Week 2: Sowing over Zion’s 2021 Theme: REAP
Key Verse: John 4:35Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
Are you discouraged by the hostile rejections or the lack of results from friends and family whenever you tried to share Christ with them? Contrary to what Jesus had proclaimed, the harvest sure doesn’t look plentiful to you.
In John 4, we see Jesus ministering to a Samaritan woman, which then resulted in the salvation of many Samaritans from that town. What Jesus did here was completely radical and it even surprised his own disciples. Jesus ministered to someone who appeared to be the most unlikely candidate to be receptive to the gospel. She had a questionable reputation, she was a woman, and she was a Samaritan. She was one of the last, the least and the lost.
The Last (John 4:6, 17)
Due to her multiple marriages, this Samaritan woman would have been looked upon as sexually immoral and despised by her community, hence necessitating her to draw water at a time when no one would be around.
The Least (John 4:27)
In a patriarchal society, Jewish religious teachers rarely spoke with women in the public. Moreover, women were uneducated and considered to be intellectually inferior. Yet Jesus broke social norms and had a theological discussion with her.
The Lost (John 4:9)
Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Jews thought of Samaritans as “dogs” or “half-breeds” and would not have any contact with them. They would even travel a longer route to avoid traveling through Samaria. But Jesus ignored those racial enmity and saw her need for God’s salvation.
Today, who might God be sending you to? Open your eyes to the last, the least and the lost and start reaping in the plentiful harvest!
- Ask God to open your eyes to the last, the least, and the lost in your life. They might be the social outcast in your class, the rude cleaner who cleans your table at the hawker center or someone from a different race or skin colour.
- As God shows you their faces and names, pray for God’s blessings on them. Ask God to help you be a blessing to them.