Knew

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink”, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”  John 4:10

Knew – The story of the woman at the well is so familiar that we often overlook this critical verse.  When Jesus begins to talk to this woman about the real meaning of life, he points out that her biggest problem is ignorance.  She just doesn’t know about God’s gift.  If she did, her life would be completely different.  This woman hears what he says but she doesn’t get it at all.  She thinks she needs more information.  But the word Jesus uses tells us that what she needs she will never find by gathering facts.  She needs a different kind of “knowing”.  So do we.

Greek has several verbs for “know”.  The one we are most familiar with is ginosko.  Ginosko describes the kind of knowledge that we collect from experience.  It is knowledge that we accumulate from trial and error.  It is experiential knowing.  That’s what this woman wants.  She wants Jesus to show her how to get this living water.  She asks for information.

But Jesus uses the verb eido.  This is a different kind of knowing.  Eido strictly means, “to perceive with understanding”.  It is intuitive, full knowledge.  The word is constantly used to describe Jesus’ knowledge of the Father.  Jesus is not suggesting that this woman needs more information.  What she needs is to be fully aware. 

“If you fully understood the gift of God”.  The point is that she doesn’t understand.  And neither do we.  We come to God with our needs.  We think we need more information.  We search for answers.  We construct theological solutions.  We write rules for living. 

Do you think that the answers to your questions about life are going to be found by collecting more evidence?  Are you searching for that one more bit of information that will make sense of things?  Jesus makes a startling announcement here.  Life is not discovered.  It is revealed.  You can’t go on a quest for answers, searching the universe and all its facts, and have any hope of reaching your goal.  God reveals the truth as a gift to you.  God is the active agent.  You are the recipient.  The only real question is this:  are you listening?