Have you ever studied a passage of Scripture and “wrung it out” to get everything you can from it, and someone points out something that illuminates the entire passage for you in an completely new way? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago.
A friend of mine, Don, taught a study on the woman at the well (John chapter 4) and I was privileged to be there. We’ve talked about the woman here, but Don gave a whole new perspective on the passage for me. As the story goes, Jesus was tired from His work and sat down by the well to rest. He had sent His disciples into town to buy food, and a woman came to the well to draw water. This woman was the lowest of the low in Jewish culture: she was a Samaritan, had been married five times, she was currently living with a man she was not married to.
Jesus spoke with her, though, and convinced her He was the Messiah. Jesus’ disciples returned with food for lunch as the woman was leaving to tell the people of the town what she had learned.
Most of us view the disciples as the elite Jesus chose to further His work and worthy of His instruction. If anyone was going to be sensitive to the spiritual needs of others, it should have been the disciples. But it was the woman, not the disciples, who returned to Jesus with much of the town’s population anxious to meet Him.
What were the disciples doing in town, then? They were sent there to buy food, but was that the main thing Jesus’ disciples were trained to do? No, they were trained to share the good news and bring people to Jesus. Why didn’t they?
I think they were focused just as we can get. We get our minds so set on something else when there is a whole town ready and willing to hear the good news, and in the midst of this we’re just buying lunch. That’s what our minds are on, and that’s all their minds were on. They didn’t apparently think of sharing the good news with the townsfolk.
To the Jewish culture, this woman at the well was the dregs of society, not worthy to even speak with. But Jesus shared with her, and she returned from town leading people to Jesus which was the job of the disciples, wasn’t it. Verse 38 tells us, Jesus wasn’t sending the guys into town just to buy food. He knew the people were ready to hear the gospel and wanted to show His disciples what they had missed. By concentrating on just one thing they missed an opportunity to further God’s kingdom:
John 4:38 (ESV) I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
When we go to the store, have our tires rotated, visit the doctor, pick up our kids at the library, or any other common task, we do the same thing. We become insensitive to those around us. We just want to get in, do our thing, and get out. I’m not sure we should.
Why is this important?
While I don’t think we all need to be street preachers or the obnoxious person in the line at the hardware store, we could certainly try to be more aware of the people around us: share a good morning, start a conversation. God may have a greater mission for us than the one we think we’re on. If we pay attention, He will point people out to us, maybe not very often, but what have we lost, a couple of minutes cheering up someone’s day?
Stephen Covey says, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” and he’s right. Of all the commands God has given us, I believe the Great Commission is at the top:
Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I think that’s the main thing.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 