Unpacking Prejudice

"You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" (John 4:12)

Yet another link emerged for me just now. I have wondered where some of these pieces fit in relation to each other and I just saw how the ideas of gift and greatness fit side by side in this puzzle.

Jesus began by talking about a gift of God. He had just asked the woman for a gift from her, but instead of immediately offering it to Him she decided to explore why He was so bold and brash as to break all the rules of society to even talk with her. So He began talking about the nature of gifts and who has the biggest gift of all and began to let her in on the fact that He had a much better gift for her than He had requested of her.

Since He had brought up the issue of God, which was a very sore point of contention between her people and the Jews of which Jesus was obviously one, and since He had also brought up the issue of gifts and water in context of asking her for a gift of water, she turned it around and began to deepen the discussion by referring to what her village considered the most valuable gift to them by one of their own ancestors, Jacob.

It is interesting that she brought up the subject of Jacob to a Jew. The Jews of course, considered Jacob to be one of their important forefathers and so likely this woman was trying to make a point of saying that she belonged to a race of people who could also trace their own lineage back to a man that the Jews held in high esteem in their own ancestry. She was bringing up an issue that had caused some of the most prejudice and friction between the Jews and the Samaritans at the very beginning of this discussion to see what kind of reaction she might get from this most unusual-acting Jew.

In response to Jesus' mention of a gift, she was also letting Him know that this well and the water in it should be recognized as a valuable gift from Jacob. This well reminded these Samaritans every day of their connection to Jacob and they clung to its importance as a visible reminder of the ancestor who was considered by both Jews and Samaritans as being one of God's chosen men on earth. This well may have been one of the points of argument that Samaritans may have referred to in justifying their claim to be some of God's chosen people in the face of bitter and even vicious claims to the contrary from most every Jew.

This bigotry had flared up first when the deported Jews returned from the Babylonian exile to Jerusalem and began to rebuild the walls that had been destroyed 70 years previously. This was during the days of Nehemiah and Ezra. They were very sensitive to the fact that it was their own nation's sins that had caused God to allow them to be overcome as a nation and had delivered them into captivity as a consequence of their disloyalty to Him. With the vivid awareness in their consciousness that disobedience to God was the real issue that had caused them so much suffering for a whole generation in captivity, they determined to do everything possible from then on to prevent such a thing from ever recurring again.

As a result, the Jews swung to the other extreme and became very legalistic in their practice of religion. They became extremely particular about learning all the rules and laws of Moses and following them to the letter as much as they could figure out how. Part of this intense application of strict law-observance resulted in the fierce enforcement of marriage laws against all those who had taken wives from other nations during the time of captivity. Those who had been scattered through the surrounding countryside instead of taken to Babylon had been forcibly mixed with other people imported by the Babylonians from other places in the world. The returning Jews from Babylon felt tension with these who had been left behind and prejudices flared up as a result.

Ezra and some of the other leaders decided that there must be a strict separation of good Jews from any who could not completely prove their legitimate lineage as a pure-blooded Jew. Basically what happened as a result of these decisions was a forced imposition of ethnic cleansing as we would call it today. This can be read about in the last two chapters of the book of Ezra.

The people who were ethnically cleansed and experienced forced separation from the ethnically pure Jews came to be known as the Samaritans. They had Jewish blood in their lines but were not pure Jews. As thus, they were considered by Jews to be illegitimate and corrupt both ethnically and spiritually. After they were forced out of fellowship with the main group of Jews they set up a rival temple in their own territory that only tended to amplify the tensions between these two groups of people claiming to be followers of God. This tension never subsided for hundreds of years, so when Jesus showed up and began talking with one of these “illegitimate people” He was definitely going against the grain of what was socially and religiously acceptable.

All of this background and much more was very present in the minds of everyone involved in this story. The tension had become so great between these two peoples that they did not even normally consider talking with someone from the other group. They generally only harbored animosity and hatred for the others, which is why this woman found it so astonishing that a Jewish man would even consider talking with a Samaritan woman, much less ask a favor of her. This was simply unthinkable and amazing and worth finding out about in her opinion.

From this context she decided to see what Jesus' opinion was of the obvious issues that she supposed separated them since He was already ignoring all the prejudices that she expected Him to share with all Jews. Since He had brought up the issues of God and gifts and water, she continued this most curious conversation by asking Him to explain Himself in relation to the obvious differences between His people and hers.

