Jesus And The Samaritan Woman II (J15)

The disciples returned in time to hear
The last exchange between Jesus and she;
“When Messiah comes, there’ll be no more fear;”
“I, with whom you have been speaking, am He!”
The woman left in a rush; when she’d gone,
No one dared to say or ask anything
About Jesus and the woman alone;
They urged Him to eat the food they did bring;
He demurred, “I have food you know not of!
Open your eyes; look at the fields of white,
Ready for reaping; new souls for above;
My bread is to do my Father’s will right!”
His eyes were on the people approaching,
Disciples chastened by His reproaching!

“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?’ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ [Messiah] They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’ Then his disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought him food?’ ‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. … I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest.’ “ (John 4:27-35) [Brackets added] (The complete text for this second poem on “Jesus and the Samaritan Woman) is contained in John 4:25-36.)

The disciples visualized the Samaritan town of Sychar and Jacob’s well as a convenient place to eat lunch, take a break, and then to get out of as quickly as possible. Jesus looked at it as a field of lost souls, ready for winning to the Lord. Up till now, the disciples had thought that only Jews were eligible for salvation. Samaritans were partly Jewish, but since they worshiped a golden calf and had intermarried with Canaanites and other races, they were despised like Gentiles, who were also ineligible for salvation. What a shock did these Jewish believers have coming! God was the Creator of the world and all its people, and He loved Gentiles and Samaritans just as much as Jews; salvation was open to all the people on earth. God had told Israelites this fact many times, but they had thought of themselves as belonging to Yahweh, or rather, Yahweh belonging to them, and no one else need apply.

Notice, too, how literal and unspiritual the disciples remained, despite being with Jesus for at least a year. When Jesus said “I have food…”, they thought He meant real food—that someone else must have brought it to Him. He was talking about spiritual food; food that satisfies one’s inner soul, “to do the will of God”. That is a good lesson for the Christian of today. We should be more satisfied in doing the will of God than in meeting the physical needs of our bodies. Remember when the Pharisees asked Jesus what was God’s greatest commandment? He answered, To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind—if you love God that much, doing His will has a higher priority for you than does eating, or ANYTHING ELSE! (See Matthew 22:37)

The Samaritans were hungry to hear the gospel, as evidenced by their quick response to the woman’s invitation to come and see the man who told her all her past history. They were ready to believe that Jesus was the Christ (Messiah). We will learn in my next blog just how strong their belief really was, and why Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman in the first place.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)