BREAKING BARRIERS AND BUILDING BRIDGES
Theme: Jesus Shatters the Stereotypes of “Us” and “Them”
February 13, 2005
Introduction:
In 1962, George Wallace ran for governor of Alabama on a platform that was blatantly racist. He promised to fight integration to the point of defying federal orders and personally blockading schoolhouse doors. He ended his inaugural address with the infamous statement, “I say segregation, now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” That summer, he refused to allow black students to register at the University of Alabama until forced to do so by the threat of military intervention. Through his tenure as governor and a run for the presidency in 1968, Wallace spouted racial hatred while blacks were beaten and jailed, black churches were burned, and black children were murdered. Source: Tim Woodroof, Walk This Way: An Interactive Guide to Following Jesus, [Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1999], pgs. 62-63 (Joel Smith, SermonCentral)
George Wallace models for us how to build barriers and burn bridges to those who we perceive as different from us. I trust that few if any of us have held such hatred towards those who are not like you, but odds are that you have harbored biases towards others. But we don’t like to face the sometimes ugly truth about ourselves.
In “Youth Worker Journal,” Will Eisenhower tells of a typical experience he had as a counselor at a youth Bible camp: “It had been an exhausting day; the guys in my cabin were asleep, and I was dead to the world. Then there came a dim awareness: Ants were crawling all over my body. I was so tired, and sleep felt so good, that I actually resisted rousing myself. I knew that if I were roused even a little bit, I would have to acknowledge that my sleeping bag had become an ant freeway. I didn’t want to know the awful truth, so for at least several seconds I tried to fight it. At some deep level, I told myself that sleep was the reality and the ants were a dream.” (Rodney Buchanan, SermonCentral)
Truth can be just like ants in our sleeping bags – an unwanted reality that we refuse to face. Winston Churchill once said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” The problem is that nothing ever changes if we don’t face the truth.
The problems of stereotypes and prejudice are not new problems. These were major problems in Jesus’ day. But what made Jesus so attractive to so many people in his day was the way he shattered the commonly held stereotypes of “us” and “them.”
What stereotypes and prejudices were problems in Jesus day? Well, let me tell you about the Samaritans. The Jews had a long-seated hatred for the Samaritans. Why? It started over 700 years earlier when the nation of Israel was taken into captivity into Babylon. Now you need to understand that not all of the people were taken away to Babylon. A few were left behind. And after the Babylonians moved many of the Israelites out they then moved other conquered people groups in. What happened then was that during the 70 years that the captivity lasted those Israelites that were left behind intermarried with these new people groups that were brought in. The result was a mixed blood race that was part Jew and part Gentile.
To make matters worse this race of half-breeds also practiced a blended form of the Jewish religion. They only accepted the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible that were written by Moses) as scripture. And then they blended in elements of the pagan religions from these other people groups. This form of Judaism was highly offensive to true Jews. And so when the Jews returned from exile they drove these half-breeds out of Jerusalem and Judea. They moved north into Samaria and there you have the Samaritans.
The Jews had such animosity for the Samaritans that they refused to even walk through Samaria. Look at the map of Israel on the next PowerPoint slide. In the southern part of Israel you have Judea, where Jerusalem is. Then north of Judea is Samaria. And north of Samaria is Galilee, where Jesus was raised in a town called Nazareth. The Jordan River runs north and south along the eastern borders of these territories. This posed a problem then if you wished to travel from Judea to Galilee or vice versa because Samaria was in between them. So devout Jews would go out of their way and cross the Jordan River and then travel north were they would then cross the Jordan River again to enter Galilee.
Clearly the Jews despised the Samaritans because of the deep-seated prejudices that they held onto. But then Jesus comes along and in today’s passage he begins to shatter the stereotypes the Jews had against the Samaritans. As we look at today’s scripture passage I want to share with you three steps that you will need to take in order to break barriers and build bridges to those who are different from you.
1. You Must Go Outside Your Comfort Zone.
Our scripture for today comes from John 4. The first three verses set the backdrop for this passage.
