Archive #21-30
All materials copyright (c) 1998, Ken Wade
"A Fresh Look at Jesus" is a weekly devotional based on the life of Jesus Christ that was sent out by e-mail from 1998-2001.
Devotionals #21-30 are on this page. Use the following links to go to pages with other devotionals: #1-10 #11-20 #31-36
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #21
Expectations--2
"Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." (John 11:3 NKJV)
This plaintive message was brought to Jesus one day while He was ministering in the environs of Jericho. It was brought by a man who had braved the treacherous road that went from Jerusalem down to the Jordan--the same road that Jesus spoke of in the story of the Good Samaritan. The road where one was liable to fall in among thieves, and where even good people were afraid to stop and lend a hand.
The message, sent by Mary and Martha, was a simple statement, but they seemed to know that this was all they needed to tell Jesus. He would know what to do. Probably He would come and heal Lazarus, or better yet, He might just speak the word and the fever, aching, and labored breathing would go away and soon Lazarus would be up and going about his business.
How they must have counted the moments, calculating in their minds the time it would take for the messenger to go down the road--about a day’s journey on sturdy sandals.
The time passed. Still Lazarus wasn’t getting any better.
Well, after all, it might take some time to locate Jesus--although you usually just had to ask where a large crowd was gathering in order to find Him. Give it a little more time--but Lazarus seems to be failing, getting worse. The breathing is weaker and weaker. He’s delirious, now he seems to be slipping away. HURRY! Messenger, what are you doing? Don’t linger on the edges of the crowd! Don’t be shy! Get the message to Jesus NOW! He’ll act as soon as you tell Him, but don’t delay. Don’t wait until it is too late!
Oh, what can be taking so long?
The hours pass and the day is gone. Still no relief, no sign of improvement. Maybe Jesus has decided to make the arduous trip up the road to come and be with His friend, to watch him as his health is restored, to share in the joy of his sisters. Yes, that would be just like Jesus--to travel that dark, dangerous "valley of the shadow of death" even at midnight to help a friend. Probably He’ll be here soon.
Through the long, dark hours they wait, striving to keep Lazarus alive until Jesus comes. Finally morning breaks, but the fever does not. And then it is too late. Lazarus is dead. The weeping, wailing, and mourning begins. The body is being wrapped for burial when the messenger returns home. "What did Jesus say to you?" ask the grief-torn sisters.
"He said ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it,’ " the man replied.
What in the world could that mean? Has Jesus gone mad? Has His fame gone to His head? Has He become like a depraved politician, always thinking only of how a story can be turned to His own glory instead of striving to meet the needs of others?
How could Jesus be so wrong? The evidence of His failed prophecy is beginning to stink even as they stand with mouths agape, wondering what their supposed Friend could possibly have intended them to think.
Meanwhile, Jesus went on for two days near Jericho, acting as if nothing was amiss in Bethany. Finally He announced that it was time to go back up the hill toward Jerusalem. His disciples understood what dangers awaited Him there--for only recently they had had to leave the area because the Jews were seeking an opportunity to murder Jesus.
But Jesus insisted, and a troupe of fearful followers consented to accompany Him.
When He arrived in Bethany, Mary and Martha made sure that He understood that He was late. Very late. Four days late. He had failed them. He hadn’t met their expectations. He had left them in a quandary--a crisis of faith, for He had not done what they expected. He had not even proven His word to be true.
Four days late, Jesus arrived in Bethany. Four days late, He spoke to Lazarus. But in the long run, it really didn’t matter much. As usual, Jesus did not meet people’s expectations. He exceeded them. For when He finally did speak, Lazarus rose from the dead and walked out of his tomb. And Jesus proved that He had been truthful all along. The illness did not end in death. Death claimed only a brief interlude in the life of Lazarus.
Is there something you’ve been expecting Jesus to do in your life? Has He failed you? Is it possible that He’s not planning to meet your expectations, but to exceed them?
