Priorities
5 min read
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?”
John 4:27-29
The disciples had just come from the very same town that woman went back to. The disciples had gone there to buy food. The woman went there to evangelize concerning Jesus Christ. How amazing is that?
The disciples were supposed to be the ones telling the world about Jesus, but they were concerned only about their hunger. And so that is the first thing that they bring up to Jesus. But He says that there is something happening that is more important than eating. God had opened up a window of opportunity for people to be saved. But the disciples apparently did not think that the Samaritans were worthy of Christ’s salvation.
The woman, on the other hand, forgot completely about the water that she had drawn from the well and started telling the world about Jesus. And it’s not like her home town had been so kind to her. But the news that God’s Messiah had come overrides any ill feelings between them and her.
Furthermore, she was not even ashamed to make mention of her past, which obviously was morally questionable. But in light of the coming Messiah, her sense of shame and pride became totally inconsequential.
Am I going to be like the disciples—caring more about physical hunger and thirst than saving souls? Are there people in this world who I deem to be unworthy of my witness of Jesus Christ? Or am I going to be like this woman—completely consumed by Christ and needing to tell everyone about Him?
And I know the answer. To be honest, the sad fact is that I am more like the disciples than like the Samaritan woman in this episode.
And yet, my hope is in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. I know what I am supposed to do. So I will keep praying that God would make an effective witness of my Lord. The world needs Jesus and the world needs Jesus now.
Father, Forgive me for my complacency. Forgive me for considering my physical needs, and even the pursuit of material luxuries, to be more important than bearing witness to Jesus to a dying world. Give me a heart to share Christ with people like this woman. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
