John 4: When Jesus Puts Words to Your Weakness

Introduction

"Just as we can't see our own nose, we don't always see our own weakness." That is how Kazunori Watanabe, pastor at Yonezawa Kōjō Church in Japan, opens his message from Sunday, September 27, 2026, titled "When We Accept Our Weakness."

His text is Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4:15-19. His conviction: when we come into contact with Jesus Christ, the Wonderful Counselor, our weakness is brought to light, not to crush us but to lead us toward freedom.

The message follows three steps: the confession of a pain, the way Jesus goes straight to the real problem, and the move from self-accusation to being welcomed. The pastor ends with a very recent experience, told with great candor, so that you can hope for the same deliverance.

Message Outline

1. A Woman at the Well, at an Hour When No One Goes There

• Just before the passage, Jesus spoke to the woman about living water: the water from the well quenches thirst only for a time, but the water he gives becomes a spring that gushes up to eternal life (John 4:13-14).
• She answers: "Sir, give me this water, so that I don't get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw" (John 4:15). The pastor lingers on the second half of the sentence: "neither come all the way here to draw."
• This woman walks alone, around noon, under a scorching sun, along a long road, to draw water. And she will have to do it again, because thirst returns quickly.
• Usually, women drew water at the end of the day, when it was cooler, helping one another. She could not. She had a reason to keep her distance.

2. The Weight We End Up Confessing

• She could simply have said: "Give me the living water." But she carried a discomfort, a feeling of debt, and her pain slipped out.
• When we carry guilt, we eventually can no longer hold it in, and we confess it ourselves, often without meaning to.
• The pastor gives a very simple example. Someone asks: "Have you seen the cake that was here?" And the answer comes right away: "I didn't eat it!" No one had said anything about eating it. The one who ate it in secret gave himself away.
• Another scene: in a company, a boss demands absolute secrecy about a decision. A few days later, the information leaks. People look for the culprit, and it turns out the boss himself let it slip.
• The Samaritan woman does the same: with those few words, she confesses the pain she drags around day after day.

3. Jesus Goes Straight to the Real Problem

• "Go, call your husband, and come here" (John 4:16). With no transition, Jesus touches the root of her distress. For her to receive the living water, this point had to be addressed.
• The pastor sees in this the wisdom of the Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6): the question arrives when she least expects it.
• He brings up Inspector Columbo, whom the older members of the congregation recognize with a laugh: a detective in a rumpled raincoat, unassuming, who takes leave of the suspect, walks a few steps, turns back and slips in, casually, a question that hits the mark.
• Caught off guard, the woman protects herself: "I have no husband" (John 4:17). It is true, but it is a partial truth. The pastor translates it this way: "Please, don't go any further."
• Abraham, the father of faith, did the same thing. When he went down to Egypt during the famine, he asked Sarai to say she was his sister (Genesis 12:10-13), and he did it again later (Genesis 20:2). It is partly true, but it lets him avoid the sensitive spot.

4. Jesus Names It Without Condemning

• This is, according to the pastor, the heart of the message, and he repeats it several times: Jesus puts words to the woman's problem.
• "You said well, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly" (John 4:17-18).
• What impression does this sentence leave? No accusation. Jesus states the facts, he even says she is right, and she feels welcomed. What she had never been able to tell anyone is finally put into words, gently.
• Some read these five husbands symbolically. The pastor thinks it is more natural, in this context, to see her own life story in them.
• He even imagines the same revelation today: the media would go into a frenzy, the person would be pointed at, with no regard for what would become of her life.

5. No One Stands Beside Her, Except Jesus

• The pastor asks a question: is there anyone who does not condemn this woman? Perhaps she herself? No, since she carries this discomfort. She knows her situation is not good, she knows others blame her, and she cannot find a way out.
• He picks up Pascal's thought, quoted in the previous message: in the heart of every person there is a God-shaped emptiness that nothing created can fill, except the Creator God revealed in Jesus Christ.
• If the woman condemns herself, then she too has placed herself outside, on the side of the accusers. No one is left beside her.
• One person stands there: Jesus Christ. He takes on, all at once, every accusation weighing on her. That is why his words, even when they name sin, are full of warmth.
• The woman understands: "Sir, I see that you are a prophet" (John 4:19).

