Shallow Belief

So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast. (John 4:45)

The Galileans received Him. Wonderful. That really sounds like good news at first, at least until you read a little more. But that reception immediately starts to be qualified with more and more external reasons revealing the increasing contrast with the reception Jesus received in Sychar.

The Samaritans received Jesus too. It says that many of them believed in Jesus even before they met Him, based only on the testimony of the woman who came excitedly racing into town just after noon one day talking about a man who could see right inside of her heart. That is still absolutely amazing to me, how a large part of a whole town could believe in Jesus based solely on the simple testimony of a woman they had likely looked down on with scorn previously.

Then after they met Jesus in person back out at the well for themselves, they invited Him into town and received Him with hospitality for two days. As a result of hearing His words to them and experiencing His presence among them many more believed in Him as their own Savior. There is no mention of miracles, no mention of anything at all except that He shared His words and His presence with them. That is not to eliminate the possibility that He did not heal their sick – that would just be acting like Himself. But by their own confession they testified that their belief was based solely on the words and presence of Jesus alone.

Now as I move into the next story the alerting flags fly up everywhere along these lines. It starts out by saying that they received Him. That sounds really good for a beginning, but then John has to immediately begin to add qualifiers upon qualifiers and Jesus Himself adds them. The focus seems to be completely on how much Jesus can do in order to elicit some level of belief among the Jewish people in Galilee. And Galilee was not known to be nearly as religiously intense as the people living nearer to Jerusalem in Judah. That is the area where Jesus had the worst problems with people coming to believe in Him all throughout His ministry.

In this verse it strongly implies that the Galilean's belief and reception seemed to be primarily based on the exciting wonders and signs that they had seen Jesus do not long before when they had seen Him in Jerusalem during the recent religious feast there. John had mentioned this very fact not long before. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. (John 2:23)

There it is again. Many believed in His name – just like the Samaritans, or is it just like them? It does say that many of the Samaritans believed in Him, but not because of any signs; they believed in Him based on His words and on coming to know Him for themselves. But as soon as Jesus gets back to His home territory and around the people where He grew up, they base their belief in Him only on the miracles and spectacular things they see that He can do. There is no mention of the spontaneous, unqualified kind of belief that was seen in the hearts of the Samaritans just talked about.

Not only is their belief linked to the signs and wonders that they saw happen when He was in Jerusalem but also the first miracle in Cana is brought up as another reason for them to believe. In reality these people had far more reasons to believe than the Samaritans had; they had the same evidence that the Samaritans based their belief on plus they had far more evidence, the evidence of miracles and amazing encounters with the skeptical authorities where Jesus revealed wisdom and insight that outmaneuvered the skills and tricks of the smartest people in the country to trap Him and embarrass Him.

The text does say that at least some of these Jewish people did come to believe in Him. But I can't help but wonder how the quality and depth of that belief compared to the open-hearted kind of belief seen in the previous story of the woman of Sychar. I believe that John is making this point as strong as he can by placing these stories in contrast as he has here. It becomes even more obvious as he shares the struggle of the father in the next verse to believe that Jesus can heal his son.

Why is it that it always seems to be the most religious people who have the most difficult time entering into healthy, spontaneous belief that does not demand sign after sign? That is not a rhetorical question because I happen to be one of those people myself. Jesus' relationship with the Jews all of His life was marred by this incessant demand for signs and miracles as a precondition for people to be willing to believe in Him. And even then their belief was often short-lived or tepid at best. It was almost like Jesus was forced to try to extract belief out of their hearts while on the other hand it was often the gentiles or Samaritans who demonstrated the most willingness and eagerness to embrace Him based on very little external evidence.

I cannot help but feel the convictions of this point aimed at my own heart. I was raised pretty much like these Jews were raised, familiar with the things of God, hearing about Jesus all my life but never encountering or appreciating His value in my life personally. My internal concepts of God growing up were strongly tainted with distortions and rooted mostly in fear while at the same time feeling forced to talk about Him with terms of love and respect. The dichotomy between what we were supposed to say in religious speak and what we felt in our hearts was so great that many of my friends gave up their profession of religion and left the church so they could feel real and more honest.

