Your Life Matters to Jesus
August 25, 2020
Share This Post:
Jesus loves people, not because of who they are, but because of who He is. Love is Jesus’s nature. If you read the Gospel of John, you will see that Jesus had a face-to-face encounter with person after person, and it didn’t matter if they were male or female, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, sinner or a Pharisee; Jesus loved all people. And He loves you.
Your life matters to Jesus—just as the woman at the well in John 4 mattered to Him. This is evidenced by several eye-opening parts of His conversation with her. On His way to Galilee, Jesus stopped in Samaria, and there He spoke with a woman at the well. He asked her to give Him a drink of water. The woman was taken aback by this request because Jews did not associate with Samaritans, nor would it have been likely for a man to have a conversation with a woman he didn’t know in that time and culture. Moreover, the Bible notes that this woman was at the well in the middle of the day. Normally, the women would come to well in the cool of the morning for practical and social reasons. But because of this woman’s sin (which we learn about later), she was outcast and alone. And yet Jesus connected with her despite racial differences, gender differences, and moral differences.
Next, Jesus demonstrated His love for the woman at the well by speaking to her about her spiritual well-being and her eternal destiny. Though He initially spoke to her about literal water, Jesus often used the physical to illustrate the spiritual. Jesus said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (verses 13-14).
The woman replied, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus replied, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
Jesus revealed that He knew her past and her pain, and it’s important to note that He will always talk to us about our sin—not to embarrass us—but to get us to turn from it so that He can point us to a better way of life. In spite of ours sins and failures, Jesus personally, wonderfully, lovingly cares deeply for you and for me, just as He cared for the woman at the well. She needed to know that someone truly valued her. Jesus went to Samaria purposefully and engaged in this conversation with her because she mattered to Jesus.
Now at this point, the woman was astonished and thought Jesus was a prophet. However, Jesus proved Himself as the Christ as their conversation concluded. He told her in verse 24, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” Overjoyed, the woman left her water pot behind and went into the town, proclaiming everything that had happened. The woman at the well became a woman of great worth!
No matter your past, Jesus knows you and loves you because of who He is. He demonstrated His amazing love by going to the cross for our sins, and proved that He is Lord and Savior by resurrecting from the dead. Jesus will always break down man-made barriers to reach the heart that is longing to be known and valued. Your life matters to Jesus.
Pastor Dudley Rutherford is the author of Compelled: The Irresistible Call to Share Your Faith (available everywhere books are sold online) and the senior pastor of Shepherd Church, which has three campuses in the Greater Los Angeles area. You can watch services online or connect with Dudley at www.LiftUpJesus.com and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
