Inside out – John 4 ✝️

Camilla visited Jacob’s well nearly every day. She had met many travelers there, some of them wealthy, a few of them handsome, and many of them more than willing to part with their silver for her female company. The other women had gotten their water for the day early in the morning. But Camilla waited nearby for another thirsty traveler who might be willing to part with his Shekels.

Her mother had named her after the legendary warrior maiden Camilla. Indeed, she was a fighter. Her life had not been an easy one. Born a Samaritan, she was considered a mixed-breed by both the Jews and Gentiles, whose prejudice ran deep. She frequently felt marginalized and dismissed. She was often ridiculed. She had endured rejection and shame in this life. She was searching for something more.

It was now noontime and the middle eastern sun bore down heavily on the weary traveler who stopped at the well. His name was Yeshua Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi. His disciples had gone into the nearby village to buy food for lunch. Jesus sat at the edge of Jacob’s well as Camilla approached with her water pot.

The Rabbi looked into her eyes. “Would you give me a drink of water?”, He asked. Camilla knew this game well. She had played it many times before.

“How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”, she retorted.

Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of Yahweh God and who I am, you would be asking ME for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water”.

At that she laughed to herself. This man would not be an easy Shekel. “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”

The Rabbi again looked deeply into her eyes. “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. But anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life.”

Suddenly, the game had changed and Camilla longed for something more meaningful than silver. “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty…”, she implored.

The Rabbi replied, with eyes that pierced her soul, “Go, get your husband and return.”

Camilla suddenly felt exposed. “I have no husband”, she countered.

The Rabbi reached into the depths of her being. “Yes, you are right. You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are living with now isn’t even your husband”, He said knowingly.

As the Rabbi spoke, a flash of shame rushed over Camilla. Jesus had crossed cultural, political, and religious chasms to reach the very depths of her heart. He had searched her from the inside out and reached her soul. He didn’t care that she was a Samaritan, a woman, an outcast. He saw her, rather, as He did every human – rich or poor, male or female, black or white. A sinner in need of redemption.

As Camilla opened her heart to Jesus, she was changed from the inside out by His beautiful, convicting and transforming words. Her long search had ended. Camilla had found what she was looking for.❤️