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Let’s stop right there for a moment. It says that Jesus “left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.” Remember how good Jews would cross the Jordan just to avoid traveling through Samaria when they went from Judea to Galilee? Well, look at what the next verse tells us about Jesus trip.
4Now he had to go through Samaria.
Underline the words “he had to go.” Why does it say that he had to go? Surely he could have crossed the Jordan and avoided Samaritan territory like all the other devout Jews did.
There is only one possible answer. It wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t cross the river. If he “had to go through Samaria” it was only because those were his marching orders from God. Remember last week we learned that the first reason Jesus was so attractive to so many people was that he marched to the beat of God’s drum. He got his marching orders directly from God and then he followed them to the letter.
Over nine times in the book of John Jesus emphasizes that he only did what God told him to do. On one of those occasions Jesus said, “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (Jn. 14:31). Circle the phrase “I do exactly what my Father has commanded.” That means that if he had to go through Samaria it was only because that was exactly what his father had commanded him to do. In fact one commentator goes so far as to say, “As the Savior of all men, Jesus had to confront the smoldering suspicion and enmity between Jew and Samaritan by ministering to his enemies.” (Merril C. Tenney, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary) In other words, he was on a mission from his Father to shatter the stereotypes of “us” and “them.”
In order to do that he “had to go through Samaria.” He had to leave his comfort zone. It would have been much more comfortable to stick to the more familiar route. It would have been much easier to only associate with those who were like him. He already had enough problems with the Jews without intentionally going out of his way to hang out with outcasts.
Let me tell you the story of another rabbi who lived some 2,000 years after Jesus and who also broke down barriers and built bridges in order to shatter commonly held stereotypes. Rabbi Michael Weisser lived in Lincoln, Nebraska. And for more than 3 years, Larry Trapp, a self-proclaimed Nazi & Ku Klux Klansman, directed a torrent of hate-filled mailings and phone calls toward him.
Trapp promoted white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and other messages of prejudice, declaring his apartment the KKK state headquarters and himself the grand dragon. His whole purpose in life seemed to be to spew out hate-ridden racial slurs and obscene remarks against Weisser and all those like him.
At first, the Weissers were so afraid they locked their doors and worried themselves almost sick over the safety of their family. But one day Rabbi Weisser found out that Trapp was a 42-year-old clinically blind, double amputee. And he became convinced that Trapp’s own physical helplessness was a source of the bitterness he expressed.
So Rabbi Weisser decided to do the unexpected. He left a message on Trapp’s answering machine, telling him of another side of life…a life free of hatred and racism.
Rabbi Weisser said, "I probably called 10 times and left messages before he finally picked up the phone and asked me why I was harassing him. I said that I’d like to help him. I offered him a ride to the grocery store or to the mall."
Trapp was stunned. Disarmed by the kindness and courtesy, he started thinking. He later admitted, through tears, that he heard in the rabbi’s voice, "something I hadn’t experienced in years. It was love."
Slowly the bitter man began to soften. One night he called the Weissers and said he wanted out, but didn’t know how. They grabbed a bucket of fried chicken and took him dinner. Before long they made a trade: in return for their love he gave them his swastika rings, hate tracts, and Klan robes.
That same day Trapp gave up his Ku Klux Klan recruiting job & dumped the rest of his propaganda in the trash. "They showed me so much love that I couldn’t help but love them back," he finally confessed. (Melvin Newland, SermonCentral)
What an incredible story about breaking barriers and building bridges through the power of love. And it started when the Weissers were willing to step outside of their comfort zone and offer unconditional love to a man from whom they had received nothing but hate. They stepped outside their comfort zone by making contact with one from whom they feared for their very lives.
Is there someone who has built a barrier between them self and you? Or have you built a barrier between yourself and someone else? Are you willing to start today to break that barrier and build a bridge instead? Are you willing even if it means going outside your comfort zone in order to do it? To whom could you begin to show the unconditional love of Jesus Christ? How could you show that love to them in a practical, meaningful way? The one thing I can guarantee you is that it won’t be easy, but it will be so worth it.
