Jesus is about the Faith: Not the Parlor Tricks!

April 20, 2021             John 4: 46b-54

 43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee ⁴⁴(for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). ⁴⁵When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. ⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ ⁴⁹The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. ⁵¹As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. ⁵²So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” ⁵³The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. ⁵⁴Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

            So we transition to the new circumstances.  A royal official in Capernaum is no longer a person of importance.  He is now a father who is desperate to cure his child.  He does not send a servant, he does not attempt to use his royal position as a point of insistence or persuasion, but he goes to Jesus himself, once he hears that Jesus has returned to Galilee. The royal official does not come to ask, does not request, he comes and he begs as his little boy is on the point of death. 

            Jesus’ initial response sounds so harsh.  ‘Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.’  And it would be harsh if this were a private conversation aimed at one desperate father.  But one thing we need to keep in mind as we read the gospel is how Jesus communicates.  It is for the audience gathered around him.  This could be the crowd of Galileans who’d seen him act in Jerusalem and now want to see more.  It could be the disciples whom Jesus is instructing as he prepares them to take over the mantle of sharing the gospel when he has gone.  It can be in an intimate moment when he is with a select few. 

            “Unless you see signs and wonders.”  Why does Jesus say that?  Just a few verses before, John told us the Galileans were enthused about the presence of Jesus because of what they had seen in Jerusalem.  It was not like the sharing of testimony and the truth of God’s Kingdom as he’d been sharing for the past two days in the Samaritan city of Sychar.  Those were people who wanted to hear the Good News of Salvation.  Here, Jesus’ reputation is based on the signs in Jerusalem, maybe on the ‘baptism wars’ along the Jordan with John the baptizer.  It seems like there is a carnival atmosphere of expectation around Jesus.

            Into this carnival steps a royal official.  He might possibly have been known by the crowd as a man of importance.  But he does not engage with the carnival.  “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.”  Carnival be da**ed, this is not an official, this is a broken father.  And Jesus’ response is not to turn this moment into a sideshow.  He does not go down with the man, leading the crowd, so that he may show them his newest parlor trick.  Jesus said simply, “Go, your son will live.”

            From there, we have the takeaway of this story.  It is not about the signs and wonders, about the carnival and sideshows, it is about faith.  The official believed what he’d been told and headed home again.  It is on the way home that he gets the good news from his slaves that his son is alive.  He does a little crosschecking and discovers that the moment of his child’s recovery was the moment of Jesus’ promise of healing. 

            The windup is that the man and his whole household came to believe in Jesus.  There is no indication that the man went back to Jesus to put on a public spectacle of thanksgiving, there was no buy-in to the notion of a carnival.  Jesus would certainly be moving around Galilee enough in the course of his ministry that, even if they did not meet in person, Jesus’ reputation would have been known to the man. 

            For the gathered audience, it is the contrast.  Jesus is not about the signs and wonders of themselves.  They are rather evidence of something greater, of the message and the Plan of God that He brings to unfold to the people.  In this moment, the power of Jesus’ words was enough to send the man back home, where the proof, the miracle, was laid out for him when he received word that his boy was okay.

            After the water into wine, John is specific in identifying this as the second miracle that Jesus did in Galilee, upon his return.

            More tomorrow,

Peace, Pastor Peter

Moving Back into Familiar Territory: Return to Galilee

April 19, 2021             John 4: 43-46

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.’

43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee ⁴⁴(for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). ⁴⁵When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. ⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ 

            So after two days with the Samaritans, Jesus goes north.  The northern edge of Samaria borders on the Jezreel Valley, in which Nazareth is situated.  The Galileans welcome him because they’d seen Jesus at the festival in Jerusalem.  This was the Passover festival, back in John 2.  What they had witnessed was Jesus turning out the money changers and the sacrifice sellers from the Temple.  So there was something powerful in Jesus that they were seeing.  But notice there is this odd infix in the paragraph.

