Jesus had been down in Jerusalem, to worship at the temple, and to spend some time in the hills surrounding Jerusalem, teaching about the kingdom of God. His disciples even did some baptizing during that time.
Then he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But, as the scripture puts it, “he had to go through Samaria.”
Now, why did he have to go through Samaria? Surely, that’s a question the disciples were asking. There were other ways to get back to Galilee, routes that weren’t so … problematic.
But Jesus, who made it a point to listen to God, knew that God wanted him to go through Samaria. God had arranged an appointment for him (as I heard Jim Forbes say once), with a certain Samaritan woman. Jesus made a point to spend time with God, and God, it seems, placed it upon Jesus’ heart that he should travel back to Galilee by going through Samaria, in order that he should not miss this appointment.
The disciples couldn’t even speak of the Samaritans without sneering and snarling. Some of their friends and family members refused to even utter the term. They refused to even speak of the Samaritans. I don’t know if they referred to them as “they who must not be named” or what, but it’s clear that the hatred ran deep.
Intermarriage between Jews and Samaritans was forbidden. Hate crimes took place: The Jewish holy place was in Jerusalem, and the Samaritan holy place was on Mount Gerazim; both had been defiled by extremists from the other group.
The Samaritans considered the Jewish version of “God” to be a false god, and vice versa. Samaritan and Jewish children learned early on to hate one another. In the film “The Miracle Maker,” which is about the life of Jesus, there is a scene in which Jesus is telling a story to a group of adults and children. When he introduces a Samaritan character into the story, one of the children interrupts Jesus and says: “Samaritans!?! Samaritans throw rocks at us!” Another child then adds: “I spit at them! I hate them!”
Because of how they had been taught, those children expected Jesus – a Jewish teacher – to look at them, maybe tousle their hair, and say, “I’m proud of you. I’m proud of what you are doing.”
But of course, that’s not what Jesus said. Maybe in this world, such words of hate are commendable, but Jesus lives in a different world. Jesus lives in the kingdom of God. And in the kingdom of God, there is room for Jews and Samaritans. There is room for everyone.
And so, on his way back to Galilee, he had to go through Samaria, to bring the kingdom of God to a Samaritan woman in the city of Sychar.
Last month, a dinner fundraiser took place in the city of Yorba Linda, just twenty miles from here. The purpose of the dinner was to raise money for women’s shelters, and to help relieve hunger and homelessness in the United States.
A large number of protestors showed up. They protested, because the organizers and attendees of the event were Muslims. As Muslim families, including children of all ages, entered the community center where the event was taking place, they were greeted by angry shouts and obscenities.
A YouTube video of the protestors recorded the event. The protestors shouted: “Go home! Go home, terrorist! Go home and beat your wife, she needs a good beating! We’re one nation under God, not Allah!” I had heard about the protest before I watched the video, but it wasn’t until I saw it and heard it for myself did I realize the extent of the hatred on display. I found it a very disturbing video. [This photograph of the protest I find disturbing enough.] Watching the video, I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to cry. There was no spitting or throwing of rocks, but the words were just as violent.
Elected officials showed up at the protest. Congressman Gary Miller was there, and he spoke to the protestors. He spoke to them the words Jesus refused to speak; he said: “I’m proud of you. I’m proud of what you are doing.”
Another congressman – Ed Royce – said: “A big part of the problem we face today: multiculturalism. It has paralyzed us as a society.”
Villa Park councilmember Deborah Pauly was there, too, at the protest which took place just across from the community center. She said: “What’s going on over there, that is pure, unadulterated evil. I know quite a few marines who would be very happy to help those terrorists to an early meeting in paradise.
I share this with you because the animosity and the hatred between Jews and Samaritans in the first century wasn’t all that different.
Jesus “had to go through Samaria.” God wanted him – God directed him – to take that route. God had set up an appointment between Jesus and a certain Samaritan woman.
When she came to the well where the appointment was to take place, it was around noon; not the time of day when water is usually fetched. Why didn’t she come in the morning, when it was cooler, when all the other women came? It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
The presence of a Jew sitting by the well made her nervous. Maybe he won’t speak to me, she thought, but of course he did. He asked her for a drink of water.
“What are you doing, talking to me? I’m a Samaritan!”
Jesus said, “If you only knew the gift of God, and who it is that is talking to you now, you would have asked him, and he would have given you ‘living water.’”
“Living water? You don’t have a bucket! How are you going to get some ‘living water?’”
Jesus said, “the water I can give you will keep you from ever being thirsty again.”
The woman thought to herself: “This man is crazy! No wonder he’s out here, at this well, all by himself. The other Jews don’t want anything to do with him!” But then, with a twinge of sadness, she realized that this gave him something in common with her: because here she was, at the well, alone, because none of her people wanted anything to do with her.
