Who you gonna believe: a paid endorser or a satisfied customer?

The answer is as obvious as the question.  Of course, we’re going to believe the satisfied customer of a product or service over the person who’s only hawking it because they’re paid to.

Years ago, infomercials with “pitch men” were selling virtually every $19.99 product on television.  They’d show you how this product was amazing at whatever it did.  Then they’d get to the pitch of how much you’d get for the low (low!) price of $19.99.

But there was always something “off” about it.  After all, they were paid to say these things.  You know what made me buy some of these products?  When people I knew said they’d used it and it was fantastic. 

Why?  I was skeptical of the paid endorser but I believed the satisfied customer.

Time and again, we see the power of the “satisfied customer” in the Scriptures.  In today’s passage, we finish the story of the woman at the well and see the same thing.

Last week, we looked at the disciples when they returned from their grocery run and Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman.  Intermixed in their attempt to get Jesus to eat are the events of our passage today.

After Jesus told her He was the long-prayed-for Messiah, we read in John 4:28-30, 39-42:

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him

…

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

John 4:28-30, 39-42
New International Version

When she left Jesus after His telling her “I Am the Messiah…” (John 4:26), she went back to Sychar and told them “Come, see a man who told me all my sins!”  She was excited not just because He told her of her sins but because of the change in her life as a result.  Thus, they all came out of the town and started heading toward Him to see for themselves.

It was a special day for her.  It was the day her sins were washed away and she was given hope, life, and freedom.  She was given the hope only the Master can give.

But it was also a special day for the Samaritans who went out to meet Jesus.  Verses 39-42 inform us “many…Samaritans…believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”  They all came to the faith in Jesus as their Messiah all because one woman shared her story.

No complex theology.  No complicated arguments.  She just said, “Come…see…believe.”

It’s hard to argue with someone’s story.  You can’t look at them and say, “That didn’t happen to you!”.  Brothers and sisters in Jesus, remember: YOU are the satisfied customer of Jesus.  It’s YOUR story you are sharing.

Brother or sister in Jesus, what would happen if Jesus made such a change in our lives that we told everyone we knew?

What if the change was so significant, they couldn’t help but see the difference in us?

What if Jesus so changed our lives that we went to everyone we knew and avoiding theological arguments simply said, “Come…see…believe”?

Christian, when was the last time you shared your story of satisfaction with Jesus with someone else?  The world is dying to hear.  And they’re reaching their hands out to us.  Will we tell them of our satisfaction with Jesus or will we stay silent hoping a “paid endorser” will come along and try?