            He went to Galilee, they welcomed him, but in verse 44, parenthetically (which means ‘in parentheses’), Jesus had prophesied that a prophet had no honor in their own country.  In the other gospels, there are records of Jesus returning to Nazareth, where this exact reaction took place.  The people of Nazareth did not see Jesus as the Messiah or as a Rabbi, but as the son of Joseph, the carpenter.  That was a blue-collar job.  For Jesus to come around as a Teacher is, for them, the work of a poser.  Jesus is ‘above his station’ because while there is evidence that the Jews were a highly literate people, the Teacher ‘class’, the Rabbis, the Pharisees and so on, they were all about education.  The support of the people was given them so they could study and become properly learned in the ways of the Hebrew Bible.  Jesus never had that kind of training. 

            I remember one preacher talking about how the people who ‘changed Jesus’ diapers’ would have a different point of view, they would know the little kid who was now the man before them.  I believe what John is doing here is acknowledging the other gospels, that go more fully into this encounter Jesus has at Nazareth.  What happened there is not his focus, is not part of his narrative, but it is a part of Jesus’ story, so he does acknowledge it.  John also puts Jesus in Cana as his first fixed spot in Galilee.  This town is just north of Nazareth and, at the Wedding of Cana, two chapters back, it seems there was a regional invitation that included him so it would seem likely that Jesus came through Nazareth to get there (thus the reference to prophets and their home towns).

            Nazareth was in the Jezreel Valley, Galilee was centered more on the Sea of Galilee, and it was to this region that Jesus went.  It was there that the locals, who’d seen him in Jerusalem, were now gathering to know more.  I find myself pondering their reaction.  What Jesus did was essentially a political statement, defying the norms and the practices of the Jewish leadership.  It is not the ‘typical’ gospel reaction, where the miracles and the preaching of Jesus open the way for his presence. 

            It is also interesting to note that the people here who welcomed him were not acknowledging the ‘baptismal competition’ that was being styled as happening between Jesus and John the Baptist.  That was the reason Jesus pulled back to Sychar in the first place, to remove himself from that kind of attitude among the people on the Jordan River. 

            It strikes me that there is an application of the ‘Come and See’ focus that we have already come across in John.  The Galileans saw Jesus in Jerusalem, they saw what he did and recognized him for it.  Now they are coming to see for themselves.  As mentioned above, Jesus arrives in Cana, where he did his water into wine miracle.  From there, we transition into the next part of the narrative, with the royal official from Capernaum.

            More tomorrow.

Peace, Pastor Peter

They were Invited to Come and See and They Embraced the Truth of Jesus for Themselves

April 15, 2021             John 4: 39-41

³⁵Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.’

43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee ⁴⁴(for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). ⁴⁵When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

            We turn back from the training of the disciples to see the practical benefits of what Jesus has accomplished.  Why did the Samaritans believe?  It is not because of ‘right faith system’.  It has nothing to do with the opposing religious systems of Jew and Samaritan.  It seems odd at first, because Jesus ‘told me everything I have ever done.’  It is not like a séance where the ‘possessed’ person reveals secrets that only the individual could know to somehow establish their credibility.

             Jesus also does not use key phrasing like “Your sins are forgiven.”  Rather, he spoke the truth in love.  He spoke the truth in the context of the provision of living water, so she would never go thirsty again.  What is her thirst?  Being married five times and living with a sixth man hints at something that was unfulfilled in her life.  When Jesus told her everything she had ever done, is he giving her the living water?  Her reaction feels like healing.  Like Jesus has broken her out of a destructive pattern of living and opened up new possibilities.  Like her previous life was opened up but without shame and the rolling of eyes.  Like Jesus accepted her in a way that no one else had, especially those people in the City whose pressure made her draw water in the heat of the day instead of the cool of the morning.  In such was the joy of the living waters.

            The Samaritans were engaged to find Jesus by what she had said.  Jesus stayed with them two more days, teaching and sharing and offering God’s Word from the Messiah.  It says many came to believe.  In the end, it was not because of what Jesus had done for the Woman at the Well, it was not because of her words that they believed but because they accepted Jesus as the Savior of the world for themselves.