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #22
Expectations--3
" ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him’ " (Matthew 27:42 NKJV).
How hard is it to not do something you know you can do—especially when your pride is at stake?
Jesus could have come down from the cross. That’s what we would expect of someone with divine power. Were the preists and rules really so wrong to challenge Jesus to prove Himself? If they had planned an empirical test of Jesus’ claims to divinity, they couldn’t have come up with anything much better than the situation at Golgotha. Put Him in a situation where human power is not enough to save Him, and see what happens. If He’s the real thing—if He’s what He claims to be, the proof will be in the pudding, we’d say today.
But, as we’ve noticed already, Jesus’ life wasn’t about living up to others’ expectations. He seemed always to have a better plan.
As in the story of Lazarus, death was a part of the plan again. He breathed His last there on the cross, allowing the hopes, dreams, and expectations of His friends to drip down that horrid cross and sink into the stinking ground with a mixture of warm blood and water.
Again Mary Magdalene was among the disappointed. If she had sorrowed at the death of her brother, how much more at the death of the one who had given Lazarus back to her? Three more days (by Jewish reckoning) of sorrow passed, and then early Sunday morning, before daylight, she stumbled her way down to the garden where Jesus had been laid to rest on Friday evening, only to discover that insult had been added to injury.
She knew that permission had been hastily granted by the Romans, just before the coming of the Sabbath at sundown on Friday evening, to bury Jesus in a rich man’s tomb. By rights, because He had died a criminal’s death, His body ought to have been cast down into the garbage pits in the Gehenna Valley to be devoured by the dogs. But somehow some influential Jews had made arrangements for Jesus’ body to be given a decent burial, and now on Sunday morning, she had wanted to do more--to anoint His body with spices.
But to her horror, when she arrived, she discovered that the stone protecting the front of the tomb had been rolled away, and Jesus’ body had been removed! She could only imagine the worst. That the Romans had decided no one who died on a cross was worthy of a decent burial. That they had come during the night and dragged the body, ignominiously through the streets, and flung it off a cliff into the garbage dump.
She ran and found two of the disciples, who hastened back to the tomb with her. It wasn’t yet light enough to see much, but they went into the tomb and were able to find the empty burial shroud—not tossed hastily aside as one would expect had the body been stolen or dragged away, but neatly folded. They went on their way, puzzling over what had happened, but Mary was unwilling to leave. She stood outside the tomb, weeping as morning broke around her. Finally, as the shafts of daylight pierced the gloom, she took one last look inside. I can almost see Jesus watching the scene, standing off in the shadows, probably weeping with Mary once again as He saw how touched she was by the despair of losing Him.
As Mary looked inside the tomb this time, Jesus must have instructed the angels to make themselves visible. Through her tears, Mary saw two men dressed in white, and in her confusion, she didn’t even seem to find it odd that they had somehow gotten inside without her seeing them go in. They asked why she was weeping, she explained that Jesus’ body had been taken away, but they offered her no solace or advice, so she simply turned to leave. That was when she saw Jesus. Red, sodden eyes didn’t recognize Him. She thought He was a gardener, and when He repeated the angels’ question, she spoke to Him as one would speak to a servant, with her back turned, asking Him to simply tell her where the body had been taken.
Then Jesus sprung His surprise. "Mary," He said to her in the way He had done so many times before. And suddenly the surprise was complete, and Mary’s sobs once again were turned to laughter. Jesus had exceeded her expectations, and she ran from that place with the news that the Man who had failed to meet their expectations had once again exceeded them.
Jesus does that over and over again, because He "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think," (Ephesians 3:20), and He delights in doing so.
