HE NEEDED TO GO THROUGH SAMARIA

To be a disciple is to be an apprentice. It is to be committed to learning and following the ways of Jesus. That means that when we look at His life in the Bible, we are looking to learn. We want to know what He did and how He did it. And we want to then allow Him to live that same life through us. “He who says he abides in Him should walk just as Jesus walked” (1 John 2:6). This is the principle we cannot escape if we are to be pleasing to God. We must walk like Jesus. We must live His way. He wants us to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29).

In the fourth chapter of John, we read that Jesus “needed to go through Samaria.” From the story that follows, it seems that the reason He needed to do that is because there was a woman there with whom He had business. He talked to this woman who came to draw water from Jacob’s well about living water—the eternal life and the abundant living only He can give. It was a beautiful message—as any message spoken by Him would be—and it changed her life. She was a sinner and low down on the social status ladder. But He reached out to her.

We have much to learn from Him. We must learn that our “need” is to do the will of God. In fact, in that very context, when His disciples came back from buying food, He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.” This is why He “needed” to do things like have conversations with people.

If we are true disciples, then our consuming desire is to please God. That is what we want to do, and it is more important to us than eating when we are hungry. He deserves our best. When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that He was always focused on pleasing His Father. Always focused on doing what His Father wanted Him to do. Let us be like Him. Let us look at the world and the time that we are allowed here on earth the way He would want us to. We are here to serve Him. Completely, fully and with all of our heart.

Dewayne Dunaway