# 64 What Are We Here For

Joh 4:4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

I want to spend more time in the Concordia Self-Study commentary as we get their spin on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. The commentary states:

“The love of Jesus which could be brusque with Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, here deals gently with the wayward woman of Samaria. Gradually and patiently, yet in just one conversation, He leads her to see in Him more than a tired, thirsty, and impertinent Jew. Even more than a mysteriously attesting personality who has a gift to give. More than a mere prophet who can tell her all her secret sins and point her beyond the competing claims of her faith and the Jewish faith. He points her to a new and true worship in which all men may join, a worship made possible and acceptable by the gift of the Spirit (The Living Water) and His revelation of the truth. He leads her to a dawning recognition of Him as the Christ whose coming resolves the religious riddles of the past. He makes her a believer and a witness and she enjoys a witness’s reward; Her fellow townsmen come to Jesus, prevail on Him to stay with them, and find in Him the Savior, who, though He asserts the primacy of the Jew in God’s counsels of salvation, excludes no one from salvation. He is the Savior of the world. For Jesus, this little bit of evangelization, done in transit was no little thing! He was doing the will of the Father who seeks worshipers and that was the food He lived on! The Savior of the world looks down the missionary road that leads through Samaria into the far corners of the world, and His joy is full!”

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What a great recap of His “needed trip through Samaria!”

Are you finding yourself grasping for a little more joy these days? Maybe it’s time to understand more fully your call to be a witness. God has called you and gifted you to be a part of His witnessing church!  Are you just playing at church? Are you hoarding the Living Water? Are your spiritual gifts being used in a body of believers to win the lost to Christ?

Wake up! Get involved with a local congregation! It’s time for the church to ask ourselves…..”What are we here for? What is our ultimate purpose?” (Hint, it’s not to hide fearfully under a bushel basket)

Mt 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.