Ministry to the Samaritans
This morning I feel that God is leading me to speak on the subject of Samaritans. More to the point I want to speak about Jesus’ interaction with this particular group of people.
As a Jew, Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritans caused quite a bit of a stir at the time. The animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans at the time of Jesus was very much like the animosity between the Jews and the Arabs today. I want to start by giving you a little background into the Samaritans and why there was so much hatred between them and the Jews.
Israel, at the time of King David had been one nation similar to England today. Two generations later however the kingdom had split apart. It would be the equivalent of London splitting from the rest of the country, and two nations emerging with their separate kings.
While Jerusalem remained the capital of the Southern kingdom, Samaria became the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Around 700 years before Christ this Northern kingdom fell to the Nation of Assyria and a large percentage of the people were forcibly exiled into surrounding nations. The king of Assyria replaced them with peoples from other nations who mixed with the remained Jews and intermarried.
The Samaritans therefore were partly Jewish and partly descendants of the other nations. There religious beliefs were just as mixed as their heritage. They held on to the books of Moses, but their religious practices were partly influenced by their other cultural backgrounds and the nations that would rule over them over the next few hundred years before Christ came.
They had built a temple on Mt Gerizim at Shechem, which was later destroyed, but they continued to worship there. That is why when Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter 4 and verse 20, she says.
John 4:20
20:Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
In that same conversation Jesus reveals how confused the Samaritan belief system has become, when he states that the Samaritans don’t even know who they are worshipping.
The Jewish contempt for the Samaritans was so great that, the Pharisees in trying to insult Jesus state.
John 8:48
48:The Jews answered him, "Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?"
This comment shows that to the Jews to be a Samaritan is about as far away from God as you can get. In terms of spirituality, it is equal to being demon-possess.
There was, however, one thing that both Jews and Samaritans had in common. After years of being oppressed by one nation and then another, both the Jews and the Samaritans resented foreign rule. They were both looking for a promised Messiah.
It is at this point that Jesus comes along. The Gospel of Luke describes three different interactions that Jesus has with Samaritans, and what we can learn from that.
**Mercy**
The interaction between Jesus and the Samaritans mentioned in the book of Luke display Him to be a God of mercy.
Luke 9:51-56 (NKJ)
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.
53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
In these few verses we see Jesus is heading for Jerusalem. It states that He is resolute. He is going to be going to His death. On His way, He plans to stay in a Samaritan village. However, the people there reject Him.
Why do they reject Him? It states that they reject him because he is heading for Jerusalem. Why did they reject Jesus because He was going to Jerusalem?
Maybe it was because, as we found, in the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well, that the Samaritans viewed Mt Gerizim as being the place that God should be worshipped? They were probably expecting the messiah to come to that very mountain, not to go to Jerusalem. Jesus couldn’t be the person that they were expecting, because he didn’t follow there preconceived ideas and beliefs about the way that he should come.
Maybe it was because of their hatred of the Jews? The Samaritans knew that by going to Jerusalem, Jesus was going to be ministering to the Jews. They knew that he was going to be their saviour. Could it be that their resentment of the Jews, and especially the religious hierarchy, meant that they weren’t willing to host anybody who would minister to these people?
Either way, Jesus must have felt the rejection and His disciples are clearly angered. James and John, aware of the power that Jesus has bestowed upon them, offer to call down fire from heaven and destroy the whole town. We have to question the motive of James and John at this point, after all they were offering to do something that Jesus could have quite easily done himself. So what were there motives?
Could it be they felt they were doing what Jesus would have wanted them to do? After all, if we read the start of this chapter Jesus had given them some instruction on what to do if a town reject their ministry.
Luke 9:1
1:When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,
2:and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
3:He told them: "Take nothing for the journey - no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.
4:Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.
5:If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them."
6:So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
I don’t believe that this can be the reason, after all there is a big difference between shaking the dust from your feet, and calling down fire. Shaking the dust of your feet was a sign that God would bring judgement, James and John on the other hand wanted to bring the judgement themselves.
I believe that James and John’s comment instead reflect some of their own attitudes towards the Samaritan people. It is one thing to be rejected, it is quite another to be rejected by a group of people whom the disciples probably felt didn’t deserve to have Jesus enter their town in the first place. It reveals the prejudice that the disciples have towards the Samaritans.
I wonder sometimes whether we as Christians can have the same attitude. Like the disciples, we probably wouldn’t admit it publicly, after all they never questioned Jesus when he spoke to the Samaritan woman, but it comes out subconsciously in some of the things that we say or do.
Are there any people who we don’t try and reach out to because they seem like they have gone too far down the wrong road? Maybe it is because they are too engrossed in a wrong doctrine or theology. Maybe we have tried to reach out with an act of kindness, but if that act is rejected then it just enforces our own self righteousness, and their condemnation.
If we were all individually asked the same question, ‘is there any person, or any section of the community, that we come across that we feel are too far away to receive the gospel and find God’s mercy?’ I am sure that we would all honestly answer ‘no.’ James and John probably would have said the same, but their real underlying attitudes that they probably weren’t even aware of, came out in this chapter.
Jesus rebukes the disciples. It is clear that this lesson eventually sinks in. After all we find that after Jesus’ death and resurrection John actually goes with Peter and ministers to the Samaritans.
Acts 8:25
25:When they had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
When Jesus rebuked His disciples, it obviously hit the mark.
**Love**
The second interaction between Jesus and a Samaritan in the book of Luke is a hypothetical one, in the sense that he is a character in one of Jesus parables. It is contained in Luke chapter 10 verses 30-37. I am not going to read it because it is probably one of the most famous passages in the Bible. Even people with little or no church background tend to know the main theme of parable.
