Tag Archives: Samaritans

JESUS IS HIS OWN PROOF

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JESUS IS HIS OWN PROOF

“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’…They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’” John 4:39,42 (NIV).

Once again John, the writer, drove home his point that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that his readers would believe through the record of those who believed through their encounters with Him. The Samaritan woman was the first-fruits of a harvest of villagers from Sychar. Her testimony startled them because she was so different from the woman who slunk out to draw water in the middle of the day because of her shame.

That was enough to alert the people that something radical had happened to her and aroused their curiosity to find out who had influenced her so dramatically. They rushed out to meet them man and, when they heard Him, they urged Him to extend His visit so that they could hear more of the words that quenched thirst and brought new life to their hearts.

Two days in Sychar with the Samaritan villagers was enough to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah. It was her testimony that aroused their curiosity, but it was His words that convinced them that He was, indeed, the Messiah and awakened faith that brought peace and changed their lives as well.

This whole episode must have left the disciples reeling and made a deep impression on them. At least it did to John because it was one of the encounters he included in his story to awaken faith in his readers.

There are many aspects to this story that lifts Jesus above all other human beings. He was totally un-self-absorbed. His human weariness did not hinder Him from recognising the woman’s need and reaching out to her. He was not locked into the racial prejudice of His people. He saw her, not as a Samaritan woman but as a thirsty person who needed to know the truth.

He was not put off by her ignorance and her efforts to dodge her guilt. He kept bringing her back to the issues she had to face. He was not embarrassed to expose her sin, but He did it without judgment or condemnation. He simply stated the fact and left her to deal with it. The fact that He let her know that He knew without condemnation, cracked the nut open and she was won.

The change in her attitude and behaviour must have been so remarkable that her fellow villagers were deeply impressed. Surely it is the evidence of a changed life as much as the words we speak that reveal the truth about who Jesus is. Only Jesus can remove the guilt of our sin and give us the peace that comes from forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God.

AN UNEXPECTED HARVEST

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AN UNEXPECTED HARVEST

“Many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days. And because of His words many more became believers. They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.'” John 4:39-42 (NIV).

What an amazing conclusion to an unusual encounter! Once again John had a story to tell that ended with a new wave of faith in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour. 

It’s almost as though His words to His disciples were prophetic. The woman was the first-fruit of a harvest that was waiting to be reaped in an unlikely region through which He travelled on His way to somewhere, but she was the key to that harvest.

What was it in the woman’s testimony that captured their attention and their imagination?  One simple statement, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’ Jesus was no fortune-teller. It was much more than just His words that captivated her. What He knew and disclosed to her was the wedge that opened up her locked and barred spirit because it revealed His heart for her.

His words were not intended to embarrass or condemn her. They were part of a disclosure that revealed not only what He knew about her unsavoury life but also what He understood about her empty heart. It was His invitation to come to Him because He could give her water that would quench her thirst forever.

Her fellow towns-people were intrigued by her testimony, but they were even more intrigued by the transformation in her. She was very different from the woman they knew and despised. Something had happened to her that had caused her to lose her fear of them. She approached them without shame despite her testimony. There was something in Jesus’ words that had set her free and she was desperate to share it with her erstwhile “enemies”.

The people of Sychar were not only willing to listen to her story; they also wanted to hear this remarkable man for themselves. Here was an unlikely harvest ready for reaping. Why should they, the people of a race that was despised by the Jews, listen to a Jewish man? Racial prejudice runs very deep and it works both ways.

The miracle is that Jesus transcends prejudice. In His earthly circumstances He might have been born a Jew and raised in the Jewish culture and religion, but He never participated in their attitudes and issues. Jew though He was, He represented another kingdom and another culture. He did not represent a Jewish God or a white man’s God or a black man’s God or any other group’s God. He came to reveal the God of heaven.

He is the Son of God, the Creator of the universe and Father of all the variations in the human race. There is only one race. The prejudices human beings develop are based on superficial external differences, not on our essential unity as members of the human race created in the image of God.

The apostle Paul confirmed the unity of the human race: “From one man He made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” Acts 17:26 (NIV).

Jesus’ message is to the world; it transcends geographical, language and cultural boundaries and invites all people everywhere to return to the Father from whom they are estranged because of sin. The woman needed a Father to heal her wounded heart and so did the people of Sychar who were no better than she.

Everyone, regardless of our experience of an earthly, imperfect father, needs to know the Father and to return to His house where we can live as accepted and beloved children of God, and Jesus came to take us to Him.

Have you come home to Him? Why are you waiting?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Selective Deafness

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SELECTIVE DEAFNESS

 “John spoke up, ‘Master, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped Him because he wasn’t of our group.’  Jesus said, ‘Don’t stop him. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally.’

“When it came close to the time for His Ascension, He gathered up His courage and steeled Himself for the journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead. They came to a Samaritan village to make arrangements for His hospitality. But when the Samaritans learned that His destination was Jerusalem, they refused hospitality.

