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.

 

Have you ever looked at someone and thought they have everything?  It seems they have no needs!  Nicodemus was a man like that – well known, a member of the Jewish Council, a religious teacher and wealthy.  Yet he had deeper needs, and Jesus knew that.

 

When Nicodemus comes to Jesus one night, Jesus speaks into that need.  “You must be born again.”  Like so many today, Nicodemus was knowledgeable, but he didn’t understand spiritual truths. So Jesus speaks to him about something he would understand.  History! 

 

He reminds Nicodemus of the time when his ancestors were living in the desert and many died from snake bites.  It happened because of their sin.  God told Moses to make a bronze snake and lift it on a pole.  By looking at this bronze snake, anyone who had been bitten, would live.

 

Jesus goes on to explain the significance of this.