Whoever, wherever you
might be, whether a man called Nicodemus...a master of israel, or an
unnamed, outcast adultress at a desert well, Jesus would have offered
you living water, if you had given Him the opportunity!
The first three verses of
chapter four explain to us that Jesus didn't want to get in John's
way, nor was He ready yet, to tangle with the Jews; nor did He have
any time to waste, having only three short years to accomplish the
eternal purposes of God...to do the will of His Father. He refused
to be slowed down by the mounting controversy, or to be hurried along
by those who were waiting for the Kingdom. Today, Jesus would be
known as an itinerate preacher, or a travelling evangelist...similar,
perhaps, to someone the likes of Billy Graham. But unlike him,
Jesus' ministry was to end on a cross, so He wasted no time in
bringing sinners to the Truth.
You know, as we look at
ch. 4, just as in the chapter that preceded it, we are struck by the
obvious fact that Jesus cares for people. He must, or He wouldn't
have taken the time that he did, to administer the love and concern
that they so obviously needed. Three thousand years previously, as
we read in Psalm 142.4, King David had cried out..."No man
careth for my soul...!" and that would be true for any one of us
today! No man does...but our Lord does, and David knew it, as he
wept in vs. 5 of that passage..."You are my refuge and portion
in the land of the living!" We read in Romans 5.8..."God
commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us"! And that "us" included us and
ours, and Nicodemus and the Samaritan adultress and every man, woman
and child born since His death and resurrection. Jesus' priority
while He trod this sod, was to tell the lost about the new birth, as
we saw in the last lesson. And that's exactly what He continued to
do, throughout this current lesson.
First of all, we see
here...
1. A confrontation
with a sinner, 4.4-8
"And He must needs go
through Samaria", vs. 4. Why, do you suppose? The Jews were
hated in Samaria because of bad blood between the two peoples. You
see, the Samaritans had become a mixed race of Jews and Gentiles,
with a little of us and a little of them, so in the strictest sense,
Jesus should never have been there; other Jews would have walked for
miles out of the way to avoid their territory. Jesus would have gone
out of His way too, as the Pharisees probably did, but the Pharisees'
way was not God's way! Jesus' way was the way of the people, and in
this case, as always, that meant doing His Father's will at a well
curb in Sychar!
Now He didn't stop by that
little town by chance; in fact, He was expecting that woman to come
to that particular well at that particular time! For me, that's a
comfort, knowing that Jesus knows what my plans are for the day, even
though they may not always bring glory to Him. He knows when we need
to have a little talk, and believe me, we often do! And don't you
worry, Jesus knows what our lives are like, and how difficult it is
to tell it all to Him. Don't you suppose He winced when He heard His
own mother, Mary, gossiping on the telephone? Or when Joseph hit his
thumb with the mallet and said a bad word? Sure He did! He knows
full well that life isn't easy to live, even for those closest to
Him.
So, He had to go
through Samaria. God knew people there who needed to hear the Truth
(with a capital "T"). You see, Jesus was unlike the people
of His day, just as He is unlike people today...He put the Father
first, without considering His own preferences, or even His personal
safety. In this case, there was a woman who, according to God's
calendar, was scheduled for a call to salvation, and it was Jesus'
responsibility to see that she had the opportunity to "get
saved", as we would say. It seems that, regardless of who we
are, or where we are, we are still within His reach..."The
Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear
heavy, that it cannot hear", Isaiah 59.1. We can't escape His
hand on our lives! Even a poor, wretched, lost woman like this one,
had a soul worth saving, and she didn't even know it, till she had
a not-so-little talk with Jesus.
You know, this woman was
an outcast, even among her own people. Noontime in Samaria was not
the time to go to the well to fetch water for her household; that was a job for the early morning hours, the coolest part of the day, but
she would rather travel alone in order to avoid the ridicule of the
other women of the village. After all, from what we read further on,
she had probably slept with some of their husbands! But even at
that, she really was no different from any other sinner that ever
walked the face of the earth. Certainly, her sin separated her from
God (Isaiah 59.2), but we read in Psaln 58.3 that..."The wicked
are estranged (from God) from the womb; they go astray as soon as
they are born". We are sinners from our birth, but thank-you
Jesus, He wants to reconcile our differences! His work is to bridge
the gap between us and eternity, and that's exactly what was to take
place in the life experience of this estranged Samaritan woman.
One of the very reasons
for Jesus coming to this world was to witness at that well. I've
heard it said that our Lord must have really loved the common man,
'cause He sure made a bunch of us! And to prove it, He keeps the
sweet things of the word, right there on the middle shelf, within
easy reach when we're up to our eyeballs in our troubles!
And it doesn't get any
sweeter than this, where we read in the next few verses, of...a
conversation with a sinner, vss. 9-14...in the next installment.
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