Weary Like Jesus

In John chapter 4 we find the famous story of Jesus and the samaritan woman at the well. I love this passage of scripture for so many reasons, but I think there is a hidden message tucked away in the first few verses of this chapter that we often overlook in order to get to the ‘bigger idea’.  

John 4:1-2 says: 

Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

Jesus was keeping himself busy! His ministry was flourishing.  His disciples were baptizing and Jesus was making disciples left and right. He never lost site of His mission to impact peoples eternity.   Jesus was 100% God, but He was also 100% man.  Just like we can get weary, so did Jesus.

Keep reading to see what I mean:

He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. - John 4:3-6

I want you to imagine for a moment that you are one of Jesus disciples.  You and Jesus have spent hours outside in the middle east’s crazy hot temperatures and dry dessert-like atmosphere ministering, baptizing, serving, and discipling people. Without a doubt watching Jesus minister to people had to be one of the most rewarding and satisfying things to see unfold.  

But even in these eternity defining moments in Jesus’ ministry days, I want you to notice that in verse 6 it says that Jesus was tired and weary.  Don’t miss the significance of those 2 words.  This story shows us just how human Jesus was. God sent his son, Jesus to be the bridge to our spiritually dying bodies.  Jesus took on flesh for you and me to break the bondage of sin. That means when Jesus took on flesh he was both fully man and fully God so he experienced what we feel in every physical possible way. 

I think sometimes we are hard on ourselves because we somehow believe that when we become weary we are we being weak.  We see everyone else on social media that seems like they have their lives together.  They have make-up on, they are drinking their coffee, and they are wearing jeans instead of sweatpants for the 6th day in a row.  Yet we are just barely holding on, because the stress and pressures of life have left us tired and weary.  But good moms, good students, good employees, good Christians shouldn’t be weary…right?  We should mount up on wings like eagles and all that and run and never grow weary and all that.

If being weary means being weak, then do you think Jesus was weak?  You’d probably say ‘Of course Jesus wasn’t weak!’  If that’s the case, why does being weary make you weak?  The fact that Jesus was tired and weary and thirsty should make us feel relieved and to take some of the pressure off of ourselves. 

If you feel weary right now, that’s okay, Jesus felt weary too. Just don’t quit. Maybe you just need to take some time to sit and be refreshed by the living water that comes from knowing Jesus.