Sermon for John 4:5-42
Third Sunday in Lent
March 27, 2011
The conflict the Jews had with the Samaritans goes way back, and I mean way back. When the Hebrew people were brought out of the land of Egypt there were originally twelve tribes—twelve lands. But due to reasons of survival these twelve tribes were basically combined into two kingdoms about the time of David in 1000 BCE. They were Israel the northern kingdom and Judah the southern kingdom—where Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.
These two kingdoms never did see eye to eye. The northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria (current day Syria) in 722 BCE, and the southern kingdom of Jerusalem in 587 BCE by the Babylonias (current day Iraq). However, 70 years later king Cyrus of Persia (current day Saudi Arabia) defeated both the Assyrians and the Babylonias and allowed the Hebrew people to return home and rebuild their temple.
At this time the Hebrews of the south actually become a formal religion—Judaism. They considered themselves the true religion and would not allow these so-called Samaritan’s who had remained behind during the years of captivity to help rebuild the temple. Even though Samaritan actually means “keepers of the law,” these second class citizens had their own holy ground in the north and worshipped the God of Abraham and Jacob as we see in today’s reading.
At the time of Christ the Jews had such animosity for these outcast they would not talk to them and refused to even walk through Samaria. This posed a problem cause if you wished to travel from Judea to Galilee, Samaria was in the middle and so the devout Jews would go out of their way, cross the Jordan River, travel north and then cross back over the Jordan.
Sounds a little ridiculous, huh? But I can remember not too long ago in Hickory NC, there were second class citizens and actually once again two parts of the city, white and black. White school, black school, white restrooms, black restrooms, and on and on. The main streets were even rerouted so one did not have to go through the black section of town.
My father, a Lutheran pastor, doing the work of Christ, began assisting with the civil rights movement. He had a large church in the white neighborhood, some 2000 members, and one Sunday the dean of English at Duke University attended our all white congregation. The following Sunday there stood a sign that read, “No Niggers Allowed.”
Sounds ridiculous, don’t you think? But I can remember not too long ago in Louisville KY, there were second class citizens in the church. The women could do all the grunt work, while the men were the only ones who could make the decisions and proclaim the good news. One particular Sunday a female pastor stood up in the pulpit and began to share with us one of the most powerful sermons I’ve ever heard. Close to half of the congregation walked out.
How ridiculous is that? But I can remember like it was yesterday in parts of Indiana, there were second class citizens still in the church, straight and homosexual. Sure the gays and lesbian were told they are welcome to do the grunt work, but just don’t proclaim the message of Christ’s love. Cause if you do, then we’ll go find another church that doesn’t have Samaritans, homosexuals, women pastors, or people who are different than us.
All these true stories sound so ridiculous its no wonder the Church is falling flat on its face and fighting a losing battle. We proclaim the Words of Jesus as the Christ, but live our lives in total opposition to the message. We walk around the people who need it the most. Think of it this way.
Would you buy a product that promised to grow hair from a man who head was as slick as baby’s butt? Of course not! What a silly question.
Then can we expect the youth of our society, the broken and downtrodden, the searching, anybody different than us to buy into the message of the life changing gospel from a bunch of ridiculous people? Of course not! Again what a silly question.
The sad part of the story is that today most of the people descending from the Samaritan race now subscribe to Islam where they worship the same God and just happened to be accepted by the Muslim people with open arms.
If only, if only we could learn from Jesus in today’s lesson? Jesus the Christ shattered any idea of stereotypes and prejudices. He shatters any notice that who we are, male, female, Jew, Samaritan, black, white, straight, gay makes no difference to a God of Love.
You know Jesus could have easily done what the good Jew would do and go around Samaria, but no! In the first verses of today’s reading it says, “He had to go.” He had to go, because that is what Jesus came for.
He came to a Samaritan. Not only a Samaritan, but a woman Samaritan. Not only a woman Samaritan, but a woman Samaritan scarred by life, a sinner who could not even gather water around her own kind—when most of the women would have been gathering water in the cool of the morning—she had to wait until the heat of day so as not be seen.
Jesus knows every single thing about this woman and still he offers to her living water, the freedom of the gospel, and the knowledge of God’s Love with open arms, not with words of condemnation.
Yet can we learn from Jesus in today’s lesson?
Next time you find yourself being tempted to judge by skin color, gender, religion, life style remember the heart of Christ, and simply turn around and look at yourself in the mirror.
Because in that mirror you will see the Samaritan woman, a person who is an outcast Gentile, a person who is a sinner and has a past just like that poor woman sometimes ashamed to be seen. And yet while Jesus knows every single thing about you, he still offers to you living water, the freedom of the gospel, the knowledge of God’s love with open arms.
And with this new found living water of Christ Jesus you are truly free to live knowing that you are accepted for who you are and then you in turn will walk through unknown territories accepting others who differ from you. Paul writes, since we are justified (made right) by faith, we now have peace with God, and folks this peace with God makes to world of difference in how you live and how you will treat others.
But there’s one last thing I would like to point out about this text, which deals with the future of our Christian nation—deals with the future of this Lampstand we call Gloria Dei.
While Jesus shatters the boundaries of prejudice and comes to all sinners alike. Notice what the poor Samaritan woman does next. She becomes the first evangelist in the gospel of John. Get that folks! Tell me the Bible isn’t full of unexpected twist and turns—like life. Your very first non-Jew disciple/pastor was a shady, sinful woman despised by the religious leader of the day. Sort of ridiculous huh?
She leaves her jar. She goes back to her city and says, “Come and see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done and still he offers me life.”
She wasn’t now perfect, her past still lingered in her memories, but first the first time this woman was accepted for who she was.
It says, many other Samaritans from the city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony and Jesus stayed amongst the outcast for two days, for two days.
They didn’t believe because now she was better than them, she was still a sinner, but they believed because they saw a change. They saw that whoever this person Jesus was, he had cause something different and exciting in this woman and they were curious.
Can we look in the mirror and realize that we are no better than any sinner in God’s good creation? And then, then can we go out as something different and tell others the exciting good news about a certain man named Jesus who knows all about my faults and yet is willing to offer living water with open arms?
I sure hope so, because the course of history needs some changing, and it will only change through the Love of Christ Jesus. Amen
