The Sychar Crusade

Jesus was well into a fast when he encountered the woman at the well as told in John Chapter 4. No, the scripture does not indicate that he was fasting, as it does in Luke 4 and Matthew 4. Those chapters give the account of a 40-day fast Jesus engaged in after His baptism and before His public ministry began.

The reason I claim that He was fasting in John 4 is that His disciples recognized that He needed to eat something. His rejoinder to them seems to indicate a refusal: “I have food you know not of.” They wondered if someone else had brought him food, but He said, “My food is to do the will of My Father, and to finish it.” To me, that indicates that He was on an assignment from His Father, and He would eat earthly food at the completion of that mission.

The Emptying
We sometimes forget the ramifications of Jesus’ “emptying,” (Greek word = kenosis)as told in Philippians 2:

5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.
7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form,
8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.

Jesus voluntarily limited himself so He could live in the skin of a human. He could have, at any time He chose, reclaimed His heavenly power. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed “not My will, but Yours be done.” A short time later, when confronted with His captors, he said “do you think that I cannot call on My Father, and He will provide Me at once with more than 12 legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53).” He didn’t pray that prayer, because His Father had already given Him the most important mission in the history of mankind: crushing the devastation of sin by dying on the cross!

Jesus made it clear in John 12:49:
I have not spoken on My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a command as to what I should say and what I should speak.

In the same way, I can see that His Father had given Jesus a mission to reveal His deity to the woman at the well. The overall mission was to bring many in the village of Sychar to faith (John 4:40-41: “Therefore, when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of what He said.”).

I consider God’s strategy to be brilliant: rather than having a band of Jewish men move into town and hold a tent meeting, He sent a woman of questionable morals screaming down the street, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29)! Which method would have captured YOUR attention?

So, based on the above arguments, we assume that:
1. Jesus was fasting.
2. He was on a specific mission from God.
3. He would end His fast at the completion of His mission.

Next post: God's Chosen Fast