May 30, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Well, Well, Well!

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Good Lord, fill me this day with the living water and food that nourishes my soul unto everlasting life.

Read John 4:27-42

[27] 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?” [28] Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, [29] “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” [30] They came out of the town and made their way toward him. [31] Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” [32] But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” [33] Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” [34] “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. [35] 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. [36] 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. [37] Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. [38] 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.” [39] Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” [40] So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. [41] And because of his words many more became believers. [42] 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.”

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright &copy 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.&reg Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

Jesus uses every opportunity to reach and teach both those who know him as Savior and Lord, and those who don’t.

I love what John writes about the disciples’ return to Jesus at Jacob’s well after they went to town for lunch: they “were surprised to find him talking with a woman” (27). They knew “what kind of woman” she was. They knew the societal rules; and the fact that she was a Samaritan would or should preclude Jesus from talking with her. They were still coming to an understanding of who Jesus was, how he worked, with how he did ministry. It would serve as a lesson for them that left an indelible mark. John remembered, and included this story in his Gospel.

And this woman, running back to Sychar, shouting what she had experienced, would not only bring attention to herself, but might raise an eyebrow or two because of her reputation: this “man (who) told me everything I ever did (29).” Her testimony wasn’t polished, but was intriguing and would certainly bring a town out to meet Jesus! Maybe it was because of how hardened her heart had become, and how changed she now appeared. Or maybe it was that the Spirit of God, evident in her heart, drew them to check out this man!

I can just see Jesus, looking toward Sychar, seeing the people coming down the hill to the well, pointing for the apostles: “(The fields) are ripe for the harvest” (35). And the food that filled them no longer interested him because the food that fed his heart and his spirit was the food of seeing the Father work, of doing his will and watching souls come into the Kingdom (34). Just as Jesus promised living water, so he also knows the food that nourishes us, fills us now, and lasts forever. He offers us that same spiritual food every day.

Apply

How are you fed “spiritual food” from Jesus? What “feeds” you? Doing his will? Leading others to him? How will you be “fed” today?

Closing prayer

Father, feed me that I might see the fields “white unto harvest” and seek to lead others to You by Your Holy Spirit.

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