Fellowship focus 6 - April 1999
Being human like Jesus
I love the story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well in John 4 ; and I'm sure there are some important lessons in it for us about how to share the gospel with others. So here goes.
Jesus sat down by the well about mid - day. He was tired. The woman came along; she was a Samaritan, not a Jew. Yet despite the fact that he didn't know her and she was a woman and a Samaritan, he spoke to her. The Lord didn't keep himself to himself, he was outgoing. Of course our temperaments vary and for some of us it is a lot more natural and easy to speak to people we don't know than it is for others. However, we all speak to some other people about some other matters sometimes! One of the works of the Spirit in our lives may well be to lead us to forget our own sensitivities and give us such a desire to communicate with others that we become friendlier, more sociable. After all, the work of the Spirit in the Christian is to make us like Jesus, and he was friendly, outgoing and communicative.
The Lord was a real man, so he had real tiredness and thirst in such a situation. When he asked the woman for a drink, he was not just fishing around for an opportunity to speak to her about her soul or to let her know he was the Messiah - he genuinely wanted a drink. Human feelings, human desires are not wrong ( I know some of ours are, but not all!). the Lord acknowledged his own human desires and needs to himself, and was prepared to express them where appropriate. We are not disembodied spirits or angels. God wants us to acknowledge , and sometimes to admit, our human feelings. Not only is this good for us, psychologically, but to let others know what is in our heart, to share our desires, thoughts, needs, to be "real" in this way, is something that binds us to our fellow man; it is a link with others, many of whom do not yet know the Saviour that we know. Who knows what profitable contact or friendship may start with the sharing of our need?
Another interesting aspect of Jesus' holy humanity in this passage is that he is prepared to become dependent on her, to become indebted to her!
Now there is something good about being independent: to want to stand on one's own 2 feet and not be a scrounger, not to be a burden on others or on society unless it is totally unavoidable. This is a good thing and such a desire is a mark of dignity. Would that more people in modern society felt like that ! How ever it is not always a good thing to want to be independent and to refuse to be indebted to others; indeed sometimes it is a very good thing, even when it is not unavoidable, to let oneself become dependent on another - surely Jesus could have got a drink without her help? Our pride will not like this ; our desire to control our own lives will not like it; but is this desire to retain as much control over our futures as possible always a good thing? Isn't there often a lot of unbelief, of anxiety, or self reliance rather than reliance on God in this desire to stay in charge? "If I let them do me this favour, I'll be in their debt; and then when they ask for help, it will not be easy to say no. And I don't know what favour they may want or what I may become obliged to do for them! Oh dear, I don't fancy it. No, I will not depend on them in the first place" Is this Christian thinking? Not if we look at Jesus.
It was unusual for a godly man in that society to talk alone to a woman ( se v.27); but the Lord breaks through unnecessary human taboos that separate people and hinder communication - however don't forget how Joseph treated a woman he had reason not to trust in Genesis 39.10!
I couldn't pretend this was deep friendship between Jesus and the Samaritan woman here - it was one conversation. But although she was obviously immoral in her lifestyle ( 5 husbands and now with a man she wasn't married to ), he chats away to her in a very friendly fashion. Yes, there are reasons to think it is not a good idea if a Christian's closest bosom buddy or confidante is a person who has no love for the Saviour - " don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers" 2 Corinthians 6- but Jesus was known as the friend of "sinners" ( Matthew 11.19) and he must want us to be the same. It is interesting to say the least that it was in this context of warm, friendly natural liberated humanity that Jesus found an opportunity to share who he was - and she believed.
Chris Bennett.