Evangelism

John 4:5-42

I don’t think I have ever thought of this before with the woman at the well. The little word we Episcopalians love, Evangelism. It’s one we practice right? There are a few things which hit me about this passage, one is the lack of any Spirit talk. Where the encounter with Nicodemus is full of it, very truly here and very truly there this isn’t. Jesus sits and talks with this woman. This is what made me think of Evangelism.

The reason we don’t like the word is because it’s got this whole bad picture in our head. Some person out shouting about how wrong we are, or how we need saving, or telling us what our relationship with God should be.

This is not what Jesus is doing here though. This woman, this Samaritan woman is being spoken to respectfully. She is being listened to and asked questions, and responded to about what living water is and isn’t. Jesus never looks at her and tells her how dumb she is. He never stops her and says anything bad about her character, yes, he points out facts, but there is no shame carried with the facts. Lastly, he never tells her she worships incorrectly, instead he reveals what is coming for worship in the future and it doesn’t revolve around being correct.

So, this encounter should give us a clue to what real Evangelism is. Sharing, listening, talking about how we can or might encounter the holy. Because what does the woman do at the end of this? She goes back to the town and asks everyone to come and share in this encounter.

It starts with one. Jesus didn’t go to the whole Samaritan village. He hung out at one of the most public places for women. The well. The place where everyone exchanges gossip and tells the news of the village to everyone else. In this case it was for the one woman who was already ashamed enough to know she didn’t go to the well first thing in the morning. Because she was different, she got a first rate encounter with Jesus.

Jesus then engages her by simply asking for a drink. Which then leads to a discussion about correctness. How can he ask for a drink from a Samaritan? In other words, Jesus crosses a boundary. It doesn’t matter that she is a woman, it doesn’t matter that she is another ethnicity, what matters is the water. Jesus then shares with her what a treasure she has with her and could ask for living water.

The woman can only think of this in terms of the physical water in the well. Jesus then patiently explains about the living water from God. Then she asks about worship, and he responds to her question. Engaging her further into trusting him because where is not the important question, but how we will worship God. This will be for all and not just in Jerusalem at the temple or on the mount near the well.

Then he tells her to go, call, and come for her husband. She now trusts Jesus enough to be honest with him. And he is honest back with her about how many husbands she has had and that this person is not actually her husband. There is no condemnation in this, just a statement of the facts. Because she is treated this way, she can’t help herself. She goes and calls and tells the whole town to come and meet someone who knows everything about her. This is evangelism.

It is this simple. What might we see begin to happen as we share the good news of our lives. Go, call, and ask them to come.