I actually respect that choice by my friends and am coming to feel more and more comfortable around them, though many of them find that a bit strange and still feel uncomfortable around me. They find it very hard to accept that I can remain an open Christian and a member of my church while still being accepting of people who want nothing to do with God or the church. But my heart tells me that they just may be far more ready to experience a belief in Jesus if they ever were to really catch a glimpse of the real truth about God as revealed in Jesus' words and His demeanor. These kinds of people are actually much closer to the Kingdom as Jesus put it than are most who claim to worship and follow God with all the religious accoutrement's of formalism and pious activities and right answers.

I actually find myself struggling more to feel sympathy and acceptance for the religious people around me than I have feeling resonance with the skeptics. I have to often pray for God to give me the eyes of heaven to see not only that I am actually deeply infected with hypocrisy myself without being able to see it clearly, but that those suffering the same condition that I grew up with are really deep inside longing for something more meaningful, more real, and that the religious exteriors they embrace are not bringing the satisfaction that they profess to have in their religious talk.

If I am to ever be an effective witness of the real truth about God and have any saving effect whatsoever in the lives of others, especially those who are blinded by religion as I have been for so long and that I still struggle with, I am going to have to allow the convictions from these passages to have the strong effect of transforming my own heart first. I have to allow the Spirit of God to convict me and not jump to applying this to everyone else while sidestepping the painful exposures that these verses can have to pry open the painful places in my own heart. Like the disciples who had such a hard time 'getting it' while following Jesus for over three years, I have to have the fog cleared away from my own mind and allow the passion of Jesus to ignite my passions and cleanse the stuff in my own inner self to allow Jesus to use me to better represent what He wants to share with others through my life and influence and testimony.

Belief and Honor - 2

For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. (John 4:44)

Last time I began exploring this issue of honor and how it relates to the kind of belief that we have in Jesus. I feel that this is so vital to understand and assimilate that I cannot move past it quickly. I feel more and more conviction about my own need to have a better kind of belief, to move closer to the kind of belief that will bring more honor to the name of Jesus and God's reputation instead of causing God to have to work much harder to elicit any kind of belief at all from me in order to work in my life as He had to do so much with the Jewish people.

I noticed in this verse that it says that Jesus Himself testified about this problem and I became curious as to what this refers to. When I checked the cross-references I was led to the following three passages, each relating to the very same story.

And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." (Matthew 13:57)

Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household." (Mark 6:4)

And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown." (Luke 4:24)

These verses are all referring to the statement made by Jesus near the end of His first synagogue sermon when He came back home to Nazareth early in His ministry. Quite possibly because John did not include that story in this book, this may have been his way of linking that story into the flow of this gospel. John left many stories out of his writing because he had a very intentional and focused purpose for the things he chose to include in the gospel of John. This book is much more about certain issues that John wants to get across much more than about just being a narrative of the life of Jesus.

As I looked a little more at the context of this story I noticed some significant connections regarding this issue of honor that John mentions in his note in verse 44. Here is the larger context of the passage from Luke which really highlights the contrast between the Jewish mindset and the attitudes of belief more easily found in non-Jews when Jesus interacted with them.

And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'" And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things. (Luke 4:23-28)

When I read this with the idea of honor as the context, it becomes rather evident that not making someone welcome and furthermore becoming enraged at them is the opposite direction from honor. But I still want to explore the real meaning that John had in mind when he talked about honor in this passage and look at the related stories linked through these references that can help to bring more light to this subject.

I looked up in Strong's the Greek word translated honor in this verse and here is some of what I found.

a value, i.e. money paid, or (concretely and collectively) valuables; by analogy, esteem (especially of the highest degree), or the dignity itself:--honor, precious, price.

According to this, it appears that what Jesus was implying was that the people who thought that they knew Him the best, who had watched Him grow up in their midst, who had been familiar with Him running around in their streets and living among them the longest evidently were the most likely to have the least value for Him, who had the lowest esteem and showed Him the least respect. To them He did not seem precious or have dignity like those who had not known Him all of their lives viewed Him.

Boy does that ever expose me! I have grown up being taught every story in the Bible and using the name of Jesus ever since I was in the cradle. My familiarity and knowledge about His life is broad and I have lived around people that are passionate about telling others about Jesus from the Bible. But that very situation has also had the effect of cauterizing my heart and preventing me from having the level of deep appreciation for His love like many experience who have never heard of Him before seem to enjoy. It also takes me so much longer to move into a vibrant kind of faith and belief that brings honor to Him that others seem to be able to jump into immediately. As much as I hate to see it, I have to admit that I am far more like the Jews in these stories than I am like the Samaritans in the last story and I don't like that. But I cannot change the way I grew up and so I have to cooperate with God just as the disciples of Jesus had to spend so much more time with Him before they began to appreciate the real reasons He came to this earth and what He was all about.

