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.