdown, worst relationship, worst moment, and suddenly that becomes their identity. Sometimes we even do it to ourselves. We replay old failures until we start introducing ourselves internally by them. I’m the woman who messed up. I’m the woman who struggled. I’m the woman who fell apart. I’m the woman who should have known better. But Jesus saw everything this woman had done and still saw a woman worth speaking to. Worth revealing Himself to. Worth using. In fact, the woman with the messy story becomes the woman running through town pointing people toward the Messiah. Jesus didn’t waste her story. And I don’t believe He wastes ours either. When we surrender those broken pieces to Him, He has this beautiful way of taking what once whispered shame and using it to shout grace.
Maybe that’s the Daily Bible Thump today: stop hiding what Jesus has already redeemed. You don’t have to broadcast every painful detail of your life to everybody you meet. Wisdom still matters. Boundaries still matter. Some parts of our stories are sacred and private. But we should never be ashamed to say, Look what Jesus has done in me. I am not standing where I am because I have always been strong. I haven’t always gotten it right. I’ve wrestled. I’ve cried. I’ve questioned. I’ve had days where faith felt powerful and days where simply choosing to keep trusting God felt like an act of spiritual warfare. But Jesus has met me again and again. And that makes me want to say exactly what this woman said: Come and see. Don’t take my word for it. Open His Word. Talk to Him. Seek Him. Bring Him the messy parts too. Bring Him the questions you think you’re not supposed to ask. Bring Him the history you’d rather forget. Bring Him you. Because the Jesus who knew everything about the woman at the well and still wanted her is the same Jesus who knows everything about you. And when you truly encounter Him, eventually you realize you’ve got something worth running back to town to tell people about.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Why do you think the woman was willing to tell others about Jesus so quickly after meeting Him?
- Are there parts of your story that you have allowed shame to define instead of allowing God’s grace to redeem?
- What keeps you from telling other people, “Come and see,” when it comes to Jesus?
- If someone asked you today, “What has Jesus done in your life?” what would you tell them?
LIFE APPLICATION
Today, think about one specific thing Jesus has done in your life. Not something you’ve heard in church. Not somebody else’s testimony. Yours.
Maybe He carried you through grief. Maybe He restored something you thought was gone. Maybe He gave you peace during anxiety. Maybe He convicted you and pulled you out of sin. Maybe He stayed faithful through a season when your faith was hanging on by a thread.
Write it down.
Then ask God to show you one person who might need to hear it.
You don’t have to preach them a sermon.
You can simply say:
“This is what Jesus has done for me. Come and see.”
JOURNAL PROMPT
If I stopped being ashamed of the hardest parts of my story and instead asked God how He could use them for His glory, what parts of my testimony might I finally be willing to share?
PRAYER
Father, I love You, and I am so thankful that You know every single part of me and still invite me closer. You know the things I tell people and the things I don’t. You know my victories, my failures, my questions, my fears, my grief, my struggles, my good days, and the days when I have barely held myself together. There is nothing hidden from You. And somehow, instead of that making me afraid, it makes me feel safe. Because You already know me completely, and You still love me.
Jesus, thank You for meeting me at my own wells. Thank You for finding me in places where I was thirsty for things only You could give me. Thank You for staying with me through seasons when I struggled, questioned, wrestled, cried, and didn’t understand what You were doing. Thank You for every time You reminded me that my story wasn’t finished.
Lord, take the parts of my life that I have been tempted to hide in shame and redeem them for Your glory. Give me wisdom about what to share, when to share it, and who to share it with. Never let me glorify my pain more than I glorify the One who carried me through it. Let people hear my story and walk away thinking less about me and more about You.
Give me courage to say, “Come and see.” Help me stop believing that I need all the answers before I can tell somebody about Jesus. Let my life point toward You. Let my words point toward You. Let even my scars point toward You. And when someone sees the messy pieces of my story, I pray they also see unmistakable evidence of Your grace woven through every single one of them.
I don’t want to hide what You have done in me, Lord. I want my life to tell the truth: I have met Jesus, He knows everything about me, and I will never be the same.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Leave a Reply