Everyone enjoys eating!  Food plays an important part in every culture.  Not only is food enjoyable, it is essential to nourish and sustain our bodies. 

 

Jesus and his disciples stopover in the town of Sychar for a rest.  Since it is lunch time, the disciples head to the town to buy food, while Jesus waits by the well.  When they return Jesus is speaking with a woman. By now they are hungry, so they urge Jesus to eat.  However he says something unusual.  “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

 

What does Jesus mean?  There is something that is more important to him than food, and it is to  do the will of his Heavenly Father.  What could be more satisfying than gathering in a harvest of souls?  As Jesus is speaking, the woman and others she has witnessed to, are coming towards him.

 

If crowds of people wanted to hear you speak, would you spend time with just one?  It’s easy to say we are too busy or think that is a waste of time.  Yet Jesus stops for the one.

 

Rather than follow the usual route to Galilee, Jesus goes through Samaria.  There’s a well in Sychar, so he stops to rest.  This is not the usual time to be sitting by a well either, as it’s the hottest time of day.  However the Father is directing Jesus to come here.  A woman is coming to get water, a woman with deep needs.

 

Jesus breaks all social norms to speak to this woman.  He recognizes her pain and reaches out by asking for a drink.  She is shocked, but it opens a door for Jesus to offer her something in return.  A gift!  The gift of living water.  Jacob had dug this well in Sychar.  How could this man be greater than Jacob?  What is this living water anyway?  Perhaps she thinks Jesus is offering spring water, but there is no spring nearby. 

 

Have you ever been compared to another person?  Perhaps you were told the other person is more successful than you are.  None of us likes hearing these things!  And this is exactly what is happening to John the Baptist.

 

John was the first to baptize others in the River Jordan.  In fact he was becoming a well known evangelist!  Now, however, there is someone else doing the same thing.  And that person is Jesus.  A Jewish man is quick to point this out!  “All are going to him.”

 

Rather than feeling threatened or justifying himself, John speaks up.  He gives an astonishing response!  “No one can receive anything, unless God gives it to him from Heaven.”  This isn’t a competition.  John’s task is only to do what the Father assigns him to do.  No more, no less.  

 

Our struggle may not be caused by what others are saying.  Perhaps it is because we are making our own comparisons.