Free No Wasted Tears by Sylvia D. Carter Page A

‘Go call your husband.’ And, church, do you know why he said this, to make her realize what her problem was? She had to know how much she needed him. Her problem was a spiritual one. She was a sinner. That’s why he says, ‘Go call your husband!’ This changed the whole conversation because when Jesus told her to get her husband, she came face-to-face with her problem.
    “‘I have no husband,’ she replied evasively. She was startled by this strange request. She was even more startled by Jesus’s next remark: ‘You are right about that. You’ve had five husbands already, and the man you now have is not your husband.’
    “She deliberately gives an ambiguous answer. Why? Church, don’t you, like me, want to know why she answered this way? Is she single then? Or maybe she is a widow? But no, church, can I tell you she was neither? She deliberately gives an ambiguous answer.”
    Adam said with much conviction. “Church, let me tell you why. It’s because she wants to hide her shame. She is on her guard. She doesn’t want full exposure. Not yet, anyway.
    “Now, Greater Community,” Adam asked, “do you see yourself here? We too are good at using evasive tactics. We will admit that we are sinners, of course, but we prefer not to go into any details. ‘I have no husband’ is her curt reply. It is the truth, Church, but not the whole truth. Yet that is what Jesus is after, you all. He wants the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
    Adam continued by saying, “Now some men may not mind being number two or your back-up man. But that’s not how my Jesus rolls. He doesn’t play second to anyone, so he says, ‘Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.’
    “‘Go get your husband,’ Jesus said to this woman.” Adam looked out at the audience and asked them, “What would you say if Jesus came at you with this question?” He went on to say, “You do understand, Church, what he means by saying, ‘Bring me your husband,’ don’t you?”
    “Tell us, Pastor, tell us,” was the chorus throughout the sanctuary by men and women alike.
    Adam continued, “What Jesus was asking, Church, is this.”
    Being so caught up, he was jumping up and clapping his hands, and he even twirled around before saying, “Make Pastor feel like preaching, Church! Jesus was asking her to bring him her sin. Husband here means your sin, or whatever it is that you are thirsting for instead of God. What are you longing for or craving after? What do you live for every day?
    “Now, Greater Community, Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. But he’ll still ask you personal questions. He wants us to face the fact that we are sinners. If we confess all our sins to him and seek him, then he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Therefore, Greater Community, go call your husband. Tell Jesus what your sin is, confess it to him, and don’t try to cover it up.” He drew in a breath and released it slowly as he watched his congregation.
    “Greater Community, what I want you to realize this morning is that when Jesus tells this woman to get her husband, he puts his finger on the wound in her life that has not been healed, and it still causes her to hurt. It was maybe physical trauma, wherein you were torn or a cut to your soul or your heart was punctured and required emergency medical attention. His eyes came back to theirs, studying them for a pulsing moment before he continued.
    “That’s why he said what he said, Greater Community. It wasn’t to discourage her so that she would go away and never come back. No, Church, he meant for her to come back with her husband. Bring him here. Bring him to me!”
    “Greater Community,” he said, “go and I know that word touched many of our consciences, but he wants your hearts to say come.”
    Adam looked around. He was so moved by the response to the Word of the Lord. He saw