These passages also have the effect of exposing a great deal of prejudice in the hearts of people who think they know Jesus simply because of being around Him for so long. The Jews were nearly the epitome of prejudice when it came to how they felt about other nationalities, especially Samaritans. And to some degree I have sensed that I have been inculcated myself with a certain amount of built-in prejudices toward people who don't view religion the way I was raised to view it even though I have spent most of my life trying to avoid all prejudices. But God has at times had to draw my attention to thoughts lurking in my mind about others who teach things I don't agree with or don't have the same beliefs about the Bible that I was taught. I have to always be on my guard to prevent my cultural prejudices to influence how I treat people or even how I believe that God should interact with them.

I can honestly say that I don't harbor any intentional prejudices known to me. I have been raised to view prejudice itself as something that is destructive and blinding and ungodly. I am glad that I was taught to shun prejudice and that has shaped a great deal of my life and my relationships with others. But I also realize that there are many subtle prejudices in all of us that can hide for many years until the Spirit of God flushes them out into the open. It is then that we become responsible to confess them to God and seek His healing grace to change our hearts and challenge our assumptions so that we can come closer to seeing others through heaven's eyes instead of the distorted lenses of prejudice.

Prejudice is one of the most powerful neutralizing elements that can destroy belief. Because of that it is vital that every true Christian be willing to challenge all of their prejudices as God brings them out into the open. I cannot willingly harbor prejudices against anyone and still maintain an authentic, obedient child of the God of heaven who is the Father of every person. To cling to prejudices against anyone is to claim that they are less worthy of being treated as God's children than I am for very artificial reasons, and that is of the devil. God is in the business of drawing all men to His own heart and the closer we come to the heart of God the closer we have to come to each other.

So it becomes clear that prejudice is one of the most blatant ways in which we can dishonor the God that we claim to follow. Prejudice is always based on pride and pride is at the root of nearly every sin. As I come to really know Jesus and the motives that actuated all of His actions and attitudes toward everyone around Him I will begin to reflect the spirit of humility, compassion and love that has no boundaries and respects no human-enforced distinctions.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 NRSV)

Belief and Honor

For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. (John 4:44)

I find myself transitioning in this chapter from one compelling story with a fantastic ending to the next story that has a much different atmosphere. Knowing that John is very deliberate and intentional with his choice of stories and the words he uses in them I can be sure that there are going to be plenty of important links between these stories to find and explore.

After a cursory reading today from the story set in Samaria to the next one set in Galilee, I perceive that this verse is the focal point of this transition alerting me to the main point that I need to keep in mind as I observe the stark contrast between these two stories. Having spent so much time seeing this last story unfold before my imagination and sensing the incredible emotions that must have taken place both in these Samaritans and in the heart of Jesus as He lived for two days with them sharing and increasing joy among so many people who believed fully in Him as their Savior, I see much more clearly how John is using this context as a backdrop to highlight important aspects about the issue of belief that seems most important for him to get across to us in this book. (That sentence was way too long)

Part of what I see John trying to alert me to is the fact that the amount of honor that Jesus receives from our belief in Him is very closely linked to the kind of belief that is exercised in my life. That is a clumsy and confusing way of expressing what I am trying to get across so I am going to have to unpack that much better by exploring these stories much more closely. But in short, the whole point of many of the differences that can be clearly seen in the way the Jews in Galilee went about believing in Jesus and the way that these Samaritans came into belief serves as a very useful contrast to highlight the kind of spirit that we must have in our belief if we want to truly bring honor to the name of God.

I have spent several months probing and exploring and carefully examining many details and aspects of this story that started out with Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well and all that transpired after that because she so willingly chose to enter into belief without demanding external evidences or miracles before she was willing to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Likewise, very many of her own townspeople were also apparently willing to also follow her example and entered into a trusting relationship with Jesus and embraced Him into their hearts with very little resistance. According to the passage it reveals that they accepted Him based completely on His words to them with no external experiences in evidence. However, I strongly suspect that words would include the atmosphere and the spirit that surrounded Him as He interacted with them for two days on a very personal and intimate basis.