How often have I made the mistake of focusing first on what makes me different than others than on what we share in common. It is so easy to look first for what makes me unique, what differentiates me from someone else instead of seeking to view them as a fellow child of God in need of knowing God better. While this woman was focusing on what was different about them Jesus was softening her heart by seeking to eliminate their differences and offering to bless her.

Jacob was one of the most important figures in the heritage and religion of the Samaritans, and particularly for this village. They were very dependent on this well as their primary source for much needed water and felt that it was a gift from Jacob to them personally, as far as they were concerned. In their minds Jacob represented their link of legitimacy to God, and if one was to talk about gifts of God, then obviously they needed to know that this gift from Jacob was the Samaritan's proofs that they were not as far from God as all the Jews claimed that they were.

Now, if some Jew comes along and begins talking about a gift of God connected with water that is better than the obvious value of this well of water from their great ancestor Jacob, then she may begin to question the relative value of the person making such a brazen claim that challenged all the social and religious beliefs that the Samaritans had held to for so long.

What I am starting to see here is that the underlying issues that the woman was referring to was about value and identity. The Samaritans had been marginalized, shamed, hated and despised for generations by Jews who claimed with vehemence that even God Himself had no use for Samaritans because of their ethnicity. They were considered less worthy than dogs of being treated with respect.

This is certainly not something unfamiliar to us today. There are many similar issues of prejudice all over the world today and repeated instances of ethnic cleansing that spawn horrific scenes of senseless violence in the spirit of vicious prejudices. On a lesser scale, we can also see the more subtle forms of prejudice between people of different denominations that view each other with varying degrees of suspicion and even hatred. These prejudices are sometimes encouraged and inflamed by the more extreme elements within these various groups believing that they are doing the will of God and are helping Him to purify “His chosen people”.

Prejudice is a terrible thing, and given the long history of violence, hatred and evil that has come from it one would think that mankind would learn to see it for what it really is. And yet it continues to thrive and flourish and cause even more violence and pain and senseless evil in the world. It is much easier to see it in others of course rather than in ourselves. But some people have even come to the point of being very proud of their prejudices and believing that prejudice is an honorable thing that should be cherished and encouraged in society. I have observed that in many places patriotism is only thinly veiled prejudice dressed up to look and feel like something more acceptable.

All of this distorted thinking stems directly from our twisted views of what we believe God is like. Even though the book of Ezra has many good things in it, I don't necessarily believe that everything that Ezra did in the name of God was God-inspired in spite of the view of many theologians and Christians to the contrary. The Bible reports what people did whether it was right or wrong, but that does not mean that everything they did in the name of God was necessarily God's desire for them. The effects of the strong direction toward legalism that was introduced into the Jewish psyche in the days of Ezra actually matured years later in the time of Jesus. Its fruit could be seen in the blinding hypocrisy and bigotry that enveloped the hearts of the priests, scribes and Pharisee's who ended up rejecting their own Messiah and having Him tortured and killed on a cross – all in the name of religion and national purity.

Their own high priest declared in the spirit of prejudice and corruption that had matured to completion, "You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." (John 11:49-50)

But in this encounter with the woman in Samaria, Jesus was able to effectively meet and disarm some of her strongest prejudices because of the openness of this woman's heart and her willingness to let Jesus introduce her to a completely new and startling picture of the true God of heaven. And because of her willingness to lay aside her prejudices and embrace the good news of the gospel, she quickly became one of the most effective missionaries for Jesus that had ever been seen up to that point in time.

Divine Engagements

"You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:12-14)

What caused the woman to bring up the subject of who was greater?

Jesus did not directly respond to her question about being greater than Jacob. He did indirectly, but He allowed her to come to her own conclusion about Him instead of simply answering the question straightforward.

I have noticed that Jesus seldom responded directly to questions under the multiple choice options that people offered Him. Instead, He very often brought up something else that sometimes seemed almost unrelated at first. He was speaking from a very different view of reality and of what is important. If He had responded directly to many of the questions put to Him that would have allowed the other person to determine the direction of the conversation. But He did not allow that, for to determine the direction and content of a conversation is to have great influence over the assumptions of what is most important.

Not answering questions directly is viewed by many as being disrespectful. But Jesus did not convey an attitude of disrespect, while still choosing to decide the direction of the conversation. He also quite often used questions Himself to stimulate others to think more clearly instead of just responding directly to their questions. He would use questions to get people to reexamine their own assumptions inherent in their logic.

