The Samaritan Appointment

The Samaritan Appointment

John 4:1-26

As I’m sure you all know, during Biblical times, the Jews and the Samaritans were locked in a bitter rivalry, but in case you didn’t know, it partially began back when the Kingdom was torn apart—when it became a divided kingdom after Solomon's death and there was the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin.

Now over the years after the divide, each succeeding King of the North got progressively worse until the Lord finally sent Assyria to conquer and remove the people from the land. So, after taking many of the northern Jews into captivity the Assyrian King then began importing people other conquered lands into Samaria which was formerly the Northern Kingdom. (2Kgs 17:23-24)

Now, these pagan non-Jews that were brought in, not only began to intermarry with the Jews that were left behind, but they also brought their foreign gods with them. So, is wasn’t long until their pagan form of worship intermingled with the worship of Yahweh. (Now, this intermingling of beliefs is called “syncretism” which is an amalgamation of various religions into one. Think of Voodoo for instance. It is a blend of elements of Christianity with Witchcraft and other pagan practices.)

After Israel had been taken into captivity, about 123 years later the Southern Kingdom was conquered by Babylon and was also taken into captivity, but that only lasted 70 years, and then they were allowed to return to their homeland in Judah.

Almost immediately upon their return to the land, they started rebuilding the temple and then the wall around Jerusalem. Amazingly, the Samaritans came and offered to help, but because they were considered “half-breeds” and “mongrels” by the Jews, and also because they probably had ulterior motives, they were flatly rejected. With that rejection, the Samaritans sided with Israel's enemies, and thus began centuries of mistrust and deep animosity. The Jews hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans hated the Jews.

Now, by the time of Christ, the Samaritans had largely abandoned the idol worship their former kings and the Assyrian captives had brought in, and they worshiped Yahweh, but only after a fashion. You see, they (like the Sadducees) accepted only the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of Moses) as Scripture, but they also worshiped God on Mount Gerizim instead of Jerusalem. Because they only recognized a portion of the Scripture, they didn't have a complete revelation of the Messiah that was come.

They did believe there would be one to come “like Moses” but he'd primarily be a teacher as we see from the Samaritan woman's statement when she said Joh 4:25 …I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When He comes, He will tell us all things. But the idea of the Messiah saving anyone, or establishing a Kingdom well, that really wasn’t part of their beliefs.

Something else to remember is because of their long history of animosity, and their traditions, the Samaritans were considered to be “perpetually unclean” by the more orthodox Jews, who would avoid all contact with any Samaritan, even to the point of bypassing all of their country. They would go miles out of their way to walk to Galilee, or from Galilee to Judah in order to avoid Samaria. And many of the Jews would “never” eat any food prepared by Samaritan hands or drink any beverage out of a Samaritan container. To do so would cause the Jew to become “unclean” himself.

Now, this is just a very short history concerning the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans in order to illustrate and emphasize the differences between the typical orthodox Jew of the time, and our Lord Jesus Christ. For you see, though Jesus was most definitely orthodox, He was so in the true sense. He followed the Word of God and not the traditions of men. Where the orthodox Jew would ignore and bypass Samaria and all Samaritans because of the “traditions of the elders”, Jesus would instead, seek out the lost regardless of nationality, because the mission of the Jews was to spread the knowledge of God to “the nations” not shut the nations out!

For example, speaking to the Jews, God said Isa 49:6 …I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.

Though His primary mission at this time was to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” Jesus would not avoid Samaria as we see throughout His ministry, and that happened to be one of the complaints the Jews had against Him, they said Luk 15:2b …"This Man receives sinners and eats with them." They would also try to use his readiness to minister in Samaria against Him. Joh 8:48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?"