This kind of unresisting belief, according to what John is trying to tell us here, is the kind of belief that produces real honor for the reputation of Jesus and His Father in heaven. That is the main point of this verse as I am seeing it right now. And I think that one of the reasons John inserted this verse right between these two stories here was to highlight the fact that the weak quality and low levels of belief seen throughout most of the regions populated largely by Jews in Jesus' own country served to produce very little honor for Him at best. John wants to make that point quite clear to prevent us from becoming sidetracked by the external miracles and signs in the following stories and end up having the very same problems in belief that the Jews suffered from so often.

The very next verse quickly moves our attention from the rich, honoring atmosphere of simple and implicit belief in Jesus based on apparently no miracles whatsoever to an atmosphere starved of such potent belief where people insisted on wanting to base their opinions on external evidences and spectacular signs and wonders.

So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast. (John 4:45)

If the verse previous to this had not been in place we might be tempted to get excited about this statement that the Galileans received Him. That sounds like really good news from Jesus' perspective until we begin to see the reasons and motives and lack of faith that filled their hearts compared to the story we just left. John wants us not to miss the stark contrast between these stories because it serves to help us see more clearly the kind of faith that can bring far more honor to God than the kind of faith usually seen in more religious circles like so often in the culture of the Jewish people.

This last verse spells out rather clearly that most of the reasons these Galileans were excited to receive Him was not because of His gracious words and manners but because of the external signs and wonders and miracles they had seen not long before at the recent feast in Jerusalem. This was added to the fact that in Cana Jesus had performed His first miracle which had created a tremendous stir that had not been forgotten by all those living in that region. This point is made explicitly clear when shortly later Jesus stated it plainly in His words to the man in the very next story.

"Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." (John 4:48)

This statement has far more impact and implications when we view it in the bright light of the experience seen in the previous story. The Samaritans seemed eager to believe without witnessing any signs or wonders externally as far as we can see in the passage. Yet they did not hesitate to confess Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of the whole world as far as their belief was concerned. Now Jesus returns back to where He started His ministry in Cana which already had a history of witnessing miracles at His hand and the first person to show up asking for a miracle comes full of doubt and questioning about whether Jesus might be capable or willing or compassionate enough to care to come heal his son in Capernaum not far from Cana. It was not until after Jesus' pressing statement exposed what was deeper in his heart, his feelings of doubt and unbelief in the motives and heart of Jesus, that this man suddenly realized the enormous danger of his own unbelief and moved quickly deeper into his own emotions begging Jesus to reveal mercy and kindness on behalf of his son.

Real belief – saving belief – transforming belief always requires us to push deeper into the secret places in our hearts where many lies and questions and doubts about God's heart remain largely hidden from our conscious awareness most of the time. But although they may not be plain to us under the veneer of religiosity and social moralism, to heaven our unbelief is wide open and plain for all there to see. Jesus wants to bring us out of the darkness of our own self-deception, especially when it comes to our unbelief which means He has to do whatever it takes to expose what is deep in our own hearts to our awareness before we can even realize what we are really dealing with inside ourselves.

At times like this we may feel condemned when our unbelieving hearts are suddenly exposed by the light of heaven, but we must remember that condemnation does not come from the heart of God. Condemnation is something that our own hearts and minds produce inside of us or is reinforced in us from demonic imitations of God's Spirit posing as feelings from God. But Jesus stated unequivocally that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it (3:17). Yet that does not mean that we may not feel condemnation many times. But we must be very careful to not blame God for these feelings but to recognize their true source and refuse to blame them on God.

Condemnation is really a counterfeit of true conviction. God is always ready to bring conviction to our hearts which is simply the process of revealing to us what is really inside of us. It is not until we are willing to agree with God's view of our true condition (confession) that we can even make the vital choices about how we are going to relate to what is exposed in our own hearts. If we are willing to confess our unbelief and throw ourselves on the mercy and kindness that always fills the heart of Jesus, then we can begin to enter into the kind of belief that will bring true honor and glory to the name of God.

Father, it is so easy to expostulate on truths like this without allowing You to bring these truths to reality in my own heart. I ask You to move me much deeper into the kind of belief that brings real honor to Your reputation instead of the imitation, weak kind of belief that only pretends to honor You but really serves a human-oriented religion. I may look good to men by having much knowledge of religious things or live a life that sometimes appears unselfish and good to others, but You are obsessed with wanting my heart to trust Your heart and to rest in Your love for me as these Samaritans so eagerly did.

Father, fill my heart with the kind of faith that really honors You and that produces the peace that passes all comprehension. Make my life an experiment of Your grace, a demonstration of Your power, a channel of Your passionate love to others.