BY KEITH TRUMBO

ESUS SITS DOWN NEAR THE STONE WALL surrounding the well of Sychar.* As I imagine it, He bends over, picks up a small rock, and, holding it in His hand, thinks about the events that had led Him to this spot in Galilee. The Pharisees, hungry for control, had been worried about losing their authority over the people. How can they be jealous! He puzzles in His mind. People are giving their lives to God!

He looks up at the path that leads to the city. He is all alone, His disciples having gone into the nearby town to buy food. His clothes are dusty, and He's tired from the journey. The sun is high in the sky, pouring out waves of heat. His mouth is parched and dry.

As He waits in the silence, He hears the rustling of footsteps. It is a woman with a waterpot. How interesting, He thinks, that she comes to the well in the middle of the day!

Just Water?
She approaches walking with stiff, quick steps, like someone on a mission. Her face blank, she looks down, not wanting to make eye contact--her only desire to get water. However weak the heat makes her feel, it's better than facing the morning crowd.

Seeing a Stranger at the well, she's tense. From His clothes she can see that He's a Jew. Oh, he will ignore me for sure, she thinks--he's Jewish.

But Jesus doesn't ignore her. Without hesitation He speaks right up: "Give Me a drink."

"How is it," she says, not thrilled with His request, and with a harsh edge to her voice, "that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?"

The comment bounces right off Jesus. He has bigger plans for her. "If you knew the gift of God," He says to her confidently, "and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

Ha, living water, she thinks to herself. In a slightly sarcastic tone she blurts out, "You don't even have anything to draw with. How can you give me living water?"

Jesus smiles slightly and looks down at the ground before He speaks. "With this water you will get thirsty again, but I can give you living water that will become a fountain of fresh water in your soul that yields eternal life."

The woman tightens her eyebrows and fires back, "Well then, give me this living water so I'll never get thirsty and won't have to come to this well!"

I See Through You
Jesus pauses for a moment, gets a deadly serious look on His face, and says, "Go call your husband to come and meet Me."

Deep inside, something strikes hard at her heart. Fighting back the emotions, she says in a low voice, "I have no husband."

Jesus commends her for speaking honestly, and then lets her know that He knows the whole truth. He says, ". . . for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."

This is the moment! Like a wife showing her unfaithful husband the hotel room receipt she found in the trash; like a mother holding out the bag of dope she found in her son's sock drawer. Nowhere to run.

The woman doesn't give up, however. She brings up a controversy about worship to sidetrack the conversation. But Jesus is after her heart, and He refuses to become defensive. Instead, He sums up the controversy in five words: "Worship in spirit and truth."

The conversation is not going as she expected. There's a strange excitement in her soul. She feels acceptance, love, compassion. She gets a glimpse, a small taste, of the power of God. But she shakes it off. How can this be? It can't be this simple, this good. Then as the heartfelt touch from Jesus fades, she says, "I know that Messiah is coming. . . . When He comes, He will tell us all things."

Jesus looks right at her and says, "I who speak to you am He." Just then the disciples invade the scene, surprised to see Him talking with a woman.

The interruption gives her a moment to think: This guy knows all about me. Could it be true? Could this be the Messiah? But I thought God was so unapproachable, so distant. Then like a lightning bolt out of the clear blue sky, she realizes that while He knows all about her, He is not condemning her! This concept is totally new to her--revolutionary.

At that moment she discovers the best-kept secret in Christianity: We can be completely honest with Jesus.

The Secret's Out
Am I honest with Jesus? you say.

OK, have you ever prayed something like: "Oh Lord, I love my anger. I admit that I use it as a defense so I do not have to deal with the real issues. I love my anger, and I am helpless to change that. Please help me"?

Or if we are in the 75 percent of Adventist Church members who don't read the Bible every day, do we pray this way: "Oh Jesus, I do not understand what I read in Your Word. I am confused. I read, and it just gets worse. I feel bad about not knowing your Word, but I do not understand what I read. I force myself to read sometimes, and I just get more discouraged. Please help me understand the Bible. I am not excited about what I read"?

Or if you have a challenge with smoking, would you pray like this: "Lord, I need my cigarettes. I can't imagine life without them. I love the way it makes me feel, the pack in my hands, the smooth cigarette between my fingers, the warm smoke in my lungs"?

Are we brutally honest with Jesus? It can be hard, because first we must be totally honest with ourselves.

I Love You Anyway
Do you know what happens when we are this dreadfully honest with Jesus? He says, "Yes, I knew that. Now that you know this as well, I can do something to help you."

Jesus is waiting for us to be honest with Him and ourselves. We can get the wrong idea with the battles that we face. We can think that we have to choose between two earthly things, such as to get angry or not to get angry, to smoke or not to smoke, to gossip or not to gossip, to commit adultery or not to commit adultery, to read the Bible or not to read the Bible. But there is only one choice that we have to make--and that is Jesus. Choosing Jesus means that we tell Him all of our darkest secrets! Complete disclosure. Total access. Holding nothing back. And if we want help in making a change, He will change us! Just after what is perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible (John 3:16) comes the most reassuring verse in the world: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17, NKJV).

The best-kept secret in Christianity is that we can be completely honest with Jesus. It's what Adam and Eve discovered as they left the Garden of Eden. It's what King David remembered when Nathan the prophet confronted him about Bathsheba. It's what Paul grasped when he sat blind for three days. It's what hit Peter so hard when the rooster crowed.

When the woman at the well discovered that Jesus knew everything about her but did not condemn her, she immediately went to town to tell others. The same woman who came to the well at noon to avoid other people was now running into town. The urgent message upon her heart was "Come and see a Man who told me all the things that I ever did."

This is how we share the best-kept secret in Christianity. We are honest with others. No facade, no mask, no pretending. Just being vulnerable, open and honest, sharing our faults and inadequacies in a transparent way.

How did the people respond to the woman's message? They left the city and came to Jesus.

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* This article is based on John 4. Some texts have been paraphrased.

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Keith Trumbo and his wife, Ann, pastor the Grace Connection Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Louis, Missouri.