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #23
Expectations--4
" ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ "(Matt 11:3, NIV)
John the Baptist’s expectations of Jesus were quite clear, and quite justified, on the basis of Old Testament prophecies. John saw himself in the role of the forerunner of the Messiah. And he expected that the Messiah would "suddenly come to his temple" and "sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver," and "come near . . . for judgment" (Malachi 3:1-3). John expected Jesus to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, for Matthew reports that he called people to repentance with the promise that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Jesus Himself did nothing, at first, to dissuade John and his followers of this hope. After John was thrown in prison "Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.’ " Could his listeners have been blamed if they understood this as a reference to Daniel 2:44 " ‘And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.’ "
Expectation that the Messiah would break in pieces and consume the Roman Empire was not the product of some aberrant theological jingoism. John, and even Jesus Himself, did and said many things that seemed to support this expectation.
Didn’t Jesus, indeed, go suddenly into the temple and drive out the moneychangers? When John’s disciples came to question Him about His mission, didn’t He quote directly from Malachi to describe John’s role: " ‘For this is he of whom it is written: "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You" ’ " (Matt. 11:10, cf. Mal. 3:1)
Remember, as you consider this, that the book of Malachi was to the Jews of Jesus’ day what the book of Revelation is to Christians today. It was the last book of the prophets; it was chronologically the last book written; it was a prophecy that concluded with a promise of the coming of the Lord.
Jesus also liked to quote from Isaiah, another book that was filled with promises of a kingdom on earth. In answer to John’s question about whether He was the Messiah, Jesus alluded to Isaiah 35:5-6: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Any respectable Scripture-student among those expecting the Messiah would recognize the passage, and would also know its context. The verse immediately before it reads: "Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; he will come and save you.’ "
So, John’s and others’ expectations of Jesus were well founded in Scripture, and in Jesus’ own words and actions. But they were still wrong. Once again, Jesus wasn’t planning to meet people’s expectations; He was planning to exceed them. He wasn’t planning to set up a physical kingdom in that era that would spread out to the then-known world. He was planning on setting up a spiritual kingdom that could bring salvation to billions all over the whole world. His followers, and even the greatest of the prophets, were thinking too small!
Of John, Jesus said " ‘Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist;’ " but then He went on to say " ‘but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’ " (Matt. 11:11).
John was a great spiritual leader and teacher who had done a great work in preparing for the coming kingdom. He was the greatest on that side of the cross.
But even the least of us who accept Jesus as our Savior, who bear the message of salvation centered in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, are greater.
Praise God! What a message! What salvation!
Have you begun to wonder yet how Jesus is going to exceed YOUR expectations? Or, perhaps, what He expects to do through you?
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #24
Expectations—5
"‘For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom’" (Matthew 16:27-28 NKJV).
I must admit that this has been one of the most troubling verses of the Bible to me. Jesus definitely set up a high level of expectation among His followers when He said it. If they didn’t understand exactly what He meant by it at first, certainly His later description of His coming " ‘on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’ " (Matthew 24:30) clarified it.
Clearly He was setting up expectation of the fulfillment of Daniel 7:13-14: " ‘I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.’ "
It was only natural that anyone who heard Jesus make these statements would expect that the Second Coming, and the establishment His worldwide kingdom, would occur sometime during the life-span of at least one of the disciples.
The closing chapter of the gospel of John reveals that this was a widely-held expectation. By the time John wrote his gospel, he may have been the last surviving disciple, and the saying was going around among the believers that Jesus had promised John that he would not die before the Second Coming. In other words, people were no doubt watching John age, and reassuring one another that the Second Coming had to be VERY soon, since John probably wouldn’t live much longer. In concluding his gospel, John made a point of putting that rumor to rest (see John 20:23).
History reveals that this is another instance where Jesus did not meet the expectations of His followers. Could it be that once again His plan was to exceed what they could even imagine?
Consider another prediction He made: "‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come’ " (Matthew 24:14).
Oh, how the disciples longed for that prophecy to be fulfilled. How each one must have prayed for it to happen in his lifetime!
But Jesus, the Creator of the world, must have understood that what He was predicting went far beyond what the disciples could conceive in their wildest imaginations. Should He have sat down with them and explained to them that there were people thousands of miles south of there in the jungles of Africa who would one day hear the gospel preached? Should He have described to them the Maya civilization across the ocean which was, even as He spoke, entering into its prime?
