Scripture: 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.”
Many Samaritans Believe
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.”
Consider:
We all love a good bit of gossip, don’t we? We may act like we don’t believe all that we hear, but when a story is fantastic and perhaps mildly believable, we often take the bait. I feel like it must have felt like juicy gossip as word of Jesus spread…but like any gossip, truth has to be “seen” to be believed.
So the Samaritan woman of this passage, once wary and marginalized, becomes an untrained but powerful witness to this gossip of Jesus’ knowledge and teaching. She doesn’t present a polished argument, however, she simply says, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did”. That sounds like a pretty tall tale, but interesting nonetheless. Her testimony is enough for many in her town to intrigued just enough to go see for themselves. This reminds us that God often uses ordinary people and imperfect, if not slightly wild, stories to draw others to hearing more about God.
*****As the Samaritans encounter Jesus personally, their faith deepens. They move from believing because of her testimony to believing because they have heard Him themselves (v. 42). Jesus points His disciples to this moment as a glimpse of the harvest: hearts already prepared, fields already ripe. The work of God is not always loud or immediate, but it is fruitful when truth is shared and received.
This passage invites us to trust both the power of our witness and the work of Christ beyond us. We are called to speak what we know of Him, and to trust that many may come to believe—not because we are impressive, but because Jesus is present and speaking.
Respond:
Pray:
