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In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”

³² He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”

³³ The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”

^34-35 Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. (The Message)

Once again the disciples took Jesus literally when He intended to be understood spiritually. What ‘nourished’ Jesus above all else was doing the will of God. Essentially He had come to earth to do one thing: the will of the Father who sent Him.

One preacher used a helpful analogy. He said something like this, ‘Imagine an artist working in his studio on some masterpiece. Someone brings him coffee and sandwiches for lunch. When they return, later in the day, to collect the empty cup and plate, they find the food and drink untouched. The artist has been so immersed in his work that he has lost touch with any other appetites. He has been lost in his painting; absorbed in his task, focussed on finishing the great work.’

‘The only way we can freely participate in a discernment process is if we trust that God is good, not merely as a general attribute but as it relates to us specifically. Many of us will need to work at getting this building block set in the foundation of our discernment process. In order to surrender to the discernment process, we need to go beyond intellectual assent to cultivating a deep, experiential knowledge that God’s will is the best thing that can happen to us under any circumstances.’ (Ruth Haley Barton, in ‘Pursuing God’s will together’)

PRAYER: Teach me Lord, to love your will, and warmly embrace it.

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

^28-30 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves. (The Message)

‘The blessings we receive are to be shared. If we put a light under a bushel, it will go out (Matthew 5:15).’ Tom Hale

There is something here about the simplicity, and yet power, of Christian testimony. We don’t have to make it complicated (or long-winded!!) It appears that she used just a few words, and raised a pertinent question, and the impact was great. A year or so ago, I noted in my journal that what we see here is the essence of evangelism; and that the woman started to give her ‘testimony’ before she was one hundred per cent sure.

”Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” One commentator referred to this as ‘a pardonable exaggeration.’ It must have felt to her like Jesus did know ”everything” she’d ever done.

‘First find Christ for yourself; then say, ”Come and see.” He who knows us with an unchallengeable knowledge cannot be other than the Christ.’ F.B.Meyer.

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

^28-30 The woman took the hint and left. (The Message)

I wonder how many people have entered our churches and, sadly, like the Samaritan woman, they have taken ”…the hint and left.” It is easy to communicate warm acceptance or cold disapproval with just a look. Of course people can get this wrong. It is possible to misread body language. But it is thought that up to 93% of communication is non-verbal, where this involves attitudes and emotions, so we need to walk carefully. People see more than we might like to think. We can give off the wrong ‘vibes’.

Thankfully, this woman met Jesus personally and, as we shall see, was not put off from following Him. But the church can get in the way of people coming to Christ. May God mercifully grant that this is not true of us.