2. You Must Go Beyond Your Social Circle.
As if it wasn’t bad enough going through Samaria, we then learn that Jesus actually interacted with the Samaritans on his way through. I mean if he thought he had to cut through Samaria in order to get to Galilee quickly at least he could have avoided the people. Look straight ahead and don’t make eye contact and whatever you do don’t speak to them. Not Jesus. Look at the next passage.
5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar …6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus … sat down by the well …7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 9The Samaritan woman said to him … “How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
The Jews did not associate with the Samaritans. They didn’t hang out together. They didn’t talk to each other. They didn’t get along. They traveled in completely different social circles. So not only does Jesus go outside his comfort zone (Samaria), but he also goes beyond his social circle (the Samaritans).
If you think things are bad now they are about to get even worse. He doesn’t just interact with any old Samaritan, but with a Samaritan woman. The Jewish rabbis of Jesus’ day would not even teach women. And yet here is Jesus reaching out to a Samaritan woman.
And when it seemed that things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Not only was this person a Samaritan and a woman, but she was also an immoral woman. She had been married five times and she wasn’t married to the man she was now living with (4:18). So this is the picture: Jesus is hanging out at a well all alone with an adulterous Samaritan woman. She’s got three strikes against her, so to speak, and she should be called out. These were three very good reasons (from the perspective of the Jews) why Jesus shouldn’t even acknowledge her existence. And yet he does. In fact, he was the one who initiated the conversation.
Not only should a good Jew not associate with this woman, but we also have good reason to believe that even the Samaritans themselves shunned this woman. Verse six tells us that “it was about the sixth hour” when Jesus met this woman at the well. The sixth hour was noon. It would have been unusual for a woman to go to the well to draw water in the heat of the day. Usually they went to the well in the evening when it had cooled off. That she was there at noon indicates that she was probably trying to avoid the other women because they did not accept her because of her immorality. Are you starting to get the picture? This woman was an outcast among outcasts! If there was anyone on the face of planet earth that Jesus should not have associated with, it was this woman. But he was willing to go beyond his social circle in order to break barriers and build bridges.
In his book, “Through the Valley of the Kwai,” Earnest Gordon tells the following story:
We found ourselves on the same track with several carloads of Japanese wounded after we were freed from the Kwai prison camp. These unfortunates were on their own without medical care. No longer fit for action in Burma, they had been packed into railway cars which were being returned to Bangkok. They were in a shocking state. I have never seen men filthier. Uniforms were encrusted with mud, blood, and excrement. Their wounds, sorely inflamed and full of pus, crawled with maggots. The maggots, however, in eating the putrefying flesh, probably prevented gangrene. It was apparent why the Japanese were so cruel to their prisoners. If they didn’t care for their own, why should they care for us? The wounded looked at us forlornly as they sat with their heads resting against the carriages, waiting for death. They had been discarded as expendable, the refuse of war. These were the enemy. They were more cowed and defeated than we had ever been.
Without a word most of the officers in my section unbuckled their packs, took out part of their ration and a rag or two, and, with water canteens in their hands, went over to the Japanese train. Our guards tried to prevent us, bawling, "No goodka! No goodka!" But we ignored them and knelt down by the enemy to give water and food, to clean and bind up their wounds. Grateful cries of "Aragatto!" ("Thank you") followed us when we left--. I regarded my comrades with wonder. Eighteen months ago they would have joined readily in the destruction of our captors had they fallen into their hands. Now these same officers were dressing the enemy’s wounds.
