JUST BE ABOUT IT
Backdrop: John Chapter 2
Jesus is all grown up now and His ministry is about to begin. He has already attended the marriage at Cana in Galilee where His mother had Him turn water into wine. Then He went to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover and found that some people were making a mockery of the Temple. He proceeded to chase them out using a handmade strap and by turning over their tables. It’s at this place that He made one of His first public statements about who He was and why He came. He also performed many miracles there.
John Chapter 3 tells us of a Jewish Pharisee named Nicodemus who came under the cover of night to inquire about who Jesus was and His purpose. Jesus began to explain salvation and gave Him a lesson concerning the very scriptures this Pharisee professed to understand.
After using this teaching moment with Nicodemus, He went with His disciples to a place in Judea where they were baptizing believers. John the Baptist was also still baptizing near Salim. It was at this time that the disciples of John began to question him about who Jesus was and why He seemed to be drawing away the people who had been following him. John had to let them know that it would be to their benefit to also begin to follow Jesus because he recognized that he was only called to make way for Jesus’ arrival. We see that through all this John had been doing what he was called to do. And now Jesus was about to take the lead.
Now we come to John 4:1-4. Jesus had been moving with purpose. He had a road He had to travel, and He knew what His final destination would be. But He also knew that along His path there was ministry that had to take place.
As we travel through life, we will come across many pitstops along the way. Some will be challenging. Some will be lessons to learn or to teach. Some will be painful and some joyful. The trick is to not allow our circumstances to cause us to be blown about by every wind that passes by. We must stay the course and do what we’re called to do – spread the Gospel. We have to BE ABOUT IT.
As we read John 4:1 we see that the Pharisees had been told that Jesus baptized more people than John, although it was not Jesus who actually did the baptizing. It was His disciples. He then left Judea to return to Galilee. But in order to get to Galilee He had to go through Samaria. We need to note that Galilee was a Jewish city, full of God-fearing people. However, Samaria was different. Although they also had a Temple they worshipped at, they were considered pagans by the Galileans because they had become intermingled with unbelievers and were no longer considered purely Jewish. This caused a great separation between the Jews and Samaritans. Jesus HAD to stop at Samaria so He could bridge the gap between two groups of people who had no clue how close they really were. Jesus stopped at Samaria to make peace between two groups of people who could not see that that God loved all of them equally.
Jesus had to not just talk about reconciliation He had to BE ABOUT IT. He knew that His purpose was to reconcile ALL people back to God and that ACTION speaks louder than just words. He knew that He, as a Jewish person, could open the door for these two groups to begin to look at each other differently as they saw that they both served the same God.
Jesus needed to prove that God’s love transcends race, ethnicity, and personal preferences. God’s love for ALL people will have us minister to people despite how we think or feel about them in the natural.
Jesus’ destination at that time was to return to Galilee. But the Bible said He HAD to stop at Samaria to get some things in order. This opened up the Gospel to be spread even more as mandated in Matthew 16:15-16 which tell us to go into ALL the world and preach the gospel.
Where is your Samaria? What circumstances do you have in your life where you find you need to make peace and set things in order? It may be a natural or spiritual Samaria. This is a place where you struggle with past or even present issues that have plagued you to the point that you feel like you’re stuck in a place and can’t move forward. It’s the place you need to fix before you can continue to Galilee (your next destination).
It’s time now for you to really get in God’s face by praying and fasting and seeking Him for an answer to whatever is holding you back. He WILL answer you and will lead you and guide you every step of the way.
Time is out now for just a lot of lip service.
It’s time now to BE ABOUT IT!