John 4
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.
- It reveals the humanity of Jesus - v6 says He was tired from the journey. The Christian journey may sometimes make us tired, and burned-out. Sometimes we feel its so boring, and sometimes due to various meticulous teachings and doctrines we feel burdened and depressed. Others expectations of us i.e. how we are suppose to live, or act at certain times and in certain places etc tend to cause conflicts within us and our relatioships. For example, Jesus' ministry was growing and He empowered His disciples to baptize others that have come to believe in Him, and here are the Pharisees who could not stand His success "forcing" at him. He had to leave because of them. Read this (don't miss it) - what they did to him did not make him tired, but what made him tired was what he had to do to be away from the so called "hypocrites", "dream killers and haters" who don't want him to be successful. And frankly, there are people like that everywhere - workplaces, marketplaces, neighbourhoods, schools, churches etc. People who get envious of your success and want you out of their way. But see, the God in you is not limited by space, territory, or circumstances. What He did in Judea - He did in Samaria, He's still doing it and will continue to do as long as we allow Him. It's not really about what people do to us but the God in us. And if God cannot be limited by what people do to us, then we can't be limited too. Because He dwells in us. Choose to not be limited/discouraged by what others do to you.
- It also reveals the Power of God - Thus says the Lord "its not by might nor strength but by my Spirit". The power of a Believer dwells in the Spirit of God in that Believer. Our strength, will, zeal, desires etc, are all dependent on how much of God resides in us. Jesus refused to give up. He was tenacious and determined. He never leaned upon His physical strength (because that will fail as we read above that he was tired), but the Spirit of God inside of Him was so strong that even in His encounter with this Samaritan woman - God was revealed. May God be revealed in you today. Everyone has a weakness but God was revealed in Jesus' weakness. May He be revealed in yours too. Paul in II Corinthians 12: 10 says -"That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." My prayer today is for God to be revealed in me - even in my weakness. What are your weaknesses? Do you know them? You could be pray same prayer for yourself or others that you know. I'll stop here today.