Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

Jesus - The Barrier Buster

John 4: 5-26

February 24, 2008

Jesus - The Barrier Buster

"There came a woman of to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."

As often as the Samaritans are encountered in the New Testament it is assumed they are an inferior breed. Even when they are lifted up as good examples, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it is seen as even more remarkable because they are Samaritans. The reasons are found in their common history with the rest of Judaism.

Way back about 720 B.C. the Assyrians had invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and had captured and subjugated it. They did what conquerors often did in those days - they transported practically the whole population to another land, in this case Media, and brought in other foreigners to populate the land. Now it is not possible to transport a whole people. Some of the Jews of the northern kingdom were left. Almost inevitably they began to inter-marry with the incoming foreigners and thereby they committed what to the Jew was an unforgivable sin. They lost their racial purity.

The great majority of the inhabitants of Samaria were carried away to Media and they never came back but were assimilated into the country to which they were taken. They are what we know as the ten lost tribes of Israel (northern kingdom). Those who remained in the country inter-married with the incoming strangers and for the Orthodox Jew lost their right to be called Jews, not only because they inter-married with the immigrating foreigners, but also because some began worshiping the gods brought there by these foreigners.

In the course of time a like invasion and a like defeat happened to the southern kingdom (Judah), whose capitol was Jerusalem. Its inhabitants also were carried off, these to ; but they did not lose their identity; they remained stubbornly and unalterably Jewish. In time there came the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and the exiles returned to Jerusalem when Cyrus the Great, king of Persian, issued an edict allowing the Jews to return to their homeland. The immediate task of these returnees was to repair and rebuild the destroyed Temple. When the Samaritans came down from the north to offer their help in this sacred task they were contemptuously told that their help was not wanted. It was the attitude of the returnees from Babylon that the Samaritans had lost their Jewish heritage and they had no right to share in the rebuilding of the house of God. Smarting under this repulse the Samaritans turned bitterly against the Jews of Jerusalem and built a rival temple on Mt. Gerazim near Jacob's Well in Shechem. It was about 450 B.C. when that quarrel took place and it was as bitter as ever in the days of Jesus.

Is it any wonder, then, that this Samaritan woman would be surprised that Jesus, a Galilean Jew, would speak to her? But speak to her he did. Not only did he speak to her, not only did he presume to ask of her her help, but using that encounter he offered her something infinitely more precious that what he was asking of her - he offered her eternal life. Jesus says, "If you knew who it is that is saying to you 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water... the water I shall give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"

The lessons of this story are many, but the one we would focus on this morning is that it shows Jesus as the breaker down of barriers. Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans? This Jew did. This Jew, who was the Son of God, the promised Messiah of the Jews, would not only have something to do with Samaritans, he would offer this one eternal life, and by the way, through her witness, eternal life to all who would come to believe: "Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony." In a single encounter this 450 year prejudice was shown to be unworthy of Jesus’ sanction. As was his want, Jesus, by action more than by words, showed his disciples that prejudicial barriers had no place in the kingdom of God or the hearts of his disciples.

There are elements in this story that suggest other barriers that Jesus would not tolerate, barriers he destroys routinely as he presents God’s kingdom. In them we are challenged. Do we erect barriers that Jesus comes to destroy.

In addition to being a Samaritan some suggest this woman was an adulterous at best, a prostitute a worst. That she came to the well alone at in the heat of the day, rather than in the company of other woman in the cool of the evening suggests she, for her immoral character, had been ostracized by the rest of the women of the town.

What sins are so heinous that we would ostracize the sinner? What sin is so unforgivable that we would turn our backs and have nothing to do with that person? In so doing we are not following the example of Jesus. Knowing who this woman was, as becomes evident as the story unfolds, he offers her the living water that will well up into eternal life. If Jesus would embrace the sinner, so must followers of Jesus.

Even worse, there are man-made barriers that Jesus must overcome. Margaret Wold, in a Scope women's Bible study, makes the case that this woman was not so much a sinner as one who had been sinned against. She had had five husbands and five divorces, but remember only men could divorce their wives; wives could not divorce their husbands. Perhaps this woman had been shunted from man to man, for no good reason, and she was now living with someone out of simple physical necessity, because woman were totally dependent on the protection and provision of men in that day. Perhaps here was one who, because of her economic plight, was an object of pity, and came to the well alone to escape the pity and scorn of the rest of the women. In this encounter with Jesus, we see neither pity nor scorn, but love, acceptance, and mercy.

Is this another barrier we must confess in our lives? the barrier between the haves and the have nots? I look at our congregation and have to ask, even accuse, myself: Is our membership representative of our community? Does our membership reflect the percentage of the community socially and economically underprivileged? If not, why not? Have we somehow unconsciously and subtly erected barriers that exclude those of a certain marital status or in a certain economic bracket? How do the underprivileged, within and without our membership, perceive our attention? As pity or scorn, or, following the example of Jesus, in love, acceptance, and mercy? More by action than in word Jesus demonstrates that such barriers have no place in the kingdom of God, or in the hearts of those who belong to that kingdom. Jesus is a barrier breaker.

Name any barrier today that would separate one person from another, or one people from another, and I will point you to the barrier breaker Jesus.: Democrat/Republican, Democracy/Communism, Old World/New World/Third World - such divisions have no place in the kingdom of God, or in the hearts of those who belong to that kingdom. Married/ Single/Divorced, welfare recipient/tax payer, business rivals - barriers no more in Jesus. These barriers have no place in the kingdom of God, or in the hearts of those who belong to that kingdom.

In Paul's letter to the Galatians, the barriers were different, but the barrier breaker the same: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28).

The kingdom of God is a family with perfect family love as its model. In such a family differences are recognized, and wrongs even identified, but barriers are never left long to stand.

Those who confess Jesus are one family with a love which transcends differences and forgives wrongs. Jesus looked into the eyes of the Samaritan woman and saw neither a sinner nor a Samaritan, but a sister. In those moments barriers crumble. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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