“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
Upon finding Jesus, the first thing a new convert does is to go and tell. (John 1:41) She shared her great joy much as the woman who had lost the coin in the parable Jesus told in (Luke 15:9), but she didn’t just rejoice with them, she also invited them to come and share her joy by getting to know Jesus for themselves.
John 1:41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
Luke 15:9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
She told everyone in town who will listen. Matthew Henry observed that Jesus told her to call her husband and instead she called everyone she knew.
The people she went to tell about Christ were her friends and neighbors in her home town. Our best opportunities are with those with whom we are closest. Maybe that is why Jesus later told His disciples to start their evangelizing in Jerusalem and work their way out (Acts 1:8).
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“everything I ever did” was an exaggeration which indicates the effect the disclosures by Jesus about her life had on her.
“Could this be the Christ?” is put as a question to avoid immediate rejection and invoke curiosity. Morris points out that “it is as though a negative answer might be expected, but a positive one is hoped for.” Notice that she does not go into a dissertation of what she believes about Christ — she just invites them to meet Jesus for themselves. She tells them enough to whet their appetites to see and hear Him for themselves, and then she leads them to Christ and lets Him do the evangelizing. We don’t have to be Bible scholars to bring people into the kingdom — all we need to do is introduce them to Jesus and He will do the rest.
McGarvey makes this observation about the “woman’s change of mind concerning Jesus. She first called him “Jew,” then “Sir,” then “prophet,” #4:9,11,19 and now she invites her city to come forth and see “the Christ.”” (McGarvey TFG 151)
Like her, our knowledge of Jesus is a continually increasing revelation.
Centuries ago, Aretius said of this woman and her journey from town that “She who went forth a specimen of impurity returns a teacher of evangelical truth.” God can use anybody, any time He wants. He used this Samaritan woman to save her whole town. What can He do through you?