📖 Injili ya Yohana — Sehemu ya 3: Maji Yaliyo Hai📖 The Gospel of John — Unit 3: Living Water

Utangulizi — Ushirikiano wa KimunguIntroduction — A Divine Partnership

Fikiria bustani iliyojaa maua yenye rangi angavu, mimea iliyostawi, na miti mirefu. Mungu ndiye anayeumba uhai ndani ya mimea; Yeye hutuma jua na mvua. Lakini mtunza bustani bado lazima aitunze, aipogoe, aitie mbolea na kung'oa magugu, la sivyo uzuri wake wa kweli hautafunuliwa kamwe. Maisha yetu ni kama bustani hiyo. Yesu alimpa yule mwanamke Msamaria maji yaliyo hai — alijitoa Mwenyewe kwake — lakini uzuri halisi wa habari yake ulifunuliwa alipokimbia na kumshiriki Kristo ambaye alikuwa amekutana naye muda mfupi tu uliopita. Tena na tena Maandiko yanaonyesha ulinganifu huu mzuri: Mungu hutoa wokovu na nguvu ya Roho wake, kisha Mungu hufanya kazi kupitia sisi ili kulitimiza kusudi lake. "Kwa maana ndiye Mungu atendaye kazi ndani yenu, kutaka kwenu na kutenda kwenu, kwa kulitimiza kusudi lake jema" (Wafilipi 2:13). Huo ndio Ushirikiano wa Kimungu, na sura hii ndiyo picha yake.Imagine a garden full of vibrant flowers, lush plants, and towering trees. God creates the life in the plants; He sends the sunshine and the rain. But the gardener must still nurture and trim and fertilize and weed, or the true beauty is never unveiled. Our lives are like that garden. Jesus offered the Samaritan woman living water — He offered her Himself — but the real beauty of her story was unveiled when she ran and shared the Christ she had only just met. Again and again Scripture shows this lovely symmetry: God provides salvation and the power of His Spirit, and then God works through us to finish His purpose. "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). That is the Divine Partnership, and this chapter is its picture.

I. Mwanamke KisimaniI. The Woman at the Well

Yesu, akiwa amechoka kwa safari yake, aliketi karibu na kisima cha Yakobo yapata saa sita wakati wanafunzi wake walipokwenda mjini kununua chakula. Mwanamke mmoja Msamaria alikuja kuteka maji. Kila jambo kuhusu kukutana huko lilikuwa ukuta ambao rabi mwenye heshima asingeupanda. Alikuwa Msamaria, nusu Myahudi — na Wayahudi na Wasamaria walidharauliana. Alikuwa mwanamke, na walimu hawakuzungumza na wanawake hadharani. Na alikuwa, kwa hesabu ya watu wa mji, mwenye dhambi mkubwa; ingethibitika kwamba alikuwa ameolewa na waume watano, na mwanamume aliyekuwa akiishi naye wakati huo hakuwa mume wake. Alikuwa, kama tunavyosema, mtu asiye na tumaini. Hata hivyo Yesu Mwenyewe ndiye aliyeanzisha mazungumzo: "Nipe maji ninywe." Muumba wa chemchemi alimwomba mwenye dhambi kikombe cha maji, ili ampe yeye chemchemi.Jesus, wearied from His journey, sat down by Jacob's well about the sixth hour while His disciples went into the town to buy food. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Everything about that meeting was a wall a respectable rabbi would not climb. She was a Samaritan, a half-Jew — and the Jews and the Samaritans despised one another. She was a woman, and the teachers did not speak with women in public. And she was, by the town's reckoning, a great sinner; she would prove to have had five husbands, and the man she lived with then was not her husband. She was, as we would say, a hopeless case. Yet Jesus opened the conversation Himself: "Give Me a drink." The Maker of the spring asked a sinner for a cup of water, so that He might give her a fountain.