            As I was reflecting on this, I was struck by what happened in John 1, at the call of the disciples.  On two occasions, at the call of Peter and Nathanial, the words used were ‘Come and See’.  I think that is what we are seeing repeated at Sychar.  The Woman went into her city and made the same offer, “come and see”, which they did.  Once the Samaritans had, they came to believe for themselves.  Having seen this pattern repeat itself, it is something to consider as we continue our reading of the Gospel.  How does the pattern of ‘come and see’ play out?

            I must also address my pet peeve.  Why does this Woman remain unnamed in the text?  To my eyes today, it is misogyny on display.  At the time, it was the norm.  How do I reconcile that?  By recognizing in Scripture that there is the immediate and there is the eternal.  The gift of living water, offered by Jesus, this is an eternal promise to all people, from that woman to our very selves today.  What is immediate-to that moment in time?  A Woman relegated to anonymity by the withholding of her name.  In Jesus’ direct interaction with her, we have the seeds of the eternal laid for the reversal of this kind of activity.

            More tomorrow.

Peace, Pastor Peter

Jesus Is Not Only Speaking to the Samaritan Woman, But He is Teaching Those He Calls to Teach

April 14, 2021             John 4: 35-38

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ ³²But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ ³³So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ ³⁴Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’

            It is a harvest comparison.  Jesus sets the stage by pointing out their harvest is expected in another four months.  That is for the crops.  Then Jesus follows on the food metaphor.  The people ‘need something to eat’, they need, actually, the message that Jesus brings as the Messiah. They are looking for something, for this Messiah to save them.  ‘The fields are ripe for harvesting.’  This is exemplified by the woman at the well Jesus was speaking to. 

            Jesus said his food was ‘to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.’  Jesus is self-describing as the reaper ‘earning his wages’ and ‘gathering fruit for eternal life’, in the sharing of the good news, the gospel message, with the woman at the well (as well as looking forward to who else will come hear him from the City).  Now, the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.  Whereas the ‘reaper’ is Jesus, the one who shares the fulfillment of the Good News, the ‘sower’ is a much wider quantification. 

            Sown among the Samaritans was the very basis of faith that they grew up with, from the Well of Jacob to the sacrifices made on the mountain to their very contradistinctions with the “Jews” who center their worship in Jerusalem.  The ‘sower’ is essentially summarizing the woman’s entire religious upbringing.  Now Jesus, the Messiah, the ‘reaper’, is fulfilling the expectations raised in her faith background.  Thus, the sower and the reaper now celebrate together.

            So it seems that there is an old saying, “One person sows, another reaps.”  Maybe I do not understand the cliches of bygone eras, but that seems rather obvious.  I suppose it could be that it is in defiance of the assumption that the same person who sows also reaps, the one who plants the crops also harvests them.  But Jesus is not sharing this to provide for whatever their local equivalent of a bumper sticker. 

            In this case, the ‘sowing’ has been done.  The woman at the well was prepared to listen to the message of Jesus.  Her faith background as a Samaritan, her ‘virtuously challenged’ lifestyle-which Jesus spoke the truth of, without judgement-those came together in this moment of conversation with Jesus, the Messiah, for the Spirit to take hold and fill her with the hope of Jesus’ message and ministry.  It is the ‘reaping’, the speaking of the truth, that the disciples are being called to do with Jesus.

            Others have prepared the way.  The disciples are called upon to go out into the world and continue that work, either to prepare the way, or to ‘reap’, to bring the good news that will center into the heart and soul of those to whom they speak.

            The disciples, if they carry the bias against the Samaritans of the Jews who center their faith in Jerusalem, they would be skeptical of Jesus’ ministry among ‘them’.  They are worse than ‘un-believers’, they are ‘wrong-believers’.  And feelings against wrong-believers tend to run in greater expression that unbelievers (the unbeliever can be dismissed as ignorant, but the wrong-believer is messing up the message).  Now Jesus stands among these ‘wrong-believers’ and says they believe, correctly. 

            Jesus’ work started among the Jews, as he said earlier to the woman at the well, but now, for the disciples, he is going to show how that work extends far beyond them.  Which is to our benefit, as Gentiles!

            More tomorrow.

