03. You Can Stop Pretending
What If Jesus Is Different Than You Think?
03. You Can Stop Pretending
Keeping up appearances is exhausting.
A friend asks how you’re doing, and you say, “I’m fine.” They start to tell you about their day, and part of you is relieved. You won’t have to explain why you’re still angry, why you’re ashamed of something you did, or why you’ve been lying awake at night. Another part of you wishes they’d asked one more question.
Sometimes we do the same thing with God. We ask Him to help with the week ahead, and we talk around the one thing we really want to bring up. Maybe we’ve done that for so long that we’ve forgotten what it feels like to pray honestly.
What are you afraid would happen if God saw the whole truth about you?
Before you answer, come with me to a well in Samaria.
He asked her for a drink
Jesus was tired from traveling. He sat down beside a well while His disciples went into town to buy food. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, He asked her for a drink.
She was surprised. Jesus was a Jew, and she was a Samaritan. She knew the history between their people, and she asked Him why He would ask her for water.
I love how ordinary this moment is. She came to get water. He was thirsty. And the first thing He did was ask her for something she could give Him. That opened a conversation she probably never expected to have.
Jesus told her that if she knew who was asking for a drink, she would ask Him, and He would give her living water. She looked at the well and raised the obvious question. He had nothing to draw with, and the well was deep. Where was He going to get this water?
Jesus said the water He gives would become a spring within a person, welling up to eternal life. She asked Him for it. She was still thinking about thirst and the work of coming back to the well. Jesus was offering her something she would need time to understand.
What Jesus did after she told the truth
Then Jesus asked her to call her husband.
“I have no husband,” she said.
Jesus told her she had spoken truthfully. She had had five husbands, and the man she was with now was not her husband.
John gives us no details about how those marriages ended or what she had lived through. He gives us the next part of the conversation, and I think it’s worth slowing down to hear it.
The woman recognized that Jesus was a prophet and brought up a question that divided Samaritans and Jews. Where were people supposed to worship God? Jesus took her question seriously. He told her that the Father was seeking people who would worship Him in spirit and truth.
Then she said that when the Messiah came, He would explain everything. Jesus told her that He was the Messiah, the very person speaking to her.
Think about the order. Jesus offered her living water before He brought up her history. After He brought it up, He stayed and told her who He was.
When I picture telling God something I’m ashamed of, I tend to imagine the conversation ending right there. I’ve said the thing I was afraid to say. Now what?
At the well, the conversation went deeper. Jesus knew the truth about this woman and took the time to answer her questions. He wanted her to know Him.
She went back to the people who knew her
The woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told people to come meet a man who had told her what she had done. Then she asked them whether He could be the Messiah.
Notice how much room she gave them to decide. She told them what had happened to her and invited them to come and see. Many believed because of her testimony. The people asked Jesus to stay, and He spent two days with them. Many more believed after hearing Him for themselves.
Some of us can name a person we’d like to ask about Jesus, but we’re worried we’ll sound foolish. I think about this woman. She had a question of her own, and she asked it out loud. Her neighbors heard her and went to meet Him.
You can start where she did. Read the story. Pay attention to the way Jesus speaks to her. Bring Him the question you actually have.
Tell God one thing
Read John 4:4–30 and 39–42. Then take a few quiet minutes and tell God one thing you’ve been hiding or avoiding. Use the words you’d use if you were finally telling a trusted friend.
“Jesus, I keep making excuses for something I did, and I know I hurt someone.”
“Jesus, I’m still angry about what happened, and I don’t know what to do with it.”
“Jesus, I’m curious about You, but I’m afraid of what following You might ask of me.”
Whichever sentence is closest to yours, finish it in your own words. If there’s someone you owe an apology to, tell Him their name. If you’re unsure whether you believe in Him, tell Him what makes it hard to believe. That’s a real conversation, and it can begin today.
Want to go further?
All ten Zúme discipleship lessons are on my site—free, with the video and the same teaching notes I use when I train leaders in person. Take them on your own, take them with a few friends, or join me live on Zoom and I will teach them to you face to face. When you finish, tell me and I will coach you personally.
Start the ten free Zúme lessons:
https://internationalafricanmobilization.com/training/terrys-zume-teaching-series/
Join a live Zúme training:
https://zume.training/join-a-training
If you’d like to support this work, your gift would be tax deductible and overseen by Northside Christian Church, our sending church. Give through Northside Christian Church:
https://pushpay.com/g/mynorthside?fnd=X2n_YvU-U0C8yPuNWc9d5A&lang=en&src=pcgl