A few days ago, I heard James Robison make a statement that struck home to me. “If they are going to reject Jesus, let’s make sure they know who they are rejecting.” I was reminded of what Jesus said to the woman at the well in Samaria. “If you knew who was speaking to you, you would ask him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). So many people have rejected a distortion of Jesus but have not yet really seen him. It is hard to imagine that you could see him even slightly and reject him, but many still walk in darkness.

I was in a hurry as I parked my truck in the garage. I noticed a young man standing outside holding a clipboard and a pen. I was strangely drawn to talk with him though I didn’t really have time. He was getting signatures on a petition for changing some zoning issues in the city. He told me he had been in the terrible hurricane in New Orleans several years back and now lived in this area trying to get his life started.

The conversation got around to my asking if he were a Christian. “Oh, I guess I believe in God, but I went to church with my grandma, and it didn’t seem to offer much. There is still too much judgmentalism and hypocrisy among church folks.”

I asked, “Do you have time for a short story?” He seemed eager after asking if I wanted to sit down. I guess he was concerned about a senior citizen standing so long in the front yard.

I began: “The God of creation created Adam and Eve to enjoy him and partner with him in developing the earth. He provided everything they needed to have life at its best. For every desire there was a matching fruit on the trees in the garden. The deceiver approached them and cast suspicion on the nature and intentions of the God they loved and adored. They chose to listen to the lies, and became estranged from him. But he loved them so much that he spent hundreds of years preparing a time for another Adam to come. It was his own Son who came and when the moment of temptation came, he trusted his Father rather than the deceiver.

“This Adam was our substitute. He lived as us. He died in our place. He was raised from the dead for us and now sits at the right hand of the Father guaranteeing an eternal place for us. He has sent the same Spirit that raised him from the dead to live in us and now we can live reconciled to God and free to partner with him in developing his earth while enjoying everyday fellowship with him. Believing him causes us to turn from our foolish and wicked ways. We have found something that satisfies the desires that have previously driven us to pursue idols that destroy us.”

The look in his eyes said, “that’s enough.” “If that story is true why wouldn’t anyone want to believe that?”

“My point!” I said. “Can I pray with you?”

We bowed in the front yard, a handsome young black man hugging an older white man, both oblivious to age and race. Afterward we talked of how he could grow and find a faith community in which to discover more of this glorious story that changes everything.

And I got to my next appointment on time.

I am so sorry that we have been guilty of presenting a Jesus that doesn’t resemble the true Son of God. I am also sorry that many seem to hold on to their religious images and refuse to see who is right before them. Like the woman of Samaria, we live with shame and condemnation arguing about which religious view is correct, while Jesus stands in our midst offering a water from another world that satisfies desires that earthly water can never quench.

Let us tell the story often and boldly. Though thousands have attended church services and religious events, many have never heard. They still cling to or reject a faulty view of the only person who loves us completely. We don’t have to change people. God does that when they see him and trust him. We don’t have to fix them. We do get to love them and when we do we will love to tell them the story. Love and truth are transforming.