CCF: So That You May Know The Mission
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| Image courtesy of LDS.org |
Have you ever wondered why no matter how much you accomplished or how much you have you still want more? John Chapter 4 reveals to us how our hearts are wired and how only God can satisfy us.
“It’s strange to be known so universally and yet be so lonely.” — Albert Einstein
“Sometimes I think the only people who stay with me and listen to me are the people I pay.” —Marilyn Monroe
John 4 accounts the longest private conversation between Jesus and another person recorded in the Gospel. Why would Jesus spend so much time with this unnamed woman of questionable character? What does he wants us to learn from this passage?
John tells us that as Jesus performs miracles, his popularity grew and because of this He left Judea and went back to Galilee where He need to pass by Samaria. At the town of Sychar, Jesus met the Samaritan woman and spoke to her.
The God of the Bible is the God who meets us where we are, as we are so that He can take us from where we are to where we should be. No other religion in the world demonstrate this kind of love.
The Samaritan woman was desperate for she came to draw water in the afternoon trying to avoid people because of her reputation. She was also surprised and suspicious to find Jesus speaking to her. As Jesus tells her about the Living water, she was quick to ask for the water so she won’t get thirsty and need to draw water anymore.
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’” — John 4:13-15
Very often we undermine what God is telling us because we come to Him in desperation and suspicion. Often times our relationship with God is transactional - Just do this for me Lord; Please settle this problem. Then if things does not happen our way, we get disappointed. We get disappointed with the God of our expectations and not with the God of the Scripture. We get disappointed because God becomes less of someone to us and more of something to us.
In verse 21, the woman was frustrated trying to drift away the conversation with Jesus from her real issues. Our desperation can lead us to God but often times we hear from God what we wanted to hear from Him. Desperation can cloud our eyes, because confronting our failures and problem is difficult.
The people in the town was surprised on how Jesus treated the Samaritan woman. While He knew everything about the woman yet He did not condemn her and even offered her the Living water. Similarly, Jesus invested in your life for your own sake. Jesus came while you are sinner. Jesus loves you in spite of your shortcomings.
The Samaritan woman came as a desperate woman, surprised by a stranger, stayed as a frustrated woman, taught by a Prophet and find herself liberated by the Messiah.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come The old has gone, the new is here!” — 2 Corinthians 5:17
If you find yourself frustrated and helpless, cease striving and come to Jesus. Your heart will never be satisfied by what you do. Why are you striving and working for that which will perish?
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. — Matthew 11:28
You will not find your mission until you have been found by the Messiah.
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