Jesus knew that before His return His followers would accomplish a mission far beyond what they could ever expect of themselves. They would take the gospel to ALL the world. And so once again we see that He planned to exceed, rather than meet, the expectations of those who heard Him speak.
But we’re still left with the troubling issue of what Jesus really meant when He said that some would not taste death before they saw the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
I’ve heard Christians explain or rationalize away this statement in various ways, but I’ve never been fully satisfied until recently. I believe the gospel writer John struggled with this issue as well, and in next week’s message I want to share the solution I believe he gave.
In the meantime, consider the privilege that Christians have today. Consider that all those years ago, Jesus looked down to our day—a time when we really can reach every corner of the world with the gospel in some way. And let’s do what we can to take the gospel to the corner we can touch today.
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #25
Expectations—6
"‘Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death’" (John 8:51 NKJV).
Talk about setting up expectations! Here you have it. In the words of Jesus Himself: Immortality to be claimed, simply by keeping His word. Never to have to worry about the end of life. To live forever, never having your body laid in a dark, cold cave to rot, awaiting the day when another relative will die and your dried up bones will be carefully gathered and stored in an ossuary to make more space in the family tomb (for such were the burial customs of the Jews in Jesus’ day).
It must have been especially difficult for Mary and Martha when Lazarus died shortly after Jesus spoke these words. What must it have meant to them? Jesus’ words had failed on two counts. Or did it mean that Lazarus had somehow failed to abide by the words of Jesus? Did it mean that their brother was lost forever, because of his failure?
Of course the resurrection of Lazarus solved that mystery four days later.
But then there was Stephen. What shock waves must have ricocheted through the ranks of the believers when the faithful preacher of the gospel gazed up into heaven and actually saw Jesus seated at the right hand of God, but then fell victim to mob violence!
Where had he failed? What had he neglected to keep of the words of Jesus? Human expectations called for this man of God, this faithful witness, to live forever. To never taste death at all.
Jump ahead 40 or 50 years. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, pauses to look back over his long and often difficult life. He alone remains of the 12 who walked and talked with Jesus day in and day out. Everyone else has, it seems, "tasted death."
As he looks back over his life, and considers what it all has meant, there must be questions yet unanswered. Will he, indeed, live to see the Lord come again? John 21:23 makes it clear that he’s not absolutely certain that he will: "Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?’"
Nonetheless it seems that John struggled with the question of what Jesus meant by His promise about not dying. His personal quest for answers no doubt influenced him to tell the story of Lazarus, which no other gospel writer mentioned. In this story we find Jesus’ followers struggling with the issue of what Jesus promises about life and death, and how He delivers on His promises.
The setting is Bethany, near Jerusalem. The story occurs near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Coming to Jerusalem, He soon became embroiled in controversy with the religious leaders. In the encounters recorded in John 5-10, the enmity of the establishment escalates until Jesus barely escapes with His life.
Into this highly-charged setting comes the story of the death of Lazarus, and it is here that John reports the conversation and events that hold the key to our understanding of what Jesus was teaching about death.
" ‘Our friend Lazarus sleeps,’ " Jesus said when He knew that Lazarus was dead (John 11:11).
And only then did Jesus begin the long trek up the hill toward Jerusalem, and toward His own death.
Encountering Martha on the outskirts of Bethany, Jesus assured her "’Your brother will rise again.’" And Martha expressed her faith—that Lazarus would indeed arise at the last day. But what troubled her was the here and now.
Jesus knew what He was going to do about the here and now for Lazarus, but nonetheless He took the opportunity to teach Martha, and us, something we need to know: "Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die’ " (verses 25, 26).
How could He say such a thing in the presence of a woman dead center in the week of mourning that followed her brother’s demise?
The shock value is lost on us, because we know the end of the story.
The statements and actions of Jesus in this story make a clear differentiation between death as we know it—what He called sleep—and final death, what John in Revelation called the "second death."
