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Tuesday
Jun 28th, 2022
By: Matthew Sink
The Gospel of John-Day 17

John 4:27-42 Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile His disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then His disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought Him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

This account of Jesus and the Samaritans touched me. They reveal so much about Him, which in contrast reveals something about me.

Jesus always noticed those on the margins. The Samaritans definitely fit that bill. Notorious half-breeds, their very existence plagued their Israelite neighbors. Jews looked down on them and scorned them and avoided them at every turn. But Jesus made it a point to go to Samaria, and He didn’t hurry.

Jesus always had time for seekers. He invested the best of Himself in His followers, and He regularly stayed in the ear of the religious leaders of the day, but the third group Jesus made time for was seekers. If someone approached Him with sincere questions, no matter how wrong the person’s lifestyle, Jesus made time. In Samaria, He stayed an extra two days just because the people asked Him.

Jesus always had compassion for the lost. Put simply, the effects of sin broke Jesus’ heart. He didn’t excuse sin; He didn’t ignore sin; He didn’t shrug at sin, ever. He DID weep at the effects of sin. In Samaria, Jesus make first contact with an immoral, scandalous woman, and His compassion for her is on the surface.

Jesus lived life on a mission. He goes to Samaria because He “has” to go to Samaria. He skips supper to talk to this lady because “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Jesus never lost sight of why He came to earth, and He lived His entire life on a mission from God.

Lord, make me more like Jesus.