Peace, Pastor Peter

Food as Metaphor: Jesus Seeks To Explain to His Disciples What He Is Called To Do

 April 9, 2021               John 4: 27-34

 ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’ 

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ ³²But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ ³³So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ ³⁴Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’

            In a strictly modern reading of the translation of verse 27, taken out of context and out of time and place, it has comic overtones.  “They were astonished that he was speaking to a woman…”  This could be the hook to a modern comedy on the perils of shy guys and dating.  But in this time and place, it is a shocking development.  Jesus is setting himself up for massive criticism.

            Granted, there was very little ‘out of place’ that could have happened at the open location of the well, but it was the principle of the thing.  Women were property.  It was the misogyny of the times.  It was wrong and Jesus was breaking down walls.  He’d broken down enough walls with the disciples that, although they were critical of the situation, they knew enough to keep their mouths shut. 

            It was this moment, when the Jewish ministry team went from simply Jesus to Jesus and his disciples, that the woman chose to withdraw.  Temporarily.  She left the water-jar (presumably to allow Jesus or the disciples to access the well for their own thirst needs) and went back into Sychar.  Notice how she has no embarrassment over what has happened.

            “This man told me everything I have ever done!”  In other words, this man has laid out my sordid and adulterous lifestyle, that which has made me the bane of the decent community so that I have to go out at midday to draw water, which, in my present circumstances of living with a man who is not my husband could get me stoned for adultery, and he has made me feel loved and appreciated by my God.  (She did not include that last phrase but it is implied).  Could this be the Messiah?  She is playing off of Jesus’ self-identification in this role. 

            Her testimony was enough, her enthusiasm was enough, that they came to take a look at what she was talking about.

            In the meantime, it appears that the disciples think this episode is concluded.  So, being good Presbyterians, they encourage Jesus to eat something.  After all, that is why they went into Sychar in the first place.  But Jesus, being Jesus, does to them what he did to the woman.  He used the moment as metaphor for a greater truth to be taught.  Jesus claims food to eat that they do not have.  They then wonder where he got something to eat (and probably wondered why, if he had food, he sent them shopping).  Maybe they looked after the woman who’d returned to Sychar and wondered if she’d brought him something.  Like the woman, like Nicodemus, their first instinct is to look at the literal meaning of what Jesu shas to tell them.

            Jesus explains his metaphor.  His ‘food’ is his mission to do the will of the one who sent him and to complete that work.  To quote the Blues Brothers, “We’re on a mission from God.”  This is going to be a lesson for the Woman and for the disciples.  For her, it was to speak to her of the Plan of God, of the living waters.  For the disciples, it was to speak of the ‘food’ of their mission, to carry word of the living waters, of God’s plan, to the world. 

            Because there is a need.  More tomorrow.

Peace, Pastor Peter 

She Has An Expectation of the Messiah And Jesus Fills that Role

April 9, 2021               John 4: 24-26

  ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’ 

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ ³²But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ ³³So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ ³⁴Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.

            God is spirit.  God is the Holy Spirit.  Two related but distinct concepts.  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, that which descended upon Jesus as His baptism.  This indwells us and integrates us as we seek to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

            Saying God is spirit however is something different.  Jesus is seeking to use the limits of human vocabulary to describe the divine.  There is a dichotomy in the New Testament of flesh vs. spirit.  The flesh is the created, the sinful, the fallen.  Spirit is not sinful, unfallen, of the creator.  That vocabulary can get a little soft to refer to the Creator, as in this case.  It is important to understand that Jesus is not simply labeling God.  He tells us God is spirit for a reason.

            This entire passage has been about the living waters, transitioning into how worship of God is going to transcend location, neither the Holy Mountain of Samaria nor the City of Jerusalem will be the center of such activity anymore.  God has already been labeled as true, now God is labeled as spirit.  For Jesus, in spirit and truth are how true worship take place.  So it not a place, it is not a ritual, it is not a thing.  True worship is something then connected to the divine.  “Spirit and truth” are language attempting to link us to the divine. 

            I have trouble putting myself in the shoes of the woman of Sychar in this instance in the following way.  I have trouble wrapping my head around how Jesus needed to transcend the opposition between Jew and Samaritan.  I grew up in the church stretched out to the ends of the earth.  Yes, we argue with one another, but God still unites us. 

