Now We Believe

When St Photini, the Samaritan Woman whom Jesus spoke with at Jacob’s Well, invited her entire city to come and see Jesus Christ, she said, “Come, and see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4.29) We hear in the Gospel that the people came to see Jesus, and urged Him to stay for a few days and they listened to what He had to say. “And many more believed because of His own word.” (John 4.41)

Once the city people heard Jesus and interacted with Jesus, it was then that they took ownership of their belief. “Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” (John 4.42) It wasn’t enough to hear ABOUT Jesus, the people needed to ENCOUNTER Him.

The same is true for us today AND for our neighbors and friends. It isn’t enough that we TELL our friends we believe in Jesus Christ, or that we TELL them that we are Greek Orthodox. We are expected to INVITE them to come and see and ENCOUNTER Him for themselves. While St Photini went and invited the city, Jesus said to His Disciples, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! I sent you out to reap that for which you have not labored.’” (John 4.35,38) Jesus was reminding His Disciples, and He is reminding us, that the time for harvest is upon us. The time to invite our friends and neighbors and THE ENTIRE CITY, to come and see AND ENCOUNTER Jesus Christ, is upon us. They will come because we invite them, but they will believe because they encounter “the Savior of the world.”