There is nothing final about the first death to the one who truly believes on Jesus and keeps His word. It is no more final than lying down to get a good night’s rest.
Speaking in these terms, Jesus did not set up any false expectations when He promised that some would not taste death until He came. But to humans, whose understanding of life is, for the most part, limited to what we see this side of the grave, it seemed a heady promise that proved untrue.
But Jesus was simply challenging us to get beyond our earth fixation. To move beyond wanting Him to meet our expectations, to the point where we could let Him, once again, exceed what we could ever ask or think.
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #26
Hill of Life and Death
"Then after this He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again’ " (John 11:7 NKJV).
The exact path of Jesus’ travels during His three years of ministry is not easy to trace. The four gospels provide vignettes, sometimes without any indication of where they took place. John’s gospel is probably the most thorough for accounting what took place where.
When Jesus said to His disciples "Let us go to Judea again," He wasn’t just suggesting a pleasant side trip. It was an uphill journey, through the region known as "the valley of the shadow of death." The disciples were openly wary—frightened of the significance of the journey. Jesus had already predicted that He would be killed in Jerusalem. It had no doubt been several weeks, perhaps even two months since they had moved down the hill from Jerusalem, and Jesus had begun to minister in the region beyond the Jordan where John the Baptist had preached.
It had been the dead of winter—probably early January—when they descended the hill. The rainy season, when snow sometimes blankets the fields of Judea. The region around Jericho stays several degrees warmer and is not as damp. Herod the Great built a winter palace there so he could get out of Jerusalem and enjoy the almost ideal winter climate of the Jordan valley.
It was Thomas, later known as the doubter, who spoke the words that persuaded the disciples to fearfully follow Jesus up the hill: "Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him.’ "
It was probably early March when word came of Lazarus’ illness—an appropriate time for a resurrection. Spring would be coming on. Almond blossoms, always the first harbingers of the season of rebirth, may have graced the hillsides. But the disciples’ thoughts were on death.
About half way between Jericho and Bethany stands a mountain known as Zuk, clearly visible from the road. It was a place of death, for every year on the day of atonement, the priests would bring the scapegoat out of the temple and lead it down the road toward Jericho. As the entourage left the city, the people would gather around and shout "Bear our sins and be gone! Bear our sins and be gone!" for it was the appointed lot of the scapegoat to be led into the wilderness, bearing the sins that had been confessed over its head, and there to wander and die, far from the cities where the people lived. But one time a scapegoat found its way back to an inhabited area, and since that time the priests had taken the precaution of leading the goat to a precipice on the mountain called Zuk and giving it a shove so that its body was dashed to pieces as it fell toward the valley.
Now the sin bearer for the whole world climbed up the hill, knowing He would never go down it again. Knowing that He would suffer a fate worse than the goat’s, for the despised goat was carefully tended and offered food and water at ten stations along the path to its mountain of death. Jesus knew that He, as a human, could not expect to be treated as kindly as an animal.
Still, He climbed the hill. Still He went to Bethany, to Lazarus, to Calvary. To bring life through death to all who would hear and heed His voice.
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #27
He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria (John 4:3-4
NKJV).
Last week we looked at Jesus’ journey up the hill from Jericho to Bethany, near the end of His time on earth. This week we find Him making the long walk from Jerusalem to Galilee during the first year of His ministry.
After His baptism and time in the wilderness, Jesus went to Galilee, probably taking the route along the Jordan River. He ministered at Cana and Capernaum, then made the springtime journey down to Jerusalem for Passover. While there, He cleansed the temple—driving out the money changers, and met with Nicodemus at night.
John the Baptist, meanwhile, had moved upstream, closer to Galilee, and Jesus and His disciples may have taken over his old baptizing spot on the Jordan near Jericho, but on the Judaean side of the river (see John 3:3:23-26).
Word soon got around in Jerusalem that Jesus was an even more powerful evangelist than John. Although He didn’t do any baptizing Himself, the Pharisees heard that He was making and baptizing more disciples than John, and this no doubt led to some form of opposition (John 4:1).
