Hi, my name is Dave Scherrer. I’m the founder of One Hundred Fold Ministries. You found our podcast environment – we call it Kingdom Offerings.

We’re going to take a break from our series where we’ve been looking deep into our spiritual lives and imagining what would it take to become even more effective kingdom citizens right here on Earth, right now.

We’re about halfway through that series, but we’re going to take one more podcast break for today as well. Our last podcast episodes featured a story that I had written about twenty years ago about a rich man and his daughter. I’m hoping maybe you listened into that and you can find those two past episodes on our One Hundred Fold Ministries page.

And I think that stories are a great way to capture our imagination and to stir up our hearts in a way that a straight lecture can’t. So with that in mind, I want to offer you a challenge today. If you only had one story from the Bible to share with someone, what would that story be? Let me share that again. If you only have one story from the Bible to share with someone, what story would that be?

So I actually heard this challenge today on a Christian radio station, and I was kind of taken with the idea. They set some ground rules first. They said it couldn’t be about Jesus’ birth or death or resurrection. It had to be something else. And you had to pick just one out of the entire Bible. So this was quite a deal for these three radio hosts.

Two of the hosts came up with the first one with David and Goliath, thinking that that was a story of God’s great strength. And the second one came up with Abraham and the sacrifice of his son Isaac, thinking that that was a song of great faith. The third host was a little bit reluctant to play along. He said, well, it depends on the audience and eventually came down to the story of the prodigal son.

And I thought about that. In my mind, I agreed with him that this story had much to say about forgiveness, redemption, and the love of our Heavenly Father. And of course, it’s a story that Jesus Himself told. So how can you go wrong with that? So I reflected on this exercise for a bit, and I did identify with that radio host that said much depended on who the listener was. But I’m going to say rules are rules, so only one story.

Eventually my mind went to the account of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. That’s from the Gospel of John, Chapter Four. And in case it’s been a while since you heard this account, let me share with you from the message translation, and that’s a modern translation by Pastor Eugene Peterson. So let me just share this story, John, Chapter Four, beginning in verse five.

Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar.

Near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. And Jesus, tired as he was from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon, when a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” The disciples had gone into town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You’re a Jew, and I’m a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink, for Jews do not associate with Samaritans?”

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.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “You have nothing to draw with. This well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. The water I give them will become in them a spring of living water, welling up to eternal life.”

The 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.”

Jesus told her, “Go call your husband and come back.”

“No, I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You’re right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you’re a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. But you Jews, you claim that the place where you must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet the time is coming, and now has come, when true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for the kind of worshipers that the Father seeks, God is Spirit, and as worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah called Christ is coming. When He comes, He’ll explain everything to us.”

And then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you, I am He.”

Okay, I kind of love this story. This story is filled with deep theology. There is drama and passion. There is mystery. There is an intriguing word picture around this living water and we see how Jesus is able to work a conversation. Actually, He works practically every conversation into a kingdom conversation.

This is actually a pretty good model for us today. I see three things that make this a great candidate for being a number one, the only one, if you had to, Bible story.

The first thing I see was Jesus’ willingness to break down paradigms. You know, first and foremost, he’s by himself and he’s talking to a woman. So men in general didn’t really do that back in that day. It was considered kind of immoral, I guess. Certainly bad social practice.

So not only was he talking to a woman, as a man to a woman, but he was also speaking as a Jew to a Samaritan. In fact, she even mentioned that. Jews don’t talk to Samaritans and rabbis certainly don’t talk to women, Samaritans.

He is breaking so many paradigms in this story, helping us to see a new understanding of who God is.

We talk a lot about challenging our paradigms here at One Hundred Fold Ministries. We do this because that’s what Jesus did. Deepening our understanding of His kingdom and the gospel of that kingdom breaks down our assumptions from our history that may or may not be true.

So the first thing I like is Jesus’ willingness to break down paradigms.

The second thing was Jesus’ compassion that’s on display.

It’s clear that Jesus knew her story. He knew her history and he loved her anyway. Maybe in part he loved her more because of her story. So much pain and guilt and shame. Almost this maddening spiritual thirst that she had. So much deep longing. And he loved her so much.

So we see that Jesus is breaking down paradigms. We see his compassion and his love for those who are hurting.

And there’s also this announcement, this Jesus announcement by himself, this announcement about him being the Messiah. This is the first public announcement that he is the Christ. And he shares that with this Samaritan woman.

And from this least likely person, maybe the least likeliest in the world, comes a profound fruit. If we read on, with fields ripe with harvest because of this one woman’s testimony, hundreds are saved.

So I’m wondering, what is your one story? What story from the Bible would you tell?

Love to hear. You can email me at Dave@100FoldMinistries.org and you can let me know your thoughts. I’d like to share your story here as well.

So take care. Whatever the story is, peace to you.