Read: John 4:27-42
THEME: The Gospel record gives us so many examples of how people engaged with Jesus that it would be hard to find a human challenge that did not in some way meet Him face-to face.
It is amazing to think that a city was introduced to Jesus by someone who had virtually been hiding in their midst. The first they knew about Jesus being in town was when a woman came running from the direction of the well, shouting ‘come and see, come and see’. As a crowd gathered around her, she breathlessly re-enforced her invitation ‘Come and see me a man 2who told me all that I ever did’.
Looks were exchanged as some began to realise who she was, and started recalling the rumours they had heard about her frequently troubled domestic arrangements. How could she be so excited about someone raking over all of that? But in the midst of their raised eyebrows a question was hitting home, ‘Could this be the Christ?’ Something had definitely happened to her and it was well worth a look, so they went back to the well with her and persuaded Jesus to stay.
After two days, as Jesus moved on, they turned to the woman and said ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard Him ourselves and know that He is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world’. It is impressive to see how a liberated recluse could impact a city after being asked for a drink of water.
In our sophistication we may no longer gather around wells but some of us have conversations around the office water-cooler. We are probably naturally more outgoing than the woman who had made a habit of avoiding crowds.
May we be inspired to tell our story and to introduce others to Jesus.