II. Maji Yaliyo HaiII. The Living Water

"Kama ungaliijua karama ya Mungu, na yeye akuambiaye, Nipe maji ninywe, ungalimwomba yeye, naye angekupa maji yaliyo hai" (Yohana 4:10). Yeye alisikia tu habari ya kisima kilichokuwa miguuni pake — Huna chombo cha kutekea, na kisima hiki ni kirefu. Lakini Yesu alikuwa akinena juu ya maji mengine kabisa. "Kila anywaye maji haya ataona kiu tena; walakini ye yote atakayekunywa maji yale nitakayompa mimi hataona kiu milele; bali yale maji nitakayompa yatakuwa ndani yake chemchemi ya maji, yakibubujikia uzima wa milele" (Yohana 4:13–14). Maji ya ulimwengu huisha siku zote; unakunywa, na baada ya saa chache una kiu tena. Maji anayoyatoa Kristo hayakai kwenye birika ili yagawiwe kidogo kidogo — yanabubujika, yanafurika, yanakuwa chemchemi ndani ya yule anayekunywa."If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water" (John 4:10). She heard only the well at her feet — You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. But Jesus was speaking of another water altogether. "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13–14). The world's water always runs out; you drink, and within hours you are thirsty again. The water Christ gives does not sit in a cistern to be rationed — it springs up, it overflows, it becomes a fountain inside the one who drinks.

Miaka kadhaa iliyopita nilisafiri katika jimbo la Ontario nchini Kanada na nikahakikisha naendesha gari kwenda kuona Maporomoko ya Niagara, mpakani mwa Kanada na Marekani — maporomoko makuu kuliko yote ya maji katika Amerika Kaskazini yote, ambako mamilioni ya galoni humwagika kupita ukingoni kila dakika na kamwe, kamwe hayakomi. Hiyo ni picha hafifu ya utimilifu ambao Yesu alimpa mwanamke yule. Alijitoa Mwenyewe kwake. Wokovu, na kusudi la kuishi, vinapatikana ndani yake peke yake, na havikauki kamwe.Some years ago I traveled in the Canadian province of Ontario and made sure to drive and see Niagara Falls, on the border of Canada and the United States — the grandest waterfall in all of North America, where millions of gallons pour over the edge every single minute and never, ever stop. That is a faint picture of the fullness Jesus offered that woman. He offered her Himself. Salvation, and a purpose for living, are found in Him alone, and they never run dry.

Kila mmoja wetu aliumbwa akiwa na kiu ambayo hakuna kisima cha ulimwengu huu kinachoweza kuikata. Tunabeba ndoo zetu kwenda kwenye mabirika ya fedha, ya anasa, ya kukubalika na watu, ya uhusiano mmoja zaidi, nasi tunakunywa, na kwa saa moja tunaridhika — kisha ukavu ule wa zamani unarudi polepole, kwa sababu visima hivyo havikuwa kamwe virefu vya kutosha kwa nafsi. Mwanamke wa kisima cha Yakobo alikuwa ameenda kwenye birika la aina hiyo mara tano, na mwanamume aliyekuwa akiishi naye wakati huo alikuwa ndoo ya sita iliyoshushwa ndani ya kisima kitupu. Yesu hakuikemea kiu yake; alijitolea kuikomesha. Naye anatupa sisi vivyo hivyo. Maumivu yale ambayo huwezi kuyapa jina vizuri, ile hali ya kutotulia ambayo hakuna mafanikio yanayoweza kuituliza hatimaye, ni kilio cha nafsi kwa ajili ya maji pekee yanayoridhisha. Mwaliko wake haujabadilika kwa miaka elfu mbili: kunyweni kwangu, nanyi hamtaona kiu tena kamwe.Every one of us was made with a thirst that no well of this world can fill. We carry our buckets to the cisterns of money, of pleasure, of approval, of one more relationship, and we drink, and for an hour we are satisfied — and then the old dryness creeps back, because those wells were never deep enough for a soul. The woman at Jacob's well had been to that kind of cistern five times over, and the man she lived with then was a sixth bucket let down into an empty well. Jesus did not scold her thirst; He offered to end it. And He offers the same to us. The ache you cannot quite name, the restlessness that no achievement finally quiets, is the soul's cry for the only water that satisfies. His invitation has not changed in two thousand years: drink of Me, and you will never thirst again.

