You Can't Drink Living Water Out of the Old Bucket

The only way we know how to cover up our shame is to sew a see-through garment of fig-leaf lies.  

We are quick to shake our heads and wag our fingers at cowardly actions of others when they are caught – adulterers and thieves, politicians and murderers, especially when it becomes public domain, their dirty laundry aired on Twitter or national TV.

But Jesus is not about public humiliation…. airing our dirty laundry. He brings up the husband topic only because He knows that’s this woman’s particular mode of thirst-quenching. And, more importantly, it’s also the unquenchable source of her shame and need to hide.

We all have our own.  We all are deeply broken people digging for wells to satisfy our thirst… or deeply buried in denial.

He came to call us out of denial and hiding holes of shame into His light… but we must first see for ourselves… recognize that one can’t drink the living water while shackled to the old bucket. One can’t see the Light if his head is deeply buried in denial.

So, instead of condemning the woman for being not only an adulteress but also a big fat liar He actually agrees with her?!!! This is what He says to her in effect:

You are right, darling. You did have five guys who shacked up with you… who used to be your husbands… but if they really had been the husbands they were meant to be, you would not call them ‘used-to-be’s now… And the guy who is sleeping between your pure 1500 TC Egyptian cotton sheets right now…that guy? Nah, he isn’t a real husband either… So, you did speak the truth there, honey. You don’t have a husband.