Discovering and being discovered by Jesus
It wasn't only the Romans that the Jews hated. They also hated their close neighbors. Jews did no business with the Samaritans, they didn't even speak to them and used their name as a swear word. Both Jews and Samaritans were descendants of Abraham and yet they hated one another. Does that sound familiar? Five hundred years before, the leaders of Samaria had offered to help the Jews rebuild their ruined temple and the Jews had refused the offer. Hatred took root and flourished. It seems to me that people love to hate. If they haven't any real cause for hating, they will find one. In countries with closed borders and tightly restricted lives there are no foreigners to hate, so clan hates clan, and if there is no neighboring clan then men hate women.
Hatred is the fatal sickness of humanity, the contagion people love to catch.
A Samaritan woman met Jewish Jesus in the heat of the day and he told her all about herself, he also told her in clear words something that he left other people to guess: that he was the Messiah - the man who would make everything right.
When she heard this, she rushed back to her city: she told the people that she had met a man who told her all she ever did and could this be the Messiah? Jesus, still waiting by the well-side looked over the fields and saw a long line of people weaving their way through the fields to come to him.
The citizens invited Jesus to stay in their town and he stayed two days, in a place where it wasn't usually safe to stay. I don't know about his disciples, perhaps they slept in the field that night rather than mix with Samaritans.
Many of the Samaritans made the same discovery as the woman. Somewhat unkindly they said to this less than eminent citizen who had introduced them to Jesus, "We believe, but not because of what you say but because we have heard for ourselves." Then they make this statement: "We know that he is truly the Savior of the world."
Now there's a statement. Savior of the world; and they hadn't even heard of the Beatles and Pink Gin. Why did they use this term instead of Messiah? Perhaps because they had just found a cure for hatred, and knew that the world could now be saved.
Faith is a gift. Back in Galilee where Jesus had changed water into wine, the people were wanting more and more miracles. 'Show me a bigger and better miracle and then I will believe.' was their attitude. How was it that hated Samaritans received the gift of faith and Jews in Cana didn't? The Samaritans invited Jesus to stay with them and listened to his message. Faith in an unseen God and his mysterious son is a miracle, and the Samaritans received the bigger and better miracle.
John 4:39 - 42 (NRSV) 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Hatred is the fatal sickness of humanity, the contagion people love to catch.
A Samaritan woman met Jewish Jesus in the heat of the day and he told her all about herself, he also told her in clear words something that he left other people to guess: that he was the Messiah - the man who would make everything right.
When she heard this, she rushed back to her city: she told the people that she had met a man who told her all she ever did and could this be the Messiah? Jesus, still waiting by the well-side looked over the fields and saw a long line of people weaving their way through the fields to come to him.
The citizens invited Jesus to stay in their town and he stayed two days, in a place where it wasn't usually safe to stay. I don't know about his disciples, perhaps they slept in the field that night rather than mix with Samaritans.
Many of the Samaritans made the same discovery as the woman. Somewhat unkindly they said to this less than eminent citizen who had introduced them to Jesus, "We believe, but not because of what you say but because we have heard for ourselves." Then they make this statement: "We know that he is truly the Savior of the world."
Now there's a statement. Savior of the world; and they hadn't even heard of the Beatles and Pink Gin. Why did they use this term instead of Messiah? Perhaps because they had just found a cure for hatred, and knew that the world could now be saved.
Faith is a gift. Back in Galilee where Jesus had changed water into wine, the people were wanting more and more miracles. 'Show me a bigger and better miracle and then I will believe.' was their attitude. How was it that hated Samaritans received the gift of faith and Jews in Cana didn't? The Samaritans invited Jesus to stay with them and listened to his message. Faith in an unseen God and his mysterious son is a miracle, and the Samaritans received the bigger and better miracle.
John 4:39 - 42 (NRSV) 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
posted by Jessie Coates at 12:06 AM
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