III. Katika Roho na KweliIII. In Spirit and in Truth

Kisha akagusa jeraha. "Enenda ukamwite mumeo, uje hapa." "Sina mume." "Umesema vema... kwa maana umekuwa na waume watano, na yule uliye naye sasa siye mume wako." Hakumwaibisha; alimwonyesha tu kwamba tayari alijua kila kitu, na bado alikuwa akimpa ile chemchemi. Alipoona nabii mbele yake, aliibua ugomvi wa zamani kuhusu ibada: baba zetu waliabudu katika mlima huu, lakini ninyi Wayahudi mwasema Yerusalemu ndipo mahali. Yesu aliliinua swali zima hadi mahali pa juu zaidi: "Mungu ni Roho; nao wamwabuduo imewapasa kumwabudu katika roho na kweli" (Yohana 4:24). Ibada ya kweli hatimaye si suala la mlima sahihi wala jengo sahihi, bali la moyo na Roho na kweli ya Mungu. Kisha, kwa mwanamke huyu — Msamaria, mgeni wa nje, mwenye dhambi — alisema kile ambacho hakuwa amemwambia mtu mwingine yeyote waziwazi: "Mimi ninayesema nawe, ndiye." Nafsi ya kwanza kumsikia Yesu akijitaja waziwazi kuwa Masihi ilikuwa mwanamke kisimani saa sita mchana.Then He touched the wound. "Go, call your husband, and come here." "I have no husband." "You have well said... for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband." He did not shame her; He simply showed her that He already knew everything, and still was offering her the fountain. Seeing a prophet before her, she raised the old quarrel of worship: our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the place. Jesus lifted the whole question to higher ground: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). True worship is not finally a matter of the right mountain or the right building, but of the heart and the Spirit and the truth of God. And then, to this woman — a Samaritan, an outsider, a sinner — He said what He had said plainly to no one else: "I who speak to you am He." The first soul to hear Jesus openly name Himself the Messiah was a woman at a well at noon.

IV. Mwinjilisti wa Kwanza: Njoni MwoneIV. The First Evangelist: Come and See

Alichofanya baadaye kinahubiri mahubiri yake chenyewe. "Basi yule mwanamke akauacha mtungi wake, akaenda zake mjini, akawaambia watu, Njoni mwone mtu aliyeniambia mambo yote niliyoyatenda; huyu siye Kristo?" (Yohana 4:28–29). Aliuacha ule mtungi aliokuja kwa ajili yake — kiu ya zamani ikiwa imesahauliwa katika chemchemi mpya — akakimbia kwa watu wale wale wa mji walioijua sifa yake mbaya. Asingeweza kumwongoza mtu ye yote katika orodha ya kanuni za kiroho. Lakini aliweza kusema maneno mawili: njoni, mwone. Nao wakaja. "Na Wasamaria wengi wa mji ule walimwamini kwa sababu ya neno la yule mwanamke" (Yohana 4:39), na kisha wengi zaidi waliamini kwa sababu walimsikia Yeye wenyewe, wakasema, "Sasa tunaamini... na tunajua ya kuwa huyu ndiye hakika Kristo, Mwokozi wa ulimwengu" (Yohana 4:42).What she did next preaches its own sermon. "The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 'Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?'" (John 4:28–29). She left the very waterpot she had come for — the old thirst forgotten in the new fountain — and ran to the same townspeople who knew her reputation. She could not have walked anyone through a set of spiritual laws. But she could say two words: come, see. And they came. "Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman" (John 4:39), and then many more believed because they heard Him for themselves, and said, "Now we believe... and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world" (John 4:42).

Angalia tofauti ambayo Yohana anaichora kimya kimya. Wanafunzi walikuwa wameingia katika mji ule ule — watu waliokuwa wakifunzwa na Bwana Mwenyewe, wainjilisti wenye sifa bora kuliko wote duniani — nao walirudi na mkate bila waongofu; hakuna dalili kwamba walizungumza na nafsi hata moja. Mwinjilisti wa kwanza katika Samaria alikuwa mwenye dhambi mmoja mwenye shukrani na mchangamfu. Maji yale yaliyo hai lazima yalikuwa maji yanayometameta, kwa maana yalibubujika kutoka katika maisha yake.Mark the contrast John quietly draws. The disciples had gone into that same town — men in training under the Lord Himself, the most qualified evangelists on earth — and they came back with bread and no converts; there is no sign they spoke to a soul. The first evangelist in Samaria was one grateful, excited sinner. The living water must have been sparkling water, for it came bubbling up out of her life.

