Monthly Archives: January 2014

An Unexpected Harvest

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AN UNEXPECTED HARVEST

 “Many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. 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 Saviour of the world.'” John 4:39-42 (NIV).

What an amazing conclusion to an unusual encounter! Once again John had a story to tell that ended with a new wave of response of faith in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour.

It’s almost as though His words to His disciples were prophetic. The woman was the first-fruit of a harvest that was waiting to be reaped in an unlikely region through which He travelled on His way to somewhere, but she was the key to that harvest

What was it in the woman’s testimony that captured their attention and their imagination?  One simple statement, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ Jesus was no fortune-teller. It was much more than just His words that captivated her. What He knew and disclosed to her was the wedge that opened up her locked and barred spirit because it revealed His heart for her.

His words were not intended to embarrass or condemn her. They were part of a disclosure that revealed not only what He knew about her unsavoury life but also what He understood about her empty heart. It was His invitation to come to Him because He could give her water that would quench her thirst forever.

Her fellow towns-people were intrigued by her testimony, but they were even more intrigued by the transformation in her. She was very different from the woman they knew and despised. Something had happened to her that had caused her to lose her fear of them. She approached them without shame in spite of her testimony. There was something in Jesus’ words that had set her free and she was desperate to share it with her erstwhile “enemies”.

The people of Scar were not only willing to listen to her story; they also wanted to hear this remarkable man for themselves. Here was an unlikely harvest ready for reaping. Why should they, the people of a race that was despised by the Jews, listen to a Jewish man? Racial prejudice runs very deep and it works both ways.

The miracle is that Jesus transcends prejudice. In His earthly circumstances He might have been born a Jew and raised in the Jewish culture and religion, but He never participated in their attitudes and issues. Jew though He was, He represented another kingdom and another culture. He did not represent a Jewish God or a white man’s God or a black man’s God or any other group’s God. He came to reveal the God of heaven.

He is the Son of God, the Creator of the universe and Father of all the variations of the human race. There is only one race. The prejudices human beings develop are based on superficial external differences, not on our essential unity as members of the human race created in the image of God.

The apostle Paul confirmed the unity of the human race: “From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” Acts 17:26 (NIV).

His message is to the world; it transcends geographical, language and cultural boundaries and invites all people everywhere to return to the Father from whom they are estranged because of sin. The woman needed a Father to heal her wounded heart and so did the people of Sychar who were no better than she.

Everyone, regardless of our experience of an earthly, imperfect father, needs to know the Father and to return to His house where we can live as accepted and beloved children of God, and Jesus came to take us to Him.

Have you come home to Him? Why are you waiting?

 

 

What’s The Key?

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WHAT’S THE KEY?

 “‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

“‘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.’

“‘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. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 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 labour.'” John 4:34-38 (NIV).

Jesus had just had an astonishing encounter with a Samaritan woman who had been married and divorced five times and was now shacked up with a sixth man to whom she was not even married. That says something about the woman, doesn’t it? There could not have been a worse candidate for a response to Him! At least that’s how we would have judged her.

But Jesus never viewed any person as too far gone. Underneath her hard exterior was what He saw – potential. One just had to know where to find the weak spot to gain access to the heart. This woman’s weak spot was her longing to be loved. She tried five times and five times it didn’t work because she was being used, not loved.

Perhaps marriage wasn’t even an option any more. Just shack up and, if it didn’t work, move on and keep searching. But the problem was that the only ones who wanted a soiled garment were those who were soiled as well. By this time she was so hardened that she expected to be used and abused because she was worth nothing more than that in her own eyes.

To be treated with respect by a Jewish man brought her up short and got her attention, and we know the outcome. Jesus broke down her wall and touched her heart. When the disciples returned and saw Him in conversation with her, unheard of for Jewish man, they could not fathom what was going on. They saw her joy when she abandoned her water jar and rushed back to town and their eyebrows went up!

Jesus had to straighten out their thinking once again. Using imagery with which they were familiar, He challenged them. ‘You guys are thinking, ‘It’s too soon to start harvesting these Samaritans for the kingdom of God. They aren’t ready for it yet. Sometime in the future we’ll preach to them.’ This woman’s response is proof that it’s time for the harvest right now.’

‘I have harvested this woman in a very short time, but there’s a huge harvest out there waiting to be reaped and I can’t do it alone. We have to work together. It’s not important who does the planting and who does the reaping. It’s team work and both sower and reaper get the wages for doing the job.’

What was Jesus getting at? Was He saying that it was not important who did the work but rather that it was important to get the work done. Those who worked together to sow and reap were guaranteed their share of the profits. There were many who had already done the sowing. How else did this half-breed woman know that Messiah was coming? She may not have had it all straight but she was not entirely ignorant of God’s Word

In the natural world there is a time lapse between sowing and reaping but, in the lives of human beings the time for harvesting is always now. Like Jesus and the woman, it’s a case of finding the soft spot. Why did she have this emptiness in her soul which she tried to fill with human love only to be disappointed again and again?

Although she did not know it, she had a craving for a father’s love. We know nothing about her father, and she knew nothing about the perfect Father. He was the key to unlock her heart. Jesus was the mirror of the Father to her. When He introduced her to the Father, everything fell into place!

It is only the Father’s love that can fill your empty heart.