John 4: 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17“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.”
I am often fascinated by the way that Jesus interacts with people. In this account of the woman at the well, the woman clearly must understand what Jesus is saying about water that will cause her to never thirst again. When she questions Jesus on this, he then refers to her husband. Now of course we know from the story that the woman never had a husband. Well at least she didn’t have a husband at that particular point in time.
I recently gave a sermon in which I spoke about how Jesus knew there would be a donkey Luke 19. In my sermon I posed the question whether or not Jesus was born with full knowledge of everything, being God. in various of my studies I believe that Jesus had laid down certain parts of his deity. One of the things that he had to lay down was his knowledge of everything. However, in this particular case Jesus clearly has a word of knowledge.
This word of knowledge was different to being omniscient. have no doubt that he is operated from time to time in the gift of knowledge. He was after all God. Nevertheless there were times when Jesus did not know everything like when the woman touched him with an issue of blood. We also read in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus grew in knowledge and wisdom and in favour with all men. You cannot grow in knowledge and wisdom if you already have it all.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Jesus has insight into our lives even when he was in human form. We should aim to try to live in such a way as if Jesus was in the room with us at all times. Just as he was literally speaking to this woman at the well, we should imagine that Jesus is speaking to us and literally. I believe that would change so much of the way that we act.