In this story He could have been accused of not being willing to face reality, of not being practical. After all, He really was thirsty and He had asked the lady for a drink. She did have the wherewithal to provide it for Him and yet He seemed to immediately steer the conversation away from the very thing that He needed and had asked for Himself. Instead of continuing to encourage her to help Him based on His initial request, He steered the conversation to a completely different plane of existence that He viewed as far more urgent than His own need for a drink of water.

I believe that likely He considered her thirst of much greater intensity and importance than His own, even though hers was not so obvious physically. And being the selfless being that He was He was always eager to provide for other's needs ahead of His own. As He told His disciples a short time later, He was in the process of consuming food by engaging the heart of this woman and offering her the means whereby she could feel much more alive than she had felt in many years. The joy that this kind of ministry produced in His own heart acted as the means of producing so much satisfaction in His soul that His own physical needs nearly disappeared in contrast.

How often do I miss enjoying this kind of overwhelming satisfaction because I remain too focused on meeting my own physical needs ahead of ministering to others? Too often I think that if I could just first get my own thirst or hunger or tiredness addressed, then I would be better situated to offer other people spiritual help. And I am not saying that this may sometimes be necessary. But there may also be times when opportunities only offer a very narrow window of time for me to act instantly, times when a person's spirit is only open and receptive for immediate initiative and the Spirit prompts me to take advantage of it before my own discomfort is dealt with. It is those times when my choices can make the difference between seeing miracles happen or missing out altogether because I allow selfishness to resist the promptings of God. And if I miss those opportunities I may not even know what I could have enjoyed, for many times it is only by allowing the Spirit of Jesus to move without hindrance through my life that I can become aware afterwards of the very existence of some opportunity that at first looked like just another chance encounter with an average person.

I want to surrender myself completely to the indwelling presence of Jesus so that my encounters with others no longer are apparently just coincidences. I want the kind of life where every engagement is ordained by God as an opportunity for Him to offer real life or joy or ministry to another thirsty heart. And as I do so I, like Jesus did here, will experience the overwhelming satisfaction of joy that will eclipse even my own physical needs and bring life and energy into my own being. And more importantly, I can be involved in seeing first hand what God may want to accomplish in the heart and life of some other person by using me as His agent of hope and blessing.

The Gift and The Water

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. (John 4:10)

Sometimes I am amazed at how dull I am. But praise God that He is faithful and keeps opening my mind to see things that maybe should be obvious. But because of years of trained filtering that prevents me from perceiving things differently than what I am used to seeing, it sometimes takes more time to become aware of very important links and insights that may be very easy for others to catch.

I am aware that John wrote this gospel by selecting the stories in it very intentionally for very specific purposes. This is not just a nice collection various stories about Jesus' life that John put together to add to the previous gospels. John wanted to reveal some deep, fundamental truths about God that are vital for us coming to know God very personally. So he put together stories that focused on these important concepts and presented them in such a way that the observant and open-hearted reader would pick up these vital messages and be convicted of the love and truth about God.

So it is not at all out of line to look for close connections between the stories assembled here in the gospel of John. I knew that, but it still remains that there are so many of them so tightly packed in here that sometimes they still catch me by surprise when they suddenly are brought to my attention.

When Jesus talked with this woman about the gift of God, I just realized that this is a direct reference back to the previous story about Nicodemus. In that discussion He very plainly shared what the gift of God is. In fact, if I read this phrase in English a slightly different way with the emphasis on God instead of the word gift, it becomes also obvious that the identity of the gift is literally God Himself. God is the gift in the person of Jesus Christ.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Then when Jesus adds the second part and mentions the identity issue of Himself, He is really amplifying the answer to the first part – what is the gift. In essence He is saying, “God has a gift for you. That gift amazingly is God Himself. And furthermore that gift of God is right now standing here talking with you. Can you believe it? Will you believe in me?”

