A Weary Soul

It’s always good to remember that Jesus, although fully God, chose to come to earth as a human.

He began His earthly journey in a womb, and ended it in a tomb. He lived, He died.

It can be easy to think of Jesus as a super-human who never tired, but the Bible plainly tells us otherwise.

What drove Jesus’ decision to stop and rest at Jacob’s well? Was it His physical exhaustion, or was it the opportunity to speak to the Samaritan woman He encountered there?

I would like to suggest the latter, based on the conversation with that woman and the amazing ripple effect which came from this divine appointment. Many from that Samaritan town came into God’s Kingdom including that woman (John 4:42). Despite His physical weaknesses, whether at a well with a sinful woman, or hanging on a cross between two criminals, our Saviour always prioritised relationship. His focus was eternal, not worldly.

How well do you love when you are tired? This is a question I sensed the Lord asking me recently, as I was pondering today’s verse. Embarrassingly, I know what my answer is, but Jesus wasn’t trying to embarrass me, He was wanting to reveal something of Himself to me. Reflecting on how Jesus loved is a good thing, but learning to love as He does is better.

The woman at the well was weary in her soul and dead in her spirit, sin weighing her down like the heat of the day. But God saw her, knew her, and wanted her to know Him. So, He initiated a divine appointment between her and His Son Jesus. ‘But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!’ (Ephesians 2: 4-5).

All of us have experienced human love, conditional love that goes right out the window when you are tired, in sin, angry, in crisis, or overwhelmed. But God’s love is not like that. His love is unconditional (Isaiah 54:10), selfless (Romans 5:8), merciful (1 John 4:10) unending (Psalm 136), generous (John 3:16) and faithful (Psalm 36:7). God doesn’t just love well, God is Love! (1 John 4:8 &16).

Twenty plus years ago, around the sixth hour, I encountered the love of God shockingly, and powerfully, and my life was changed forever. I was weary, and weighed down with sin and shame, alive on this earth, but dead spiritually. I was ignorantly headed toward hell. I didn’t know God, or want to know Him for that matter, but because God has known and loved me since before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), He never stopped pursuing me.

The ripple effect which has gone out from that encounter has resulted in many weary souls coming into the Kingdom, but primarily mine. ‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!’ (1 John 3:1).