Think about the biblical account in John 4 of Jesus and the woman at the well. Verse eight says, “His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.” While the passage doesn’t say He delegated the task to them, that’s very likely what happened when we look at other passages where food was needed.
Jesus Didn’t Have to Delegate the Task to His Disciples
Jesus could have gone with the disciples. Or, He could have miraculously provided the food which He did on other occasions for multitudes so He certainly could have done it for just His disciples.
What Might Have Happened if Jesus hadn’t Delegated the Task to His Disciples?
Consider what would have happened if Jesus hadn’t delegated to His disciples the task of going to town to buy food.
- If He had gone with them, He may not have sat down at the well and wouldn’t have had the encounter with this woman.
- If the disciples had stayed with Him, perhaps the woman wouldn’t have opened up about her life. She may have felt more intimidated, like she was being ganged up on by a group of men.
- If the encounter hadn’t happened, she and many others wouldn’t have come to believe in Jesus as “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony” (Jn. 4:39).
The Steering the Church Toward Christ-like Character Leadership Guide includes the content in this post and briefly considers why delegating was necessary in this situation. It also provides a few points about Jesus’ example of delegation in commissioning His disciples to go and make disciples.
All Posts about Delegation:
- What Does Delegation Have to do with Love?
- Delegation Done Purposefully
- Basis for Delegating
- Lessons about Delegation from Jesus
- Christ-like Goal in Delegating
- What If Jesus Hadn’t Delegated?
- Only God Truly Empowers
- Delegation Influenced by the Gospel
- Delegation Influenced by Grace
- Leaders’ Spiritual Gifting May Affect Delegating
- Who to Delegate to Based on Spiritual Gifts
- Avoiding Pitfalls of Delegation
- Delegation Enveloped in Prayer
- Delegation Because of the Resurrected Jesus
- Realistically View Delegation
Amazing I Love it. Thanks be to Jesus Christ. He should a Lesson to follow.