God’s Mission
John 4:1-26
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.
~ Jesus, John 4:10
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When 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.)
9 The 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.)
10 Jesus 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? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The 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.”
16 He 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. 18 The 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. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Pondering Point
Even when Jesus asks for someone else to serve Him (here a Samaritan woman), His focus is to serve her – and later her local community. Both Jesus and the woman, this new-found disciple of sorts, reach into her community. God calls us as missionaries in our local communities.
Jesus came and served in order to give life. When we serve like Jesus, we also do so in order to give rather than to gain. By the way, Jesus did gain from His serving. He gained the pleasure of His Father in Heaven. Jesus also gained relationships with people through serving. Those relationships became places where He poured Himself into others rather than trying to get something out of them for His benefit. Of course, the Father was already pleased with Him before He ever did anything in ministry (see Matthew 3:17). And before you ever do anything for God, your heavenly Father is already pleased with You thanks to Jesus. That said, how you choose to live also can bring Him pleasure (see 1 Thessalonians 4:1).
So, while it can be a wonderful thought to serve in order to bring pleasure to God, realize that He's already pleased with you before you bring Him any pleasure by your service. The primary joy is about being in relationship with God the Father through God the Son Jesus. God is already pleased with you. And hey, like with Jesus, it's wonderful to build relationships with people. Maintain a mentality that your role in any relationship is to be a blessing. You'll get plenty of blessings too, but make sure that your mindset continues to be that a server, not one to be served. If you're among other Christians, you'll have plenty of time to be on the receiving end of much love and service.
Prayer
Father God, teach me how to be a disciple who serves in my local community. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.