With this development, Jesus decided to go back to Galilee, farther from the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ headquarters, to continue His ministry.
It would have seemed natural for Him to take the road that followed the Jordan once again. It was an easier, less hilly path, but John 4:4 says "But He needed to go through Samaria." NEEDED to go through Samaria? Why did He need to go that way? If you have a map in your Bible, you can see that it just doesn’t make sense for a person wanting to go from Jericho to Capernaum to climb up toward Jerusalem and take the hilly road to Galilee. It’s a long ways out of the way, and at least on a map appears to be the more difficult route.
In fact, many Jews starting out in the hill country of Judea would go down and take the Jordan route, partly to avoid going through Samaria.
But Jesus was different. He didn’t need to avoid the hated Samaritans. He needed to go through their territory. Perhaps as part of His mission, perhaps for some other reason. The Bible doesn’t explain, except with its account of what Jesus did while He was in Samaria.
It was no easy trip. I’ve climbed up and down hills in Judea, and they really sap the strength out of you.
By the time He reached Jacob’s well, about half way between Jerusalem and Galilee, Jesus was ready for a rest, or at least for some solitude. He sent the disciples away and stayed by the well. This was in an area fraught with history from the early days of God’s people. Ironically it was near here that Jacob had built an altar and called on the name of El Elohe Israel (God, the God of Israel). Now most of Jacob’s descendents avoided the area because it was in Samaritan territory.
But after only a short rest His solitude was interrupted. How would He react?
It was plain to see that the woman who had come to the well was not of high caliber—not the kind of person a decent man would want to be caught hanging out with.
On the other hand, there was no one there to see what He would do. He could treat her any way He wanted. He could even take advantage of her, and no one would be the wiser—who would believe any accusation she might make.
It’s said that we find out who we really are when we’re all alone.
How did Jesus handle this encounter, alone with a woman of less-than-pristine character?
We already know the story, but we’ll take a deeper, fresh look, in the coming weeks.
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #28
(As a new feature this week, certain items are marked with an *. Links to the Internet address of the items mentioned are found at the end of the reading.)
But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (John 4:4, 5, NKJV).
Last week I began taking a look at Jesus’ trip through Samaria, where He encountered the woman at the well. I asked the question, Why did Jesus "need to" go through Samaria. This week I got out my maps and history books and tried to discover more. I learned a lot, and I haven’t sorted it all out yet, but there are some fascinating possibilities that seem worth considering as we seek to understand why and how Jesus ended up at Jacob’s well that fateful afternoon.
Those of you who have been long-time subscribers to the Fresh Look list may remember meditation #12, where I pointed to the significance of where Jesus was baptized in relation to the name Jesus (which is the same as Joshua.) If you’d like to read #12, you can see it at the Fresh Look archives.* My SpiritQuest home page also has another story called "Get a Life"* that focuses on the importance of Jesus’ name and the geography involved in His early ministry.
But let’s get back to the story of Jesus’ journey. After His baptism and temptation in the wilderness, Jesus went to Galilee, then down to Jerusalem (perhaps passing through Samaria on the way), then went back down to the area near Jericho where John had baptized Him. From there, He headed back to Galilee, choosing a road that went through Samaria. In case you’re interested in understanding the geography involved in the story, I’ve scanned a portion of a map* and drawn in Jesus’ two possible routes from Jericho to Sychar. If Jesus took the southern route from Jericho, up to the road that ran along the crest of the mountains toward Sychar, He would have been following closely in the footsteps of Joshua and the Israelites as they began the conquest of the promised land.
Is it possible that Jesus, who liked to teach people through parables and stories, led His disciples up this route because He wanted to remind them of their history as they began looking toward the future? Do you suppose that the new Joshua spoke to His disciples about the lessons that had been learned by their ancient ancestors at Jericho, and then, farther up that very road, at the little village of Ai? The names of those two places evoked powerful memories for every Israelite who had heard the stories of the foundation of their nation.
