Today we begin a new series that looks at what it entails to be all about your Father’s Kingdom; and making the business of God your business. Reading from Luke 2, after Mary and Joseph had sought Jesus whom they assumed to be travelling back home with them after the annual feast; we read that they found him back in the temple, learning and asking questions from the teachers. Jesus responded to them, “And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). This is what He was all about, doing the will of the Father; and letting nothing of this world attempt to derail Him from this mission. And at His time of ascension, the Lord Jesus gave His followers a mandate of their own, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 18:19). During His time on earth, we are also told of a time that Jesus Himself evangelized to the woman of Samaria, and there are many lessons He left behind in that regard to assist us in our own remaining mission.
Reading the story in John 4,the Lord’s intentionality in catching this particular fish was evident (John 4:4), it is clear that He was on a mission from the beginning. He positioned Himself at the well, which was a commonplace for that society; people normally gathered there and conducted business and related socially. So while He was there, the woman of Samaria came through to the wall to draw water. Jesus then initiated the conversation, saying to her, “Give Me a drink” (v.7) – showing us the power of humbling oneself to make the other person at ease. A humble approach lowers the guard of strangers, who then immediately feel comfortable that they are in a position of strength as far as you are concerned. The woman showed initial resistance (v.9), but the Lord was not discouraged by that, He went on to present His intended subject matter, responding to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (v.10). As the woman inquired about what such water is it that is ‘living’, the Lord again responded, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (v.13-14). The Lord was not deterred by the woman’s derailing questions, nor did He assume His approach was not working: He just remained steady and kept making His case, line upon line and precept upon precept.
At this point, the woman was intrigued, and she responded, “”Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw” (v.15); it was at this point that the Lord employed another strategy to fully hook her, asking her about herself and making her the subject of the conversation – “Go, call your husband, and come here” (v.16). The woman told Jesus that she had no husband, to which the Lord affirmed through the revelation of the Spirit, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly” (v.17). The truth is, we can have many discussions with people, but the power of the Holy Spirit in display has the ability to travel where the wisdom of men cannot, and the minister in a way that opens the heart of men for receiving. Indeed, we see the woman’s tone begin to change after this, responding, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (v. 19-20). She had now seen that Jesus carried something unusual, but she was still derailing the conversation with idle words. The Lord, remaining sure on mission, responded, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (v.21-24). He was determined to not be distracted into parallel discussions, but to deliver the message of the Father to this woman, who then said, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things” (v.25). It was at this point that the Lord finally revealed Himself, and confirmed that He was indeed the Christ that she was talking about (v.26). Upon the arrival of the disciples, the woman left the waterpot, and became the first evangelist after the name of Jesus that we see in the scriptures – going into her city and crying out to all who would listen, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (v.29).
The disciples, not privy to all that had just occurred, implored Jesus to eat some food, but He responded to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (v.34). Going on to address the need for servants who would do the work of the ministry, He went on, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not laboured; others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours” (v.35-38). The Lord was teaching them, and us, that it is rare that one plants and reaps at the same time, and that often, the word of God is planted and only after a period of time, will it be harvested by someone else at the point of the individual’s eventual acceptance of the gospel. But today, many want to plant and reap all at once, not appreciating that various persons can play a role in the harvesting of one soul but we all belong to one kingdom. We do not need to be set against each other or trying to outdo one another through meaningless rivalries, we are literally on one team! With that in mind, we should always make it a point to keep speaking and preaching the name of Jesus, because we do not know how far along the journey the individual is; for some it will be a seed, for some, they will just be at the gate of the kingdom of heaven! After the woman’s testimony, many came to find Jesus, and after two days with Him, many said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (v.42). Never stop preaching the gospel!
Prayer
Father, we thank You for your word, that outlines our great commission and gives us wisdom for the execution. We thank you, for boldness to minister your name and for the opportunities that you have availed that we declare your name to our generation. We thank you for continually aligning our steps to your will for our lives, and that you indeed have never left nor forsaken us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