“When the disciples James and John learned of it, they said, ‘Master, do you want us to call a bolt of lightning down out of the sky and incinerate them?’ Jesus turned on them: ‘Of course not!’ And they travelled on to another village.”  Luke 9:49-55 (The Message)

Talk about selective hearing! James and John’s attitude was proof that they had not taken in a word Jesus had said about true greatness.

What had these men learned from their association with Jesus? From non-religious guys who were part of the “out” group as far as their religious leaders were concerned, they had developed the idea that they were now part of a new “in” group!

They were very protective of their status as followers of Jesus — disciples of the newest and most popular rabbi in Israel. Although He had many followers on the fringe, Jesus had not invited anyone else to be part of the “in” group and they wanted to be sure that no one gate-crashed their party.

Anyone of the “them” group who happened to “get” what Jesus had been teaching and act on it was frowned on, not encouraged, because he was not one of “us”. They proudly announced to Jesus that they had put a stop to a man’s enthusiastic participation in doing the “kingdom stuff” by casting out demons, thinking that He would applaud them for their loyalty to Him. They were not anticipating the surprising rebuke they received for their trouble! ‘Don’t stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘If he’s not an enemy, then he’s a friend.’

James and John were such fiery characters that they had earned the nickname, “sons of thunder”. To protect their inner circle they were prepared to use their new-found authority to incinerate people who dared to oppose them, especially the hated Samaritans! Thinking that Jesus would applaud their outrage for the snub they had received, they wanted His approval for their plan to wipe out the village.

What did Jesus think of these goings-on from His disciples? For all their response to His teaching and demonstrating His yoke, they were still thinking and acting in exactly the same way as they did before they met Him. It seems that everything He taught them bounced off them like a ball off a wall. In fact, an “outsider” had caught on to what they, the “insiders” had missed. To cast out demons “in His name” meant that the unknown man, who was not a disciple, was doing what their rabbi did in the disposition of their rabbi.

How sad that many of Jesus’ self-proclaimed “followers” today have just as much of a “we – they” mentality as the disciples had. Being a Christian is being part of an exclusive “club” and to be a Christian minister is to have an elevated position in this club.

To get the real picture, let’s go back to Jesus’ visual aid on greatness. He insisted that to be truly great, one must use one’s position to elevate others, not to put them down or lord it over them. Get down to the level of the lowest and treat them with dignity and respect.

Jesus was the greatest and truest model of what He taught, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:6-8 (NIV).

Are you as selectively deaf as the disciples were?

Enter Saul

Christian Life, , , ,

ENTER SAUL

“And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home, the believers all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus. Going down to a Samaritan city, Philip proclaimed the Message of the Messiah. When the people heard what he had to say and saw the miracles, the clear signs of God’s action, they hung on his every word. Many who could neither stand nor walk were healed that day. The evil spirits protested loudly as they were sent on their way. And what joy in the city!” Acts 8:3-8 (The Message).

Enter Saul, a young man made of the stuff God needed but, unfortunately, fighting for the wrong side at this point. But, from God’s perspective, he was already a marked man.
God let him run with his hate campaign a little longer while He set the stage for Saul’s transfer from darkness to light.

From his perspective, Saul was fighting for God. On hindsight, he described himself as a Pharisee of the Pharisees, with an unquenchable zeal for God. He was willing to go as far as murder to protect what he considered to be the truth about God. He was the one-man audience that was applauding the crazy mob that killed Stephen. But God was right there, biding His time for the moment of His personal encounter with Saul.

In the meantime, the battle continued to rage between light and darkness. The more the agents of the dark realm of religious fanaticism struck at the children of light, the more the message spread and the church grew. Persecution had not driven the church underground — it had spread the fire beyond the confines of Jerusalem into the neighbouring half-breed nation of Samaritans.

The Jews despised the Samaritans because they were the result of intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles. When Assyria conquered Samaria in 722 BC, they carried off some of the people into captivity and repopulated the area with people displaced from other conquered nations.

But the old hatred was swallowed up by a new love. Such was the transformation of these Jewish believers that they willingly shared the Message of Jesus with the very people they had previously hated and avoided so that a whole Samaritan city was affected.

Philip, another of the men chosen to distribute food parcels to the suffering widows in Jerusalem, surfaced as a powerful witness to this new Way. Like Stephen, he was at the centre of the action, with miracles of healing and deliverance going on apace. He had to flee from Jerusalem with the other believers to escape Saul’s murderous assault on the church but, instead of disappearing, he was at the headwaters of a flood of missionary activity.

The phenomenal spread of “The Way”, as it was called, must have driven Saul into a frenzy. Far from curbing the growth of the church, he contributed to its spread. These people could not be silenced or stopped. Like a cancer, they infiltrated every corner of society and brought an unstoppable joy to the city!

What is it that has dampened the activity of God so effectively that we see little of the early power and growth of the church today? As I have moved slowly through Acts, one thing is becoming clearer. Every problem that surfaced in the church threatened their unity and every solution restored unity.

What if church leaders today recognised their responsibility to foster and protect unity? What if humility and submission became the priority of every leader and every member in the local church? What if pastors and preachers became more serious about their function than their title? What if they focussed less on being “bosses “and more on being servant-leaders?

What if “Christians” became true followers of Jesus? Would we see the power of God at work again now as it was then?