A man walks from Jerusalem to Jericho and is beaten up and left for dead by robbers. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is 17 miles long and is a descent of around a 1000 metres, roughly the height of Scarfel Pike (The tallest mountain in England). It was the country residents of the Priests and the Levites who would have been temple workers. They would have stayed here when they weren’t on duty at the temple.
A Priest and a Levite which represented the crème of Jewish society, in turn both see the injured man and walked straight past. They probably justified it to themselves by recalling that the law prohibited them from being defiled by touching a dead body. It is sometimes easier to justify doing something wrong, or not doing something right, than it is to show mercy. I couldn’t stop to help that person, it would have made me late for church and God wouldn’t have approved of that.
The audience probably expected the next person to be a Jewish layman, instead it was a Samaritan. The Samaritan not only showed compassion on the man, but also paid for his aftercare.
I want to look at how Jesus came about to tell this parable.
Luke 10:25-29
25:On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26:"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27:He answered: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, `Love your neighbour as yourself.’"
28:"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29:But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
Jesus is here asked how someone can inherit eternal life, and in good old Jewish fashion, he refers the enquirer to the law. The expert gives the same answer to this question as Jesus himself answers when he is asked the same question in the book of Mark. Jesus simply tells him then, simply to do what he already knows he should do.
The expert has lost a little face by this reply and so tries to justify himself by asking the question, ‘who is my neighbour?’ The parable of the good Samaritan that Jesus gives in reply to this question is quite remarkable. We would expect Jesus to give an answer or a parable that explains how Jews should love everybody, even Samaritans. Instead Jesus makes the Samaritan, the hero of the story.
It is very easy to think that we are demonstrating love when we do a charitable act. If we give money to a charity, or a cause to help the needy, then we can think that this is an act of love. A lot of the time it is exactly that, and I don’t want to take anything away from giving in such a manner. However I feel that sometimes we can do it because it makes us feel good or justified, and not because of a true love for a person.
Sometimes we can give money, or we can help somebody out, simply because it is a demonstration that we have the power to do something, and out of pride, rather than out of true love. Like my previous point, it is often something that we don’t even realise.
God has revealed that to me a number of times. A few years ago, I went to Moldova, the poorest country in Europe. I felt great when I was able to give and do a work. I was greatly humbled however when people who had next to nothing to live on cooked me a huge meal.
If the parable had been a Jew showing compassion to a Samaritan, Jesus’ audience would have received the message gladly. If Jesus’ point had simply been that love is an action, and we should even show love to our enemies as though they are neighbours, then this would have been sufficient. They would have still thought that a Samaritan was somebody below themselves, but would have thought that they were demonstrating love by showing the person compassion, in turn, making them more self righteous.
To show real love is a combination of what we do as well as our motive behind it. By elevating the Samaritan in this parable it made it unpalatable to the Jews. When Jesus then asks the expert who is the man’s neighbour, the expert can’t even say the words Samaritan, it would have stuck in his through to much, instead he says, ‘the one who showed mercy.’
Luke 10:36&37
36:"Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37:The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
**Faith.**
The third point that I want to make is that of faith.
Luke 17:11-19
11:Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
12:As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance
13:and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
14:When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.
15:One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
16:He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan.
17:Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?
18:Was no-one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
19:Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
In this passage Jesus is travelling between Samaria and Galilee which explains why the Lepers he comes across are of mixed nationalities. They all come to Jesus and plead for Him to show them pity and heal them.
All ten of the Lepers demonstrate faith in obediently going to the priests. We know that they were all cleansed. Yet it was only the Samaritan who came back to thank Jesus. From Jesus’ question in verse 18 we can assume that most, if not all of the other nine lepers would have been Jews.
It would have been harder for the Samaritan to throw himself down at the foot of a Jew and give thanks than it would have been for the other nine. Not only was this Samaritan praising God, but it tells us that he was doing so in a loud voice.
Jesus then tells the Samaritan to get up and his faith has made him well. Not only was this Samaritan now healed physically, but his soul was healed as well. The other nine Lepers had an obvious problem when they came to Jesus, but they failed to see the greater healing that they needed.
However, before we get too judgemental about these other nine, lets remember that for years they would have been outcasts. So much so that none of them even dared to come near to Jesus. They would have spent many days, in despair, not able to be close to their children. I can imagine that the first thing that they wanted to do was to get back to their families, hug their children, and get close to the people that they had been separated from.
This Samaritans faith surpassed knowing that he needed a healing. Even after his physical healing he still knew that he needed to thank God. It is easy to forget God when we no longer have a problem to come to him with. The Samaritan demonstrates true faith in his gratitude.
Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!" John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’"
(Maichael Belcher@Sermon Central.com)
Remembering to publicly thank God for what he has done is a demonstration of faith.
Conclusion
I believe that there is a lot that we can learn from Jesus’ interaction with this despised group of people.
Firstly, mercy, I believe that God is calling us to open up doors of witness that we are selves have closed. We have not reached out to people because we feel that they will reject us and our message. Maybe we feel that they will never change and probably don’t deserve Gods mercy. Instead God wants us to reach these very people.
Secondly, love, I believe that God is calling us to truly love our neighbours. To not only to demonstrate love, but not to belittle them in the process. Our acts of love should always be done with the motive to bless others, not to increase our own self righteousness.
Thirdly, faith, true faith is demonstrated not only in asking God, and receiving from Him, but also in remembering to come before Him with a grateful heart.
It is only when we learn to interact with people in the way that Jesus did, that we will see our church’s grow.
