As Jonah discovered, if you’ve been saved by God’s grace then God will use you to display and proclaim his grace to the people around you. Whether you like it or not, whether you cooperate or not, God will use you. But it makes things a lot easier (and a lot more fulfilling) when you make yourself available to God, rather than fleeing from availability like Jonah did.
Unlike Jonah, Jesus reflected a grace-driven missionary zeal in his visit to Samaria in John 4, and there are many things we can learn from his attitude and actions. Here are a few:
1. God’s grace will compel you to share it with others.
Samaria was a place despised by Jews, but it says Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:4).
Why does he have to go through Samaria? Some have said it was because he was in a rush to escape from the Pharisees in Jerusalem. Some have said it was just because his feet hurt, and the road through Samaria was a shorter route to his destination.
But those explanations fall short. In John 3, it says that the Father had given “all things” into Jesus’ hand. So he doesn’t need to escape from anything, or avoid anything. He isn’t controlled by his circumstances.
He makes a conscious decision to enter enemy territory, because God’s grace compels him to. He doesn’t just hang out in familiar places, waiting for people to come approach him.
This is not the St. Francis of Assissi approach that many Christians have adopted, “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” Jesus didn’t just try to be nice to people and hope that eventually they might ask what made him so different. He proactively went out and proclaimed the gospel.
That’s the effect of God’s grace, especially for spiritually impoverished people like us. If you’re a beggar who’s found a mountain of bread, you can’t just hoard it. You’ll never be able to eat it all. You’re compelled to go find people to share it with.
2. God’s grace will propel you into purposeful relationships.
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink,” for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. (John 4:5-8)
Notice what Jesus is doing here. He sends the disciples to buy food so he can be alone. He sits on the well so he can be sure to bump into people. He asks a woman if she can give him a drink. He’s setting everything up in order to establish a relationship.
Relationships are the most common avenue God uses to bring people into his family. Only one-seventh of the people who make a decision to follow Jesus do so in any kind of church setting. Everyone else finds Jesus in your living room, or in your office, or on the sidelines of your kids’ soccer practice.
3. God’s grace will push you beyond what’s comfortable.
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. (John 4:9)
Think about race relations in the South before the civil rights era, and you’ll have a good idea of what kind of relationship there was between Jews and Samaritans. This is a radical step Jesus is taking across racial and cultural boundaries. God’s grace forces us to set aside long-held pride and bigotry when we realize we’re all sinners who deserve God’s wrath.
4. God’s grace will lead you to be Jesus-centered.
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (John 4:19-22)
When you proclaim the good news, the problem you’re confronting is not that people worship the wrong way. They’re worshiping the wrong object.
When Jesus says, “We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews,” he’s talking about himself. He’s the salvation who’s come from among the Jews.
He says in John 14, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.” Peter echoes that thought in Acts 4, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
That’s a scandalous, offensive message in our modern world. More about it tomorrow.