Nations exist for a time. They morph into something different. Boundaries can change. Major wars and newly conquered territories redraw the map. Suddenly, what was is no longer.
In these tidal shifts, one can lose sight of what happens to the individual, to the couple, to the family with children. To relationships. To a city full of neighborhoods of people. To the people who lived near, and are gone, and replaced by..."Well, who are they?!?" A nation, or a portion of a nation, and love between peoples, can be lost.
Clearly, when Assyria conquered Israel (722 BC), for the northern portion of Abraham's descendants (10 of the 12 tribes) nothing would be the same. The best, brightest, most powerful and influential, were taken away and made to live elsewhere. Foreigners were forcibly brought in to repopulate the north - with different customs, culture, language. Eventually, these would marry with the left-over Israelites in the land - a mix of Jewish and Gentile - and they would be called "Samaritans."
In future generations, those (especially Jewish peoples living to the south in Judea) would come to despise the Samaritans. They were considered impure (ethnically) and unacceptable rivals (insisting on establishing their own "center" of worship in the stead of Jerusalem, cf. Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well, John 4). A righteous Jew would travel around Samaria if heading north-to-south or south-to-north, but never through. You wouldn't use a Samaritan dish or cup - unclean!! Ick!!
Walls were erected (relationally). Distance was passionately maintained. A people which resulted from God's judgment were ostracized, belittled, hated. Abraham's offspring badly divided.
Until Jesus came (John 1:14-18) and purposely walked through Samaria, (John 4) and drank from a Samaritan cup, and told the defensive, relationally-wasted woman it didn't matter where people worshipped, as long as it was "in the Spirit and in the Truth."
Sin and judgment drive people away from each other. Hurts are nurtured and distances are maintained. Then God's own Son arrives and says, "Enough...My Father longs for worshippers whom He will fill with His Spirit and set free with His truth. There is fresh and living water that is available to anyone who will believe."
So...who are we keeping at a distance? Might Jesus take you and me on a walk through Samaria?
No comments:
Post a Comment