V. Mashamba Yamekwisha Kuwa MeupeV. The Fields Are White

Wanafunzi walipomsihi ale, Yesu alisema, "Chakula changu ndicho hiki, niyatende mapenzi yake aliyenipeleka, nikaimalize kazi yake" (Yohana 4:34). Kisha aliwaonyesha Wasamaria ambao hata wakati ule walikuwa wakimiminika kutoka mjini kumwelekea: "Inueni macho yenu, mkayatazame mashamba, kwamba yamekwisha kuwa meupe, yanangoja mavuno" (Yohana 4:35). Mmoja hupanda, mwingine huvuna, na "avunaye hupokea mshahara... ili yeye apandaye na yeye avunaye wafurahi pamoja" (Yohana 4:36). Hapo tena ndipo Ushirikiano wa Kimungu: Yesu alikuwa amepanda ndani ya mwanamke mmoja kisimani, na tayari kijiji kizima kilikuwa kikiiva. Mungu ndiye anayekuza, lakini anapendezwa kuturuhusu tubebe mbegu na kupunga mundu, na kushiriki furaha ya mavuno.When the disciples urged Him to eat, Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4:34). Then He pointed to the Samaritans even then streaming out of the town toward Him: "Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest" (John 4:35). One sows, another reaps, and "he who reaps receives wages... that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together" (John 4:36). There is the Divine Partnership again: Jesus had sown in one woman by a well, and already a whole village was ripening. God gives the increase, but He is pleased to let us carry the seed and swing the sickle, and to share the joy of the harvest.

VI. Kila Mwamini Yumo Katika TimuVI. Every Believer on the Team

Wakati mwingine watu hudhani kuna aina moja tu ya mwinjilisti. Kuna aina nyingi, na kila mwamini ni mshiriki wa timu. Kuna mwinjilisti wa halaiki — wakati mmoja niliketi katika mkutano mkubwa wa Billy Graham na kuwaona maelfu wakimiminika mbele. Kuna mtetezi wa imani, mwanaapolojetiki — watu kama Lee Strobel na Josh McDowell, au Nabeel Qureshi, aliyetumia akili na hoja hadi akatoka katika Uislamu na kumwendea Kristo, kisha akatumia maisha yake mafupi kuitetea imani. Kuna mwinjilisti mhudumu, kama Barnaba mwana wa faraja, ambaye huruma yake iliyapa maneno yake uzito. Kuna mwinjilisti wa vijitabu: niliambiwa habari za mtu mmoja aliyepooza aitwaye J. D. Fore ambaye hakuweza kusogeza karibu kiungo chochote cha mwili wake, hata hivyo aligonga muhuri vijitabu vya injili kwa kushika muhuri wa mpira kwa meno yake na, kwa msaada wa mama yake, akavituma kwa askari kote ulimwenguni — na ukuta wake ulijaa barua kutoka kwa watu waliookolewa kupitia vijitabu hivyo. Kuna mwinjilisti mwenye haya au wa "njoni mwone", kama yule mzee mdogo mwenye nywele nyeupe katika Mtaa wa George huko Sydney aliyewauliza wapita njia swali moja la upole — "Ukifa leo, ungekuwa wapi?" — na hakujua kamwe, mpaka mwishoni mwa maisha yake, ni wangapi alikuwa amewaelekeza kwa Kristo. Na kuna mwinjilisti wa mwaliko, yule mwanamke Msamaria mwenyewe, ambaye alisema tu, "Njoni mwone." Huenda hutahubiri kamwe kwa maelfu wala kumshinda mwenye mashaka kwa hoja hadi apige magoti. Lakini unaweza kusema, "Njoni mwone." Je, umekunywa maji yaliyo hai? Basi uache mtungi, uende.People sometimes imagine there is only one kind of evangelist. There are many, and every believer belongs to the team. There is the mass evangelist — I once sat in a Billy Graham crusade and watched thousands stream forward. There is the defender of the faith, the apologist — men like Lee Strobel and Josh McDowell, or Nabeel Qureshi, who reasoned his way out of Islam into Christ and then spent his short life defending the faith. There is the serving evangelist, like Barnabas the son of encouragement, whose compassion gave weight to his words. There is the tract evangelist: I was told of a paralyzed man named J. D. Fore who could move almost nothing, yet stamped gospel tracts by gripping a rubber stamp in his teeth and, with his mother's help, mailed them to soldiers across the world — and his wall filled with letters from men saved through those tracts. There is the timid or "come and see" evangelist, like the little white-haired man on George Street in Sydney who asked passersby one quiet question — "If you died today, where would you be?" — and never knew, until late in life, how many he had sent to Christ. And there is the invitational evangelist, the Samaritan woman herself, who only said, "Come and see." You may never preach to thousands or argue a skeptic to his knees. But you can say, "Come and see." Have you drunk of the living water? Then leave the waterpot, and go.

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