The third item mentioned by Jesus in this initial answer to the woman is also linked back to the previous story with Nicodemus. When Jesus tells her that He is waiting to give her something called living water He is again referring back to His mention of water to Nicodemus.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)

When I compare these two stories I find something interesting and informative. With Nicodemus He talks about water and Spirit. With this woman of Sychar He talks about truth and spirit. As I pondered this another verse was brought to my attention that helps to connect these together.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. (Ephesians 5:25-26 NIV)

In this verse the Word of God is associated with the symbol of water. John often refers to Jesus directly as the Word made flesh. Clearly the Bible is also the Word of God simplified into human languages that is not quite as clear as the demonstration of God in the life of Jesus. But God has given it to us as a means to reveal truth about Him as we immerse ourselves under the guidance of God's Spirit in this symbolic water that has such powerful cleansing properties.

According to this last verse, this kind of water will lead us to be sanctified – made holy – whatever that really means. As part of that process we are cleansed in some important way to bring us into this condition of being holy. So if the Word has power to cleanse us from something and the Word is symbolized by water, which clearly in physical life is very much used for cleaning purposes both internally and externally, Jesus is offering this woman a great deal more than is at first apparent from just a casual reading of this story.

But in His interaction with this woman of Sychar, Jesus focuses more on the other aspect of water that is so necessary for life. He talks about water that we drink, that brings deep satisfaction to the thirst that we all were created to experience. Thirst is part of the makeup of our bodies that God designed in us to motivate us to search for and partake of something that our bodies must have in order to maintain life. Likewise, we are also wired to experience deep spiritual thirst whenever our souls feel a lack of the water of life. However, this kind of thirst is very often misunderstood or misdiagnosed because Satan has blinded our minds and hearts to what we really need to satisfy this thirst.

These two uses for water are not really separate. Drinking water to satisfy a deep thirst accomplishes the very same work as drinking water to cleanse ourselves internally. God designed water to be the most effective element of cleansing for us internally as well as externally. It is extremely important for very many reasons that we keep ourselves well hydrated by regularly drinking pure, clean water. Our bodies are designed to utilize this water partly to flush out toxins from our body to keep us in a better state of health. When we do not intake enough water we are liable to experience serious problems. And the same is true even more so in our spiritual nature.

In very many ways our bodies are actually given to us as metaphors of the even greater realities that we find difficult to comprehend in the spiritual realm of life. As we study the analogies that God has given us in nature and in our own bodies we can begin to comprehend better the spiritual truths that God wants us to understand so we can respond to His drawing power of love and perceive revelations about the spirit that are otherwise quite obscure to us. In fact, the Bible is filled with illustrations of the spiritual from the natural world to help us better understand what is actually quite plain to those living on the other side of the barrier that sin has created in our perceptions.

Father, I choose to accept the gift of God in the presence of Jesus abiding in me today. I want to know much better who it is that offers me this drink and I also want to experience the rich satisfaction that you have for me as I learn how to keep drinking of this living water. I want Jesus to be the well of water that continually springs up from inside of me and produces eternal life in my soul and spirit. Thank-you for these insights and revelations about yourself to my heart and mind. Dwell in me today, sanctify me, cleanse me and make me an instrument of your peace.

Simplicity of the Gospel

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." (John 4:10)

I love how God sometimes arranges for me to hear things from different places that all dovetail together to help me know Him better and understand His Word. I happened to be listening to some sermons lately while I drive to and from work by Bill Liversidge, and in one of them he discusses this story in some detail. To hear Bill talk about something from the Bible is almost a guarantee that you are going to learn something new, for Bill Liversidge is one of the best teachers in the world of the inductive Bible study method. Nearly everything he uses from the Bible is presented more or less using this method.

So when I heard him start talking about the story of the woman at the well a couple days ago I knew that I was in for some good inspiration and assistance in unpacking this story for me personally. I was thrilled that God had arranged for me to hear this right while I was studying it inductively myself. In addition, Bill shares many stories of his own both from the mission field and from around the U.S. more currently that illustrate the reality of the gospel and God's power to save and transform lives that are very vivid and compelling. I find myself drawn out to want to know God much more after listening to Bill's humble and strong testimony for God.

One of the things that he brought out about Jesus' first response in His discussion with this woman was that there are three things mentioned here that actually constitute the totality of the gospel and how a person is to relate to it.

1. If you knew the gift

2. If you knew who I am

3. You would have asked

Each of these are key elements to both understanding and responding effectively to the gospel. Remember, the word gospel simply means “good news”. And the most powerful good news that has the ability to totally transform everything about our perception of reality is to discover the real truth about how God feels about us. That in turn exposes myriads of lies about Him that most of us have believed all of our lives. For it really is the dark pictures of God that we have been taught from very early on that keep us from believing and trusting and resting in Him and letting Him save and transform us.