We had experienced a moment of grace, there in those bloodstained railway cars. God had broken through the barriers of our prejudice and had given us the will to obey His command, "Thou shalt love." (Earnest Gordon, “Through the Valley of the Kwai” as cited by James S. Hewett in “Illustrations Unlimited, pp. 119-120 – Bruce Howell, SermonCentral)
Just like the Samaritan woman at the well these Japanese soldiers were outcasts among their own people. Or, as Gordon described them, they were “the refuse of war.” Certainly American soldiers and Japanese soldiers didn’t travel in the same social circles during the war, but that didn’t stop those American soldiers from showing their Japanese counterparts the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
If those American soldiers could do what they did under those conditions, then what is your excuse? Who are those beyond your social circle whom you need to reach out to? For all too many of us in the church any who doesn’t go to church is outside our social circle. It is long past time that we in the church starting breaking down the barriers that divide us and start building bridges to a lost world by showing them the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.
And what do you think will happen when you start to reach out to those so-called “undesirables?” What do you think your family and friends will say? How do you think people at church will respond?
3. You Might Have To Go It Alone.
Look at the disciples’ reaction to Jesus interaction with this woman as recorded in The Message.
8His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch … 27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it. (TM)
The disciples were blown away by the fact that here was the man they believed to be the Jewish Messiah talking with an adulterous, Samaritan women all alone at a well. Did they join Jesus in his conversation with this woman? No way! If you read through the rest of the passage you will discover that they didn’t even speak to Jesus until after the woman had left them and gone back into town. And then when they did approach Jesus they didn’t ever bring up the subject. Instead they asked him what he wanted for lunch. It is apparent that they were just going to pretend that this incident had never happened.
Jesus’ disciples were quite prejudiced themselves. Luke records another time when Jesus was traveling through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. He wanted to go to a particular village in Samaria and sent some of his disciples on ahead to prepare for his arrival, but the Samaritans in that town refused to welcome him. Luke tells us how James and John responded: “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’” (Luke 9:54) They were ready to wipe out all of those dirty, rotten, good-for-nothing Samaritans without a second thought. Clearly Jesus wasn’t going to have the support of his disciples?
Jesus was going to have to go it alone and he was going to pay the price for it as well. It wasn’t long after this that in John chapter 8 the Jewish leaders confronted him and said, “That clinches it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy!” (John 8:48, TM) Now I am not sure why they had been calling him a Samaritan all along, but it possibly could have been because of his interaction with this Samaritan woman among others. Just as someone who is prejudiced against blacks might refer to someone who befriends a black person as a “nigger-lover” so Jesus was being labeled a “Samaritan-lover” and believe me that was not meant as a compliment. Can you picture the crowd of Jews ganging up on him and mocking him: “Hey! I told you that guy was just a crazy Samaritan-lover!”
Jesus had to go it alone. He didn’t have the support of the religious leaders of the day. And he didn’t even have the support of his disciples who hadn’t yet gotten past their own biases. On this issue Jesus would stand alone.
If following Jesus example of breaking barriers and building bridges means that no one will go with you, are you prepared to go it alone? Jesus was. There’s a song we all know called “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” In that song there is a verse that says: “Though none go with me, still I will follow.” You know the lyrics, but have you lived them? Jesus did. And so did another man named Dick Staub. Let me share with you from an article he wrote titled “Please Pass the Salt: What We Can Learn from Jesus About Engaging Our World.”
Many years ago I attended a birthday party for my gay friend and co-worker, Julian. Sixty gay men and four straight women had gathered to celebrate in a high-rise penthouse with a dramatic sweeping view of the San Francisco Bay. Greeting me warmly, Julian exuberantly kissed me on both cheeks (something that never happened at the office, I assure you). I took a deep breath and ventured into a scene that was well outside my comfort zone. I chuckled quietly, asking myself a familiar question: ‘What in the world am I doing here?’
