Just then his
disciples came back. They were shocked
to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do
you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” The woman left her water jar beside
the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I
ever did! Could he possibly be the
Messiah?” So
the people came streaming from the village to see him.
In a “chance meeting” with Jesus the Samaritan woman
comes face to face with eternity and the Christ who holds the key to everything
for which her soul cries out. And having
met this “lover of her soul” she hurries back to her village and tells everyone
that Messiah has come. This led to a
two-day revival in which her hometown was changed.
Now, while many believed because of what she told
them, many more believed because after hearing about Jesus, they just had to
check him out personally. The “woman at
the well” was an unlikely evangelist, but an evangelist nonetheless!
What makes an evangelist?
I’ve known those with that something different
in them which we’d call the “spiritual gift of evangelism”. I’m thinking Billy Graham here, as well as
some not so well-known. Some were
ordained ministers, while some were not part of the religious system; they were
simply crying out from the wilderness like John the Baptist. But there was just something different about
them. The difference, I believe, is not
something you learn, or even a talent with which you were born; it is rather
God’s choosing – anointing for God’s purposes.
Apart from those given a special anointing are those
of us who speak up because Christ has so impacted our lives, we cannot stay
silent. It makes little difference in
evangelism if you can speak two words without stuttering (remember Moses?). It makes little difference if you know the 5
tenets of Calvinism, or the Westminster Confession by heart, or even the verses
that make up the Romans Road Gospel tract.
Genuine evangelism is where a changed heart (like the woman at the well)
meets a ready heart (like the woman’s neighbors)…and the conversation begins. What happens then is in Christ’s hands…and
that is where evangelism is most effectively laid.
The woman in our story was an unlikely evangelist;
she had no tent, Gospel band or wavy Pompadour hair style; she wasn’t even a
person of good reputation. In
fact, meeting with Jesus at the well in the middle of the day indicated she
went there to draw water without the other women because she was a
social pariah – unfit for well-bred company.
And, just maybe, that’s the key here – this woman knew
who would really accept her with all her flaws, checkered history and downright
sinfulness. She could recognize her need
for salvation and cleansing – and she had no pride standing in the way. This was a woman with very little to lose,
and heaven to gain.
At a church I pass regularly the sign recently said:
When
you’re down to nothing, God’s up to something.
That’s evangelism….God up to something.
For You, Today…
You aren’t an
evangelist? No white suit, microphone
and tear-jerking dog-story?
It’s okay; God
only needs you to be you, if you’ve got a heart like that woman.
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