Jesus was not saying these things in an attitude of condemnation for this woman. He was not implying in the slightest that she should have known better, that there was something wrong with her for not being aware of the gift of God or who He was. He was simply introducing both the truth about how God felt towards her and the reality that this gift was literally standing right in front of her waiting to be recognized and accepted any time she was willing. And furthermore, Jesus was actually revealing and affirming that He knew her heart's desire because He declared that if she had the right information He knew that she would have already responded by asking Him to impart to her this incredible gift.

Outlined here is the wonderful simplicity of the gospel message as exposed by Jesus and amplified in the rest of the New Testament. Unfortunately we often make it so complicated that we confuse both ourselves and others with our complex explanations and convoluted definitions much like the Jews obscured the law of God with their multitude of rules and stipulations and regulations. The gospel is far simpler than most of us are willing to acknowledge and it is far more powerful than most of us can imagine. I realize that I am only scratching the surface of it myself and my heart yearns to be freed of the inhibitions that hold me back from plunging even more fully into this glorious reality and having my life become a vivid experiment of grace in the hands of a perfect Savior.

But I am not content to stay where I am spiritually. I continue to pursue to know the real truth about this gift of God and I crave to taste much more deeply of this living water that brings real life and deep satisfaction to the deepest longings of my soul.

Beyond that, I seek to know much more intimately the real truth about the heart of the one called Jesus who says that He can save me from this darkness, ignorance and fear that have kept me at a distance from Him all my life. I too live in a society full of prejudices, bigotry, misconceptions about God and distorted religious ideas just like this Samaritan woman Jesus was talking to. This is not just a story about some isolated woman centuries ago, this is a living story that can be reenacted and re-experienced over and over again by anyone willing to allow its message and power to come alive through their own encounter with Jesus.

There is one more element of this core presentation by Jesus that is very important beyond just knowing about the gift and knowing who Jesus really is. God is incredibly polite because He is perfect love and love is polite. Love always needs permission to move forward into the area of the heart. It can do all sorts of things to get our attention and educate us as to its intentions and desires, but to really connect and come in to fill our heart and create the bonds necessary to increase love, it needs our permission to form those bonds. Love needs to hear a request to come in and do whatever love does to bring life and joy and peace and all the things that love can bring to a heart.

You would have asked Him, and He would have given you...

And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. (Matthew 21:22)

Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. (John 16:24)

This brings me back to the main desire of the heart of God – joy. I have learned that the true definition of joy is the experience the heart feels when someone is glad to be with you, when you sense that you are the sparkle in their eye, the object of special affection in their heart and they long to just be with you all the time no matter what you may be going through or feeling. Jesus talked about joy a great deal and it was almost always in reference to wanting us to be with Him because He wants us to be where He is and experience His joy. This is brought out more clearly in the book of Hebrews.

...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

So, what I am starting to see here is that Jesus was demonstrating an attitude of contagious joy to this woman. Joy has an attraction about it that is very powerful like an emotional magnet, especially for people who have long been deprived of joy in their lives. This woman had become more and more emotionally and socially isolated as partly revealed by the fact that she was coming at an odd time of day to draw water and doing it alone. More clues are revealed later in this discussion that reinforce this. The Samaritan woman was likely starved for joy and Jesus was offering her something called the water of life that could satisfy this deepest longing of her heart. But it was not for hers only but anyone who comes to realize their inner need for real joy and accepts this standing offer of Jesus.

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:11)

Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. (John 16:24)

Jesus, I need much more joy in my own life. Your Word says that oil represents joy and that one of the only things that distinguished the wise from the foolish virgins in the parable of the ten virgins was that the wise had an extra container of oil. I am convicted that I do not have that extra container yet because I have so little joy in my life. I feel isolated inside much of the time and do not feel joyfully connected with Your body here on earth. I need much more joy in my soul.

You told this woman that there were three things in the gospel that need to be in place. Help me to be much more aware of these three things and to experience them myself. And as for the last one, I am asking you right now to give me that living water, give me Your heart of love and compassion and fill my life and heart and soul with floods of joy that will spill over and attract others to come for a drink too. You said that if we ask in Your name that we will receive. I am asking and I am ready to receive for Your name's sake, for Your reputation's sake.