6. The Pastor's Experience: Naming What Accused Him

• The pastor went through this very recently. At the last prayer meeting, he was telling the story of the 30th anniversary of Joyful Church in Sendai: a thanksgiving service where pastors had sent a video, prayed by phone, preached, and where a pastoral family had led the worship.
• The pastoral couple from that family was present at the prayer meeting, and he had planned to thank them publicly. But as he went along with his story, it slipped his mind. The thank-you was never said.
• After the meeting, an accusation overwhelmed him: "What have I done? It can't be undone." It grew to the point of keeping him awake. He himself found it out of proportion.
• He then remembered how Jesus puts words to the Samaritan woman's weakness. He asked himself: what in me is condemned? The answer came: "You lack consideration for others."
• Those words awakened a childhood memory. In elementary school, his grandmother had asked him to accompany an aunt, who had come from Tokyo, to the neighboring village. On the way, the aunt thanked him and told him she knew the rest of the route. He went home.
• His grandmother told him: "You lack consideration. Even when someone tells you that's enough, you accompany them all the way." The child immediately became worried: had his aunt arrived safely?
• When he found this memory again, he understood why he was accusing himself so strongly. And that night, he slept peacefully. He sensed that he was not condemned for this, that he was welcomed, like the Samaritan woman.

7. "Neither Do I Condemn You"

• The pastor quotes John 8:10-11, the woman caught in adultery. No one condemned her, and Jesus says to her: "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more."
• When we realize that Jesus Christ has forgiven us, despite our clumsiness and our shortcomings, freedom arrives in our heart. Peace comes, and inner security with it.
• If you accuse yourself excessively, he invites you to put words to what accuses you: "What condemns me so much? What in me is condemned?"
• By putting it into words, you touch the root of your own problem. And you can receive the assurance that this too is forgiven.

Key Takeaways

• We see our own weakness poorly, but in contact with Jesus it is brought to light to lead us to freedom.
• Guilt often ends up confessing itself, as with the Samaritan woman who no longer wanted to "come all the way here to draw."
• Jesus goes straight to the real problem, even when we shield ourselves behind a partial truth.
• He names our weakness without accusing us. When everyone condemns, ourselves included, he alone stands at our side.
• Putting words to what accuses us lets us find its root and receive his word: "Neither do I condemn you."

Personal Application

1. Is there a discomfort or a guilt that pushes you, like the Samaritan woman, to avoid certain people or certain places?
2. Behind what partial truth do you shield yourself when someone gets close to your sensitive spot?
3. What is the thing you are accusing yourself of out of proportion right now?
4. Take a moment to put it into words: what in you feels condemned? Is an older memory coming back?
5. How can you receive Jesus' word this week: "Neither do I condemn you"?

Verses Quoted

• John 4:15-19
• John 4:13-14
• Isaiah 9:6
• Genesis 12:10-13
• Genesis 20:2
• John 8:10-11

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the Samaritan woman say "neither come all the way here to draw"?

For Kazunori Watanabe, this sentence betrays the depth of her pain. She comes to the well alone, around noon, along a hard road, when women usually drew water together, in the cool of the end of the day. She carries a discomfort that isolates her, and this weight slips out in her answer to Jesus.

Why does Jesus suddenly talk about her husband?

To receive the living water, the woman has to be met in her real problem. Jesus, the Wonderful Counselor, goes there directly, when she least expects it. She protects herself by stating a partial truth: "I have no husband."

What should you do when you condemn yourself excessively?

The preacher invites us to put words to what accuses us: what in me is condemned? By naming it, we touch the root of the problem. We can then receive Jesus' word in John 8:11: "Neither do I condemn you," and peace returns.