It made her uncomfortable! to realize that she and this Jew had something in common. She didn’t like where this was going, so she quickly said: “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” This was not an unusual request; in ancient societies, it was not right for a man to talk to a woman without her husband present.
The woman said, “I have no husband.” So there!
Jesus said: “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.”
Once again, Jesus identified with her, understood her, a little too well. How did he know that?
She almost said, “Do I know you?” but caught herself just in time. She felt the connection between her and this Jew growing even stronger, and her discomfort with the situation grew as well. He was a Jew! And yet he was able to identify with her, a Samaritan. He understood her. He knew all about her.
She tried again to distance herself from him. Just like those protestors in Yorba Linda, she refused to believe that this person with his strange customs, strange clothing, and strange beliefs could be anything like her.
And there was still one thing that kept them apart, one difference that she was sure he could not bridge: religion. She said: “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where people must worship is Jerusalem.”
There it was: perhaps the biggest irreconcilable difference between them. There could only be one God and one right way of worshiping God. Surely this Jew who seemed to know so much would have to agree; and once he did – once he admitted that they came from two different worlds – he would leave her alone.
But, Jesus said to her: “Believe me, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. The time is coming – in fact, it is here now – when true worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth.
“God is spirit. God is like the wind. The wind is not confined to one holy place or another. It cannot be contained, boxed up, and made to dwell in any one location. God is bound by neither buildings nor doctrines. The time is coming – the time has come – when what you’re called will not matter and where you worship will not matter.
“These arguments are like arguments over whether it is better to draw water with a red bucket or a blue bucket. The color of the bucket does not matter. What matters is the living water that both buckets can draw. Which mountain is more important? Which religion is more important? What’s important is life-giving, thirst-quenching, spirituality. And that is available to both Jew and Samaritan.
“God is not looking for people who worship at the right place or who claim the right creed. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. Those who are simply and honestly themselves before God are those whose worship is good, whether they are Samaritans or Jews.”
The woman wasn’t yet ready to give in. She tried one last time to get rid of this Jew. She said: “What you say sounds like it could be true. Maybe. But I know that the Messiah is coming, and when he does, he’ll explain it all. So, until then, let’s just keep to our separate ways. You worship in Jerusalem, I’ll worship here, and we’ll let the messiah sort it all out. Maybe, when he comes, if he confirms all you have said, then I’ll believe that Jews and Samaritans can worship together. But not until the Messiah comes.”
Then Jesus said: “I am he.”
I wonder what the messiah would say about the hatred some Christians have toward Muslims, and the hatred some Muslims have toward Christians, in the 21st century. Both are religions of peace. Both look to Abraham as their ancestor. They actually do have quite a bit in common.
Within both Christianity and Islam, it is a small minority who are hateful extremists, but they are the ones who make the headlines, aren’t they? How many of you heard about the tensions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt a few months ago, before the revolution? We heard about the bombings, the killings. The media covered that. But what we didn’t hear much about was that when the Christians gathered to pray following those events, a large group of Muslims formed a human wall around them, offering their own bodies as protection against those who might have wanted to do them harm.
Stories like these, we don’t hear as much. That’s because they make us uncomfortable. They force us to recognize that they aren’t so different from us.
Stories like these make us look at them and ourselves in a new way, and that makes us uncomfortable. And so, like the woman at the well, we try to maintain the distance between us. WE hear a story of a terrorist who is a Muslim and are quick to point and say: “See! They’re terrorists!” But we ignore or deny the truth, that most of them are not terrorists. Most of them want peace. Most of them are a lot like most of us.
U.S. Representative Peter King recently began a series of congressional hearings on Islamic extremism in America. King has said he believes that the vast majority of U.S. mosques are controlled by radicals, and that they have been encouraged by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to not cooperate with law enforcement.
During the hearings, only one law enforcement officer was called to testify: L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. Sheriff Baca said that he has never experienced anything that suggests that the Council supports terrorism or encourages mosques to not cooperate with his deputies.
Some of the congress members felt threatened by his statements. They wanted to maintain the distance between them and Muslims, just as the woman at the well tried to keep herself distant from Jews. One Congressmember even accused Sherifff Baca of “dealing with a terrorist organization” himself.
Muslims. Samaritans. We like to think that they’re not like us, because they dress differently, they worship differently, they even have different names for God.
But if we think that labeling them, insulting them, spitting at them, or driving them away from us will earn us the approval of God, we are mistaken.
With God, there is no room for hate. Our God is the God of love, compassion, and peace. God is spirit, and like the wind, cannot be contained. God’s love is limitless, and extends to all of God’s children.
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