Filled to Overflowing
Thirst: Part 6
March 29, 2026
The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the people, 'Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?' They left the city and were on their way to see Jesus.
~ John 4:28-30
_______________
Good News is contagious. Once we really get it, we can't keep it to ourselves.
Imagine you were cured of cancer by an amazing doctor with a brand-new experimental treatment. Wouldn't you be telling all your friends with cancer about it, hoping that this doctor could help them too?
"If our faith is real, if being a Christian makes a deep difference in our own lives, it matters that we be able to talk about that with the people we care about and the people that Christ cares about” (Martha Grace Reese, Unbinding the Gospel, 13).
Many of us as Christians are more likely to invite someone to our new favorite restaurant than we are to invite someone to church, and we are far more likely to introduce someone to our best friend or even to our favorite TV series than we are to introduce them to Jesus.
For the woman at the well, Jesus was likely one of the first people who ever truly loved and accepted her for who she was, flaws and all. He knew her better than anybody and yet he didn't judge. He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan, but that didn't stop him from reaching across the lines. He was clean and she was unclean, but he wasn't afraid of getting dirty. Nobody else in her life had ever loved her that much. Her excitement is overwhelming, and it is contagious.
The people probably think she's crazy. They know her. They know her past. They know she's got no reason to be so joyful. But they can't help but wonder what has changed inside her, and so they come to meet Jesus for themselves.
She has no idea how the people will respond, but it doesn't matter. She's not even certain if Jesus is really the Christ, the Savior, at all? She's not clear on her beliefs. She has no religious answers and little to know biblical knowledge. I'm not even certain we can say that she "got saved," in the way we often think about salvation... at least not yet. But her encounter with Christ impacted her so much she could not keep it to herself.
Before we met Jesus personally, each and every one of us saw Jesus alive in someone else.
Who needs to see Jesus alive in you, so that they will come and see the one who knows them and loves them too?