At Jericho, God worked a powerful, miraculous victory for His people because they trusted Him and relied fully on His power. Up the road at Ai, the people relied on their own power, considering the village small, and well within their own power to conquer. But they suffered a horrific defeat there, because of their self-confidence plus the presence of sin in the camp.
Can’t you just hear Jesus rehearsing those old but true lessons for His disciples as they followed that road, setting out to conquer the land once again?
Then as drew near to Sychar, and Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal loomed into view, what do you suppose Jesus talked to His disciples about? Go back and read Joshua 8 and 24 if you have any question in your mind. It was here, in the midst of the conquest, that Joshua assembled the people and renewed their covenant, contrasting what God had promised to do for them if they were faithful with what would happen if they proved faithless.
At the end of the years of conquest, as Joshua neared death, he called the twelve tribes of Israel back here to Shechem, the city set in the pass between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and reminded them of their history, of how the Lord had delivered them from Egypt and had led and blessed them, and provided them with a place to live. And then He challenged them to be faithful, to put away false gods, and to worship only the God who had brought them there.
Do you suppose that the new Joshua did something similar with His twelve disciples as He led them through the land that their ancestors had won for them?
Admittedly, it’s all speculation. We don’t have the word of Scripture to verify what Jesus talked to His disciples about as they journeyed. We’re not even sure which route they took. But knowing Jesus as we do, perhaps we can learn even more as we consider what He might have done when He "needed to go through Samaria."
The Fresh Look archives are located at http://www.tagnet.org/spiritquest/freshpas.htm
"Get a Life" can be read at: http://tagnet.org/spiritquest/JesusCentral.HTM
The map of Jesus’ possible routes from Jericho to Sychar is at http://tagnet.org/spiritquest/mapjeric.htm
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #29
The Open Kingdom
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (John 4:9, NKJV).
There’s a lot of history behind this statement. There’s even more history if you consider where Jesus was when the Samaritan woman spoke to Him.
Jacob’s well, Shechem, Samaria—all places with meaning deeply rooted in Jewish history.
The well was likely dug because of exclusiveness—the people of the land would not accept Jacob, and so he established his own dwelling place, separate from the heathens who had rejected him.
Shechem was the place that Joshua brought the Israelites at the end of his life to remind them of who they were and who they worshiped. As part of the rededication ceremony he conducted at that time, the people reminded themselves that God had brought them into the land and had driven out the foreigners so that they could worship Him in a land unpolluted by foreign gods.
The one lesson the Israelites seemed to learn from their defeat and Babylonian exile was that they shouldn’t mingle with people of other races, so when the Samaritans offered to help rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem, Zerubabel, and later Nehemiah, turned them away in no uncertain terms. Ezra took a strong stand against their being included in the nation, even if they were married to Hebrews.
This Jewish elitism, which was condoned and enforced by the Ezra and Nehemiah, served an important purpose, at its time, in preserving the worship of the true God. During the time that the Greek Seleucid kingdom dominated Palestine, the Samaritans succumbed to outside pressure, and allowed the temple that they had built on Mt. Gerizim (at Shechem, and in full view of Jesus and the woman at the well) to be taken over by pagans and dedicated to the Greek god Zeus.
There was a time when the temple at Jerusalem was similarly desecrated and the Jewish leadership did not stand up against it. But faithfulness to the true God still burned in the hearts of many Hebrews, and they united under the leadership of the Maccabees to drive out their Greek overlords, cleanse the temple, and finally even install a Jewish king on the throne of the Hasmonaean kingdom. One of the first Hasmonaean kings made a point of attacking and destroying Shechem and the Samaritan/Greek temple on Mt. Gerizim.
Both Jesus and the woman at the well were well steeped in this history. They brought it with them to their seemingly chance encounter.
Five hundred years of human heritage screamed in Jesus’ blood: Do not mingle. Do not touch. Do not even speak to this woman.
