More of Jesus’ Mission John 4:27-42
Unnamed people most often are not remembered; the world in which we live basically teaches the opposite: You have to try and “make a name for yourself!” The Samaritan woman at the well remains nameless to us to this day, but Jesus’ encounter with her has been taught millions of times, and the most important thing is that Jesus revealed Himself to her as the Messiah, and He remains the central figure of the story, and central to our lives, as He rightly should.
We heard Jesus’ own revelation of Himself to us and to the woman in John 4: 26: “I who speak to you am He.” We saw that literally He said to her to: “I “I am”, the one speaking to you” or “I, the one speaking to you, I AM.” Jesus was revealing himself to the woman as the Messiah planned from all eternity and promised throughout the entire Old Testament History period, The Great and Grand, “I Am”, God revealed in the flesh. Today we look at God’s Word in John 4:27-42 (NAS):
“27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?" 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.”
As Jesus makes His self-identifying statement, the disciples returned and were amazed…amazed that Jesus was speaking to a woman. We don’t understand how UNcharacteristic it was for a Jewish teacher to be speaking face to face with a Samaritan woman who was living immorally, especially in broad daylight, in public, and willing to share HER waterpot! You should not even be speaking this way with your own wife! In the prejudicial and judgmental legalistic society of that day, Jesus should have been cursing this woman instead of bringing shame and dishonor upon Himself by sitting and speaking with her, but Jesus’ Mission WOULD BE FREE of PREJUDICE and full of GODLY COMPASSION, an UNEARTHLY compassion, which always includes sympathy AND empathy, and then moves to actually DO SOMETHING to heal sin-broken broken hearts. (Jesus acted upon the Father’s Love and came to DIE for sinners; that’s what He did!
The disciples probably didn’t curse the woman or question Jesus because they had already learned that Jesus was NOT like other Rabbis, nor for that matter, any human being that they had ever met…And the woman doesn’t wait around for them to start criticizing her either. She abandoned her original water-drawing mission, leaving her valued water jug behind to share the news openly in the town square. THIS IS the case, isn’t it, when people are convicted within themselves by God’s Word: they abandon their personal mission for one the heavenly one which is FAR MORE VALUABLE.
Her reaction to Jesus’ self-declaration of being the Christ and to His miraculous knowledge of her immoral personal past history was to go into town and testify to the town people during the day, the absolute uniqueness of this prophet she had just met. Even though He told her of her past sins, He did so with compassion; Jesus’ divine knowledge of her own past sin had impacted her heart in the presence of the Prophet to such a degree that she made a public testimony: “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?
Her testimony caused an immediate response from the townspeople in verse 30: “They went out of the city and were coming to Him” and we’ll look at the impact in minute; but first look at 31-34: “Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
Jesus’ Mission is to feed the hungry with UNEARTHLY FOOD. Heavenly, Spiritual Food-The disciples were famished and they had gone up the hill to town to get food, and when they returned with the food, their fatigued teacher didn’t want to eat. They say to each other, “Maybe someone shared something with him while we were gone, but that would be unusual in this neighborhood.” And Jesus offers a response to instruct them concerning Jesus’ own statement of MISSION and DEVOTION: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” His response reminds us of the response that Jesus made when He was tempted by the devil, (Matt. 4:4) when He quoted Deut. 8:3: “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”
Jesus’ Mission is to feed the hungry with UNEARTHLY FOOD. Jesus isn’t talking about literal, physical food; He is alluding to His higher and greater calling, a far higher satisfaction by DOING THE WILL OF GOD. Obedience to the Father’s will is Jesus’ concern: HE MUST FOLLOW THE FATHER’S WILL PERFECTLY, flawlessly, always, every moment exercising nothing BUT PERFECT submission to the PERFECT will of the One who sent Him. It is the ONLY way for Him to fulfill the salvation plan ordained before the foundation of the world for those who would believe, and that Father’s Perfect Plan would finally culminate on Christ’s perfect LIFE freely being given His as a spotless substitutionary atonement on the Cross at the place called Golgotha, “the place of the Skull,” when Jesus would declare with his last breath: “It is finished!”
Jesus immediately gives an earthly agricultural example to his disciples to point out a truth concerning the eternal significance of His Mission: something spiritual to chew on. (pun intended!) Look at verses 35-38:
"Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest '? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 "Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 "For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."
Jesus starts this section by the words, “do you not say,” which would indicate a proverb or maybe even a local saying pertaining to the periods of the agricultural year. This particular saying was not very well known over a wide geographical area, but JESUS KNEW IT and used it for his young disciples. The agricultural year in their society was divided into six two-month periods, and there were four months between the end of seed-time and the beginning of harvest. This might have birthed a proverbial saying that there is no hurry for any particular task; the seed may be planted, but there is no way of getting round the months of waiting. In other words, GROWTH IS SLOW and it can’t be hurried.
