Rivertown United Reformed Church

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So his disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ John 4:31-33

The disciples’ puzzled inability to understand is oddly endearing. Surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman, they didn’t, however, feel able to voice their disquiet. As she left, they set out the picnic, urging Jesus to join them. His response puzzled them even more, as he added metaphors of food and harvest to that of water.

The disciples frequently failed to understand what Jesus was talking about. They asked for explanations of parables. They rejected his warnings about his own death. When he spoke about the ‘yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees’, they thought he was talking about the bread they had forgotten.

As he washed their feet he told them, ‘You do not know now what I am doing but later you will understand.’ As he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, they did not understand, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered – and understood. They didn’t understand – Luke says it, Matthew says it, Mark and John say it. Writing in the post-resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, they look back at their failure to understand, recording that Jesus kept on teaching them as they travelled with him, listened to him and watched him in action. He knew he was investing in their part in taking the gospel to the world.

They stood by Jacob’s well, and didn’t understand. They missed the point – the ripening harvest, the fruit gathered for eternal life and Jesus the Son of God setting a Samaritan town on fire with the living water. But in Acts 8, Peter and John were back in Samaria preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Knowing that we have missed the point can be very uncomfortable. Did the disciples, like us, have that irrational desire to go back in time and play the scene again? Have we fought the wrong battles, argued for a programme that won’t work, decorated the building about to be demolished? The Lord’s loving patience, the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and the humility to say we don’t understand, go a very long way in helping us to live with our human stumblings.

Margaret Killingray (LICC)