Using the open door provided by the Samaritan woman’s question, Jesus masterfully moved the conversation to spiritual matters, from a drink of water to eternal life.
“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?” 13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” John 4:11-14 (NLT)
Principle: Move the Conversation to Spiritual Matters
It was immediately apparent that this woman was no one’s fool. She wanted to know the practicalities of how Jesus was going to provide a new kind of water in a place where the only source was this well that her forefather Jacob had provided. She wondered just who Jesus thought he was, but her thinking was still on a natural level. She realized that she was speaking to a very interesting person, but might have wondered if he were some sort of “nut job.” She certainly had no clue yet that he was the Messiah.
Instead of immediately responding to her natural question, Jesus offered what seemed to her to be a puzzling reply that moved things toward a spiritual plane entirely. This is an important key to fishing for people the Jesus way.
Certainly our desire is not to come across as “weird;” rather, we should strive to be authentically and spiritually interesting, which requires that we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Probably Jesus had quickly discerned her spiritual hunger and led her down a conversational path to satisfy her deep longings for God. In our case, since we usually cannot so easily “read” people, we may have to be more “experimental” in our approach, offering interesting spiritual conversational tidbits to see if the one with whom we are talking responds positively.
The important thing is to try to move the conversation toward spiritual matters instead of allowing it to focus on the kind of mundane and trivial small talk that the world prefers.
