What Makes a Credible Witness?

To answer this question, I’m going to work backwards in the fourth chapter of John’s gospel. Most of this chapter centers on a person Bible scholars refer to as “the Samaritan woman.” What John writes about her interaction with Jesus will help us address this issue.

Let’s start with the following passage:

“So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of His words many more became believers. ⁴²They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” – John 4:40-42

A group of people living in Samaria (between Judea to the south and Galilee to the north) met with Jesus for a couple of days. That was all it took to convince them He was God’s Anointed One. Jesus is that amazing! I’m sure their theology wasn’t perfect, but the Samaritans grasped the most important truth: Jesus is the Savior the world needs.

But some of them had already believed in Jesus before He arrived. They did so because of the Samaritan woman.

“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’” – John 4:39

She affected her whole town. This lady might not have known everything about the Lord, but she recognized He was too special to keep to herself. She had to tell others.

The woman’s testimony was personal, even painful, but she didn’t hold back. Jesus knew all about her; nothing was hidden. He had to be God’s Man!

“Leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’” – John 4:28-29

What convinced her, and made her so convincing? 

It unfolded when her conversation with the Lord  turned to the subject of her marital status. Jesus invited her to bring her husband into their dialogue.

“‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’” – John 4:17-18

Last week’s blog post mentioned chiastic patterns (ABAB and AABB) in Ephesians 3:17-19. Well, John 4:17-18 has one, too. Christ’s comment to the Samaritan woman takes the form of ABCBA:

A – Right

B – No husband

C – Had five husbands

B – Not husband

A – True

The heart of this pattern is C: the woman had been married five times. Jesus doesn’t expose the details, but it doesn’t sound like her experiences were good. I suspect she’d married a ne’er-do-well who dumped her and she got picked up by another selfish guy and the pattern persisted until she (and the community) gave up on marriage. So she resorted to living with a man.

Christ pointed out her behavior, He revealed her wound, but she detected no animosity in His voice. She’d never met anyone like Him before. He could condemn her, but He’d offered her a gift.

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.’” – John 4:10

By the end, the Samaritan woman and most of the town had received the living water Jesus offered. 

What qualified this downcast lady to testify about Jesus to a community which looked down on her?

Not much.

In fact, John contrasts her with the Pharisees, the religious leaders who opposed the Lord. 

“Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that He was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John– ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples. ³So He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. ⁴Now He had to go through Samaria.” – John 4:1-4

There are five major differences between the two parties.

1. They’re Jewish, she’s Samaritan
2. They’re male, she’s female
3. They’re authoritative, she’s insignificant
4. They’re pure, she’s sinful
5. They’re honored, she’s shunned

It doesn’t look like Jesus made a good choice when it came to inspiring this woman’s testimony. Within the context of that society and culture, she lacked credibility.

And yet she bore witness.

And Jesus backed it up.

She didn’t lie about Him; the woman told people what she knew and Jesus fit the description, He exceeded it.

The Samaritan woman was a credible witness because Jesus Himself is believable. We don’t have to fear being cross-examined on a witness stand. The Lord we know and trust is alive and dependable. And the bottom line is that our testimony isn’t the final word. Instead, it’s an invitation for people to meet Christ like we have.

He makes us credible witnesses.