By Joseph Ostrander
So, what about the noble idea of our ‘neighbor’ being like the woman-at-the-well Mike talked about today in his message?
Who, exactly, is our neighbor?
Do they need to be the ‘Samaritan’ equivalent of the 2 references recently mentioned the past 2 Sundays in The Parable of the Good Samaritan and The Woman at the Well?
I don’t know about you, but I was mildly surprised at the curious explanation provided in the 4th chapter of John’s gospel that adds this little detail after Jesus decided to return to Galilee: “Now He had to go through Samaria.”
Hmmm…
He decided to take the straight route…
Right through the despised Samaritan region filled with the religiously corrupt northern tribes that were considered worse than those pagan Romans occupying the territory known as Palestine…
And I have to admire the disciples that accompanied Jesus. Whatever thoughts they had about such unseemly travel plans, they did not raise any recorded hesitation regarding the established itinerary…
We cannot fully appreciate the depth of hatred the Jews of that day felt toward Samaritans. To be Jewish meant to be separate from all other people groups and any form of religious syncretism. And the fact that such a group of people dwelt right in the midst of the land of Israel was considered the ultimate disgrace. To the culturally ‘pure’ Jewish people, Samaritans were viewed as dirty, corrupt, and polluted from their intermingling of pagan cultures and foreign religious practices. And those brazen half-breed Samaritans also claimed to be true worshipers of Yahweh, and they too traced their lineage back to Father Abraham!
We can understand why there would be intense suspicion between the two groups living in such close proximity to one another. There were probably ugly stories being circulated that stereotyped both groups. Demeaning and gross generalizations. Exaggerated stories of inappropriate behaviors and crazy religious practices. And since there existed such a distinct form of economic, social and religious apartheid, very few Jews and Samaritans had any significant contact with the other to even begin to dispel the mildest of bigoted myths…
And Who is it that simply takes the short-cut through such a tension filled area?
Yeah. That counter-cultural Jesus fella…
In this one instance of interacting with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus respectfully and graciously confronts the 4 major social taboos of His day; 1) sexism; 2) cultural/ethnic racism; 3) religious prejudice; and 4) moral elitism. BIFF! BANG! BAM! BOOM!
These same 4 areas plague the North American Church in varying degrees today just as much as society as a whole. These same 4 areas are sufficient in their own right to warrant individual messages that address just what it means to being neighborly to those that are different from us (shout out to Mister Rogers and State Farm Insurance)…
True Confession Time: I can be for the most part, friendly; however, there is a greater expectation to being neighborly…
And I know all too well the major obstacle preventing me from being more neighborly: it’s simply fear.
Yeah. That pesky fear factor. Fear of the unknown mostly. Fear of awkward introductions. Fear of the investment in time and attention it takes to be a good neighbor. Fear of real differences people from other backgrounds represent and the elements of their lifestyles that I am not comfortable with. Yeah, real, visceral, panic inducing fear…
{sigh}
Although Christians may acknowledge that perfect love casts out all types of fear (1John 4:18), fear is the greatest obstacle for being the kingdom standard of neighborly.
Personal Anecdote: I do not often stop for people hitchhiking, or those unfortunate drivers stranded on the roadside. But many years ago on this one occasion, there was this clunker of a car on the side of the road on an off-ramp I had just taken. If I remember correctly, it was at the start of this long off-ramp. It was obviously stalled or broken down. Up ahead not too far from the inoperative vehicle was a woman and child walking up the off-ramp. Although I felt compassion and slowed down to help, I hesitated stopping because this woman was a person of color…
I was conflicted. I wanted to stop and at least offer these 2 a ride to a service station, or the use of my cell phone, but I also feared my gesture would be seen more as threatening than helpful. It wasn’t the fact that the woman and child were not ethnically ‘white’, but I actually didn’t want to scare her and the child because I was the stranger of different ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status that would have stopped…
Ouch.
Lord, have mercy…
What a crazy, messed-up world of conflicting elements even those that proclaim Jesus as their Lord must wrestle with, and navigate across, as disciples passing through the Samaria’s of our day-to-day neighborhoods…
Think about it…
Amen.