But a billion billion years of divine heritage spoke in His heart as well. And He opened His mouth and opened a conversation with the Samaritan woman. And opened His kingdom to her people as well.
In this act He announced that the new Joshua had arrived, and rather than purifying His people by excluding others, He would bring all nations in and give His purity to them. Rather than taking the lives of those who were on the outside, He would go outside the walls and give His life.
The new kingdom, and the new Joshua, had and have something for everyone.
I really got fascinated by the history behind this story, and have added a section to the SpiritQuest homepage that gives background information and sources. If you would like to better understand the history behind this reading, please visit the SpiritQuest home page* and go to the link Samaritan History. My Bible Lights Publishing home page* also contains an interactive chart that illustrates the relationships between the people and events involved.
*SpiritQuest http://www.tagnet.org/spiritquest/#JesusCentral (find the link to Samaritan History in the Jesus Central section of the main page).
*Bible Lights Publishing http://www.biblelights.com
A Fresh Look at Jesus, #30
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, NKJV).
The current issue of _Newsweek_ (August 3, 1998) has an article about the treatment of women in Afghanistan, where Muslim fundamentalists have recently taken control. The article is titled "When Women Are the Enemy," and it describes the strict enforcement Islamic law. Women are required to wear a full-length garment called a Burka, and are not allowed to expose their faces in public. Girls are forbidden to attend school after their eighth birthday.
As I read the article, I was thinking about the passage I’ve been studying about Jesus and the woman at the well. While women were not dominated or put down to that extent in the Hebrew world, Roman and Greek culture, which dominated the secular world in Jesus’ day, gave very little respect to women.
By contrast, Nelsons’ Bible dictionary points out that "Some of the finest leaders in Israel were women, in spite of the fact that the culture was male-dominated. Military victories were sometimes won because of the courage of one woman (Judges 4-5; 9:54; Esth. 4:16). God revealed His Word through prophetesses (Judg. 4:4; Luke 2:36; Acts 21:9). God used Priscilla and her husband Aquila to explain ‘the way of God more accurately’ to Apollos the preacher (Acts 18:26). The heroes of faith mentioned in (Hebrews 11) include Sarah (v. 11), Moses' mother (v. 23), and Rahab the harlot (v. 31)."
In the story of Jesus’ ministry on earth, women often stand out. Sometimes as more faithful followers than the twelve disciples. Jesus had a way of treating them that drew them to Him.
And in the case of the woman at the well, it is almost as though Jesus went out of His way to seek her out and enter into a relationship with her. We’ve looked at other possible reasons why Jesus chose to go through Samaria, but as you read on through the story of His encounter with this unnamed woman, you can’t help but be suspicious that He came to the well that day, and sent His disciples away, because He knew she would be coming.
In the news also this week has been the report of a prominent world leader’s encounter with a woman of questionable character, and the evidence (in the form of stains on her clothing) she claims to have taken away from that encounter.
In this day and age when male leaders are under constant scrutiny and accusation about their actions when they find themselves alone with a less-than-honorable woman, we might expect this encounter—after Jesus’ companions had been dismissed—to lead to something far different than it did.
Yes, Jesus could easily be accused of coming to the well, looking for this woman of ill repute. The evidence presented in a court case would include His statement about her marital history—a clear indication, in any human court, that He had foreknowledge of both her habits and her character.
And this woman would have stains to show as evidence of what He did to her, as well. But Jesus could never be condemned for staining her soul with the water of life, could He?
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There’s a beautiful old lithograph of a gathering of people at Jacob’s well at http://www.attach.net/infocentral/petra/catalog/volume1/039.html The hill in the background is likely Mt. Gerizim, but I don’t know for sure. If not, it is Mt. Ebal.
http://www.attach.net/infocentral/petra/catalog/volume1/041.html shows the area around Nablus, near ancient Shechem and Sychar.
These pictures are taken from lithographs drawn by David Roberts and originally published in the 1840s.
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