Actually, I knew exactly why I was there. I had prayed with some friends about this occasion just a few hours earlier. I’ve always thought of events like Julian’s party as ‘wedding feast of Cana’ situations. As so often happens when I follow Jesus into the world, opportunities appear. Because I listened as the partygoers told me about their journeys, by 2:00 a.m. five of them were gathered with me in a corner talking about spiritual things. SOURCE: Dick Staub, “Please Pass the Salt: What We Can Learn from Jesus About Engaging Our World” from Discipleship Journal (Issue 122 Mar/Apr 2001), p. 47. (SermonCentralPro)
Here is a man who went outside his comfort zone, who went beyond his social circle and who had to go it alone. The result: He got to share spiritual truth with five people he never would have been able to reach otherwise. A daring move? Absolutely! But well worth the risk. Jesus saw similar results from his risking venture as well.
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.
Jesus was able to reach the people of that town because he was willing to go outside his comfort zone, beyond his social circle, and go it alone. He never could have reached that town otherwise.
Conclusion:
If you have harbored prejudices against other people, let me encourage you that people can change. I started this message by telling you about George Wallace and how bigoted he was, but I didn’t tell the whole story. So, like Paul Harvey, let me give you the rest of the story.
On May 15, 1972 while campaigning in Laurel, Maryland, Wallace was shot five times, leaving him paralyzed and in constant pain. Two years later – confined to a wheel chair, divorced from his second wife, without the use of his legs, and lacking control of bodily functions – Wallace was a broken, pathetic figure. He was a man who finally understood the meaning of suffering. He was a man who had come to realize what suffering he had caused others.
While being driven home one evening, he passed the open doors of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, a black congregation where years earlier Martin Luther King, Jr., had stood in the pulpit and denounced Wallace for his treatment of African Americans. Overcome with remorse, Wallace stopped the car, was helped into his wheelchair, and wheeled up the aisle to the stunned surprise of the assembly. There, Wallace tearfully confessed he had been wrong, apologized for the suffering he had caused, and asked the blacks of Alabama to forgive him.
It was an expression of remorse he was to repeat on numerous occasions in the following years – publicly, before black audiences on campuses and conventions, and privately, to black leaders like Coretta Scott King and Jesse Jackson. During two more terms as governor (1974 and 1982), he built bridges to the black community, developed relationships with prominent black leaders, and worked to undo some of the damage his own racist rhetoric had caused.
Until the very end, while bedridden and deaf, he still received visits from friends, both black and white, and met with groups of both races for prayer.
Not all blacks forgave Wallace. The damage he did and the pain he caused was great. But the story of George Wallace is not about forgiveness, but about penance. Here is a man who was tragically flawed and terribly wrong. It took five bullets and horrific suffering to bring him to his knees. But once broken, he had the courage to face his hatred and prejudice, repent, confess, and then spend the remainder of his life attempting to atone and make restitution. SOURCE: Tim Woodroof, Walk This Way: An Interactive Guide to Following Jesus, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1999), 62-63. (Joel Smith, SermonCentral)
If a man like George Wallace could do it, so can you. Let me close by reminding you what hangs in the balance with another story of a popular figure. In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that during his student days he read the Gospels seriously and considered converting to Christianity. He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find the solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. So one Sunday he decided to attend services at a nearby church and talk to the minister about becoming a Christian. When he entered the sanctuary, however, the usher refused to give him a seat and suggested that he o worship with his own people. Gandhi left the church and never returned, “If Christians have caste differences also, “ he said, “I might as well remain a Hindu.” That usher’s prejudice not only betrayed Jesus but also turned a person away from trusting Him as Savior. (David Yarbrough, SermonCentral)
Gandhi was perhaps the most influential leader of his people in his day. And here was the opportunity to influence this influential leader for Jesus Christ. He was open to receiving Jesus. He was openly seeking Jesus. And because of the prejudiced actions of a church usher the opportunity was missed and he turned his back on Jesus and His church. Think of what could have been if Gandhi would have become a Christian and then used his considerable influence to reach his people for Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be in that ushers’ shoes when he has to stand before Jesus and give an account of his actions.
During his earthly ministry Jesus shattered the stereotypes of “us” and “them.” During his day he had to go it alone. But what about today? Does he still have to go it alone? Or will you go with him?
If you use this message or a revision of it, please email me. Thank you!
steveamanda8297@hotmail.com
