The truth and grace of a matter

Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?”  They came out of the town and made their way toward him.  John 4:28-30

Most forms of pretense likely had failed her by now; there wasn’t much face left to save.  Yet when Jesus told the woman to call her husband and come back to the well, she hid behind a partial truth, “I have no husband.”  “The fact is,” Jesus replied, “you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.”  And with that, her tenuous grip on pride gave way; there was nothing more to hide.

We ache for her.  She had reached that point we all dread, where the public image we portray no longer conceals the private realities we disguise.  But have you ever noticed that “truth” was always Jesus’ starting point with people?  Whether confronting the greed of the young ruler or affirming the belief of the scribe who embraced the two greatest commandments, Jesus always went to the heart of an issue, exposing falsehoods and affirming truth.  And he still does!

When we conceal sin in our lives, we limit God’s grace in our lives.  But once we confront the full truth of a matter, then we are able to appreciate the full grace in the matter.  And we live freely in the acceptance of the one who knows us entirely, yet loves us completely.

Jesus once said, “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)”  That midday at the well, the Samaritan woman’s last vestige of pride withered under the bright light of truth and fell to the ground.  In its place sprouted grace, and it bore much fruit.

So to what point of truth is Jesus bringing you?  Is it the gentle conviction of a certain sin pattern from which he wants you to be free?  Is he leading you to the truth of who you are in him – a highly treasured child of God, being carefully formed into the likeness of Christ? 

Wherever it is, go with him to that place … that place of truth and grace.  There you will find freedom.  And there you will bear much fruit.

[To see the daily reading in John 4:25-30, click here.]