            The woman knows that the Messiah is coming and that the Messiah “will proclaim all things” to them.  Jesus is here sharing all the things that she needs to know for the restoration of right worship with her God, and it is a restoration that will transcend her present life. 

            Notice that Jesus is not leading with forgiveness here.  He speaks of salvation, coming with true worship of God in spirit and truth.  Jesus spoke the truth of her past.  But is was not to condemn her for it, but to free her from it.  It is like he wants her to understand there is a ‘clean slate protocol’ going on here. 

            What the woman of Sychar does have is an expectation of the Messiah, of what He will be and what He will do.  Jesus steps into that role for her, claiming the mantle openly for himself.  I feel I should be putting my closed hands on either side of my head and slowly opening them while saying “Mind Blown”.  Because Jesus has just broken down the barriers to true worship of God.  He has broken down the barriers of personal sin, offering the water of everlasting life, and he has broken down the barriers of communal sin-overcoming that sin in her life that has her coming to well at noon to avoid the shaming; offering true worship of God in spirit and truth-overcoming that which separates Jew and Samaritan.

            And this is where the disciples walk back in.  More next time.

Peace, Pastor Peter

From that Which Divided People; to That Which Unites Them: Our Lord Jesus Christ

April 8, 2021               John 4: 22-23

 ¹⁹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet.  ²⁰Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ²¹Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’ 

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

            Now we get a division of belief.  It seems judgmental on the surface, but is it really?  The Samaritans worship what they do not know.  Is that a call of ignorance on their part or is it because they are seeking to hold on to a religious intent that is not fully developed?  This speaks to a powerful idea.  There is a progress of revelation in the Scriptures.  The faith expressed to Abraham is progressed to that expressed to Moses is progressed to that expressed to the kingdoms timeframe is progressed to that expressed at the coming of Jesus.  I know, this is a lot of words arguing Jesus was not discounting the faith of the Samaritans, but knowing Jesus, knowing the progress of revelation, that when he says ‘salvation comes from the Jews’, it is not a statement of superiority, but rather a statement of the culmination of God’s Plan.

            Jesus emerges from the Jewish tradition, born in Bethlehem, the City of David, taken to Jerusalem on the eighth day to be dedicated to the Lord, living through and fulfilling the law and the prophecies throughout the Old Testament as the Coming Messiah.  And the progress of revelation is from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the Earth.

            Salvation comes from the Jews because that is the path of God’s Plan of revelation.  The point is not who comes first but what Jesus says next, we are united in Him.  The true will worship the Father is Spirit and Truth.  It is not about the mountain or the City or the temple, but it is about the true worshippers, wherever they may be. 

            It is not only the true worshippers who will be drawn together to worship the God in spirit and truth.  Time is also drawn tighter.  “The hour is coming, and is now here…”  The ‘hour’ is a metaphor for Jesus’ death and resurrection, for it is in the resurrection that the Plan of God is fulfilled with our salvation.  The Hour is a focused time, Jesus’ death and resurrection, but the Hour is also Jesus’ presence among us; his entire presence.  From the descent of the Holy Spirit to His resurrection, with the miracles, teachings, and all the moments in between, the whole ministry of Jesus is for the redemption of humanity.

            Spirit and truth, that vocabulary echoes the end of the previous chapter.  John concludes his sharing by certifying this testimony: That God is True (3:33).  Then, in the next verse, in extolling Jesus, he says Jesus has the Spirit without measure.  These are the ones whom God is seeking as God’s worshippers, those who know the truth, which is God.  And those who have the Spirit, born of the spirit, as Jesus discussed with Nicodemus.  This language transcends those who worship at Jerusalem, those who draw their water from Jacob’s well, those who are fixed to a point in time and space. 

            Jesus is foreshadowing (a compositional risk) the church that is to emerge when his hour is fulfilled.  It will not matter where a person comes from, but when they come to God through the Son as our Lord and Savior and Friend.

            More tomorrow,

Peace, Pastor Peter