If You Can’t Stand the Heat…
John 4 is
another incredibly powerful chapter. In
the last chapter we essentially hear Jesus smashing to pieces the Jewish
concept of salvation. Jesus says that
one does not enter the kingdom by any means other than through the power of God
which comes in the sealing of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, salvation doesn’t come through our works. It doesn’t come through whether or not we
perfectly keep the Law. It doesn’t come
according to our lineage or heritage.
Now, Jesus
flees the Pharisees. Jesus has become a
little too powerful for their liking. So
Jesus heads to Samaritan land. What’s
worse is that when Jesus arrives in this Samaritan controlled land, he wants to
participate with the Samaritans! From a
Jewish perspective, you couldn’t get any more wrong than what Jesus is doing
here.
Jesus Continues to Break the Mold
But this
is not the end of the story. Jesus
approaches a woman. Jesus approaches a
Samaritan woman. Jesus approaches a
Samaritan woman who clearly has some issues with sexual sin in addition to
needing some correction on her concept of marriage.
Jesus
approaches her, associates Himself with her, and asks her for a drink. In other words, Jesus in going to take in
water that has been touch by a Samaritan woman and likely use a pitcher that
has been previously used by the Samaritan woman. From the perspective of the 1st century
Judaic interpretation of the Law, you can’t get more wrong than Jesus at this
moment.
What is
Jesus’ agenda? His agenda is no
different in this non-Jewish land than the agenda was when He was in land
dominated by Jews. He begins to teach
this woman about God, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. He begins the process of making a disciple. Honestly, pause for a moment and let this
soak in. Jesus has just taken a non-Jew
and begun the process of turning her into one of His disciples. As Gentiles, we might not think a thing of
it. But if we were first century Jews,
what Jesus is doing here is completely off the radar screen. If you don’t believe me, just look at how
Jesus’ disciples react to the whole situation in verse 27.
Jesus and the Woman
Look at
what Jesus does with this woman. Jesus
confronts the woman with her past. She’s
had five husbands, and the guy that she’s with now isn’t her husband. But here’s the really cool part. First, Jesus doesn’t let this be a barrier to
Him. Clearly it’s objectionable, or else
He wouldn’t have made a point of asserting what He knows about her claim in
saying “I have no husband.” The really
neat thing about this interaction is that the woman doesn’t balk at the truth. She doesn’t get defensive. She doesn’t try to rationalize her
behavior. She doesn’t do anything other
than accept the truth. In fact, she
accepts it so much that she considers Jesus to be a prophet. She receives Jesus’ words without feeling the
need to justify her sin. No wonder Jesus
came all this way to find this woman!
She responds to Jesus perfectly: accept admonition, sit at the feet of
the master, learn from the master, and then go tell others.
Jesus and His Disciples
That is
precisely what this woman does. Jesus’
disciples arrive, and the woman leaves to go tell other people about
Jesus. But before I go too far into the
woman’s response, let’s talk a bit about how the disciples respond. They are dumbfounded. First of all, Jesus isn’t hungry when He
should be hungry. Then He says something
about having food that they don’t know anything about.
Ouch.
I’m not
going to lie here. Jesus is essentially
telling His disciples that the spiritual interaction between Him and this
Samaritan woman sustained Him like no earthly food could. But what’s worse is that He chastises them by
saying that they know nothing about it.
In other words, the disciples don’t get what Jesus is up to here. The disciples aren’t ready. They’re following Jesus and learning what
they can, but they aren’t there yet.
They haven’t got a clue about what Jesus is up to yet. When you think about it, Jesus is looking to
them and saying, “I’m doing God’s work here; and you all haven’t got a clue.”
However,
Jesus does not give up on them, either.
He didn’t give up on the Samaritan woman because of her sin and her
heritage; He’s not about to give up on His disciples. So He now teaches them. In so many words, Jesus tells the disciples
that many people have labored long and hard to prepare this world for His
coming. They worked long and hard and
without too much harvest. Now the
disciples are being prepared to go out and reap the harvest for which they
really did not do much work. How cool is
that? Not only do the disciples not
“get” what Jesus is about, they are totally being invited to participate in
spite of their lack of spiritual understanding!
God is indeed merciful, gracious, and forgiving! In spite of their spiritual immaturity, there
is a place for them! The same is true
for us as well. We don’t need to
understand the fullness of God’s plan to be able to have a part in it!
The Woman’s Return
Then the
woman comes back. Even better – she
comes with a crowd that is curious about Jesus.
Do you notice what John writes about this crowd? They believe.
Unlike the crowd of Jews with which we ended John 2, here we have a
crowd of Gentiles that seem to legitimately believe. They believe not because of the woman’s
testimony only but because they have come, they have heard, and they recognize
the truth. Unlike the crowd in John 2,
Jesus stays with this crowd and trains them in the basics.
Before
moving on, let’s make sure that we don’t miss something quite important
here. What we have just read is Jesus’
first commissioning of a missionary-evangelist.
Perhaps not in so many words … but realistically, isn’t this Samaritan
woman the first missionary-evangelist about whom we hear in John’s account of
Jesus’ ministry? Here is a person that
hears about Jesus, takes the message back to her own culture (which is foreign
with respect to the Jews), and then talks about Jesus to her culture. God uses this woman to bring a whole town
into the possibility of having a genuinely meaningful relationship with Him.
There are
two points of which we should not lose sight. First, Jesus’ first genuinely called missionary-evangelist
was a woman. Nobody can deny this
fact. Jesus clearly uses this woman to
bring God’s Word to her contemporaries.
Second, she was also non-Jewish.
Jesus cares neither about her gender nor her lineage. What Jesus cares about is that her heart is
willing to embrace His truth. What are
the qualifications for ministry about which Jesus seems to care? Not gender.
Not heritage. Jesus cares about
spiritual openness to truth and a willingness to share it with others. We should learn from Jesus on this point.
The Official’s Son
I’m well
beyond my normal space, so I’ll make my comments on the official’s son
brief. Notice that the official comes to
Jesus. The official is proactive about
his need and his relationship with God.
Second, notice that the official trusts Jesus’ word. He doesn’t demand Jesus to come with
him. He doesn’t doubt. Jesus speaks; the official believes it to be
true. Third, the official believes even
more deeply upon experiencing God. When
we find the presence of God, it should draw us into a greater relationship with
God.
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