But Jesus did not agree with this proverb when it came to HIS SPIRITUAL MISSION and DEVOTION for the Kingdom of God. Jesus is explaining to His disciples that there is an urgency in His Task: Eternity is at Stake: Jesus comes to die and save those who will hear respond and commit to salvation in Him ALONE. The Gospel Message is to be heralded throughout the world for all to hear and it would also be the Kingdom Task and Calling of the disciples.
There are always those who are sowing, and some are nurturing, some reaping, but they should not be in competition with one another if they are all sharing in the call of the Kingdom of God. Sowing is hard and toiling work, many times with very little joy. The one who sows shouldn’t be jealous of the one who is reaping but the two should rejoice together in the harvest, knowing that NO SERVICE WOULD HAPPEN at all ASIDE FROM the completed task of the LORD JESUS. Most of us will die in a bed of some kind with clean sheets and pillows and with the care and compassion of family and friends, of nurses and doctors, But the PERFECT SON Jesus would die outside the city, rejected and condemned by ALL INCLUDING HIS HEAVENLY Father on a Cross of Crucifixion. We have to put, not only our deaths, but every part of our own lives into the PERSPECTIVE of Christ and that CROSS of Death!!!!
What Jesus expected was for His disciples to be reapers. The time spent with Jesus was training. This was the time of the disciples’ lives when they would be giving significant service to the Kingdom of God, even to death; God would use them to reap what they did not sow. They would NEVER be abandoned by God, and could ONLY reap because JESUS first gave His life: It is only through Him that eternal life can be reaped by anyone.
Look at the closing verses 39: From that city many of the Samaritans BELIEVED IN (or INTO) HIM because of the word of the woman who testified, (this is what she said to everyone who already knew her past) "He told me all the things that I have done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking HIM to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 Many more BELIEVED because of HIS WORD; 42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we BELIEVE, for we have heard for ourselves and know that THIS ONE is indeed the SAVIOR of the world."
You can see the highlighted important words in those verses; First, many believed because of the testimony of the Nameless women who had been married time and time again and now was living in sin with someone else. (He told me all the things that I have done). How could He have known, a stranger to our town and so they invited to stay with them; Maybe this is the Prophet promised? But after they heard the WORDS FROM THE WORD who was God Incarnate, God in the Flesh, The Son, MANY MORE BELIEVED and they believed because they HEARD FOR THEMSELVES! Her witness was true about Him and now we believe because we have heard Him for ourselves. I thought about the line in that Hymn: HOW SWEET THE NAME OF JESUS SOUNDS TO A BELIEVER’S EAR. You never get tired of hearing about Jesus and you never tire of TELLING ABOUT Jesus because Jesus’ Mission has indeed revealed Himself as SAVIOR as YOUR SAVIOR. AMEN?
This past Thursday, the Church around the World celebrated the Ascension of this same Jesus, forty days after Resurrection/Easter Morning. This same Jesus ascended to Heaven to the right hand of God the Father, the place of ultimate authority in all the Universe. This same Jesus ASCENDED but maintains His Holy presence NEARBY in the lives of Believers through God the Holy Spirit, as they continue to bring glory to His Holy Name through their witness, their worship and through their lives. We exclaim that Jesus Salvation has come to the World and today is the day to come in humility and receive faith and grace from Him in order to believe, to be forgiven of your past and follow Him. The mission and message of the Church is to continue to proclaim that message to a World who will be lost without Him.
I noticed that as this account ends in John 4, we don’t read that Jesus had anything to eat or drink, although I am sure He did, but I doubt VERY MUCH that He ate without relaying the WORD that was pertinent to and in perfect conformity to the Will of God and His own purpose in His coming in the flesh, that was to TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THOSE WHO WERE LOST IN THE MAZE of their own self-worship and denial of the ONLY God WHO IS and has been revealed through the Word of God and through the Son and Spirit of God.
As believers, we KNOW THAT THIS SAME JESUS who talked with the nameless Samaritan woman is THE SAME JESUS WHO WILL most definitely return from HEAVEN, and it will be far sooner than any of the World expects, so there is definitely an urgency for believers in Christ to focus on the Gospel task which is at hand.
It is astounding that God continues to extend His Grace to sinful mankind, and it is more astounding that, in His Infinite Wisdom and Providence, He uses people like you and me to extend that Love. To God alone be the Glory for the Great things that He has done through Jesus, the Son.
Outline:
I. Vs.27-30: Jesus’ Mission is free of Prejudice and full of Compassion.
II. Vs. 31-34: Jesus’ Mission is to feed the hungry with UNEARTHLY food.
III. Vs. 35-38: Jesus’ Mission is one of URGENCY!
Jesus gives an earthly agricultural example explain a spiritual truth concerning the eternal significance of His Mission.
IV. Vs. 39-42: Jesus’ Mission reveals Himself as Savior.
Jesus death and resurrection resulted in His Ascension: 1. This Jesus ASCENDED to Heaven to the right hand of God the Father, the place of ultimate authority in the Universe. 2. This Jesus maintains His Holy presence NEARBY. 3. This JESUS will return from HEAVEN.
