The Samaritan Revelation

The Gospel of John has a familiar account of Jesus’ dealings with a woman who lived in a town in Samaria. I’m sure I have heard scores of sermons and read numerous commentaries on this passage. There are many worthwhile lessons to be drawn from the situation; usually they focus on the fact that Jesus’ love and acceptance reached even to women (not common in His day) and more astounding, to a Samaritan.

Most of the sermons and commentaries reveal the reason for the Jews’ disdain for Samaritans. One must go back seven centuries before Christ to begin to understand. After Saul then David then Solomon ruled over the kingdom of Israel, it was split by a disagreement between Solomon’s sons over who should take their father’s throne. Ten tribes situated in the northern part of the kingdom chose to follow one son, and the other two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, followed another. This split became Israel in the north and Judah in the south bringing two centuries of troubled relations.

In 722 B.C. the Assyrians overwhelmed Israel and, as was their practice, took most of the population captive and spread them throughout their empire in hopes that they would lose their cultural identity and will to survive as a nation. The Assyrian tactic was successful, and from that time on the ten tribes of Israel were considered “lost.” The few Jews who remained in what had been Israel were forced to live with people of other countries whom the Assyrians deported there per their usual practice with conquered people. The culture that had evolved by Jesus’ time had some Jewish elements, but it was so corrupted by foreign influences that no self-respecting Jew from Judea (the former Judah) could accept a Samaritan on equal terms. So we are told.

 Here is where I had my eyes opened when I read John 4 in my devotional reading recently. I noticed first that the Samaritan woman considered herself to be a descendant of Jacob, hence “Jewish” in some sense. She asked Jesus, “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?” Later she explains that, “our fathers worshipped on this mountain,” linking herself to the historical tradition of her people. The Samaritans did use a version of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Jewish scriptures, and they considered Yahweh to be their God. What surprised me most was the expectation she revealed when she said, “I know that Messiah is coming.” I had never noticed that the Samaritans were expecting Messiah. The depth of their belief is displayed when the townsfolk invite Jesus to stay for a few days and eventually say, “we know that this one is truly the Savior of the world!”

The irony struck me that not long before this incident, Jesus had been escorted out of His hometown to the brow of a cliff where His neighbors intended to throw Him over the edge. The same irony appears in Jesus’ parable of the “Good Samaritan.” There are hints of Jesus’ inclusiveness elsewhere in the Gospels: the Canaanite woman, the Gadarene demoniac, the Roman officer’s servant. None of these persons was acceptable to a “good” Jew. The bigotry of the self-righteous Jews was being spotlighted by the Messiah for all to see. No wonder the religious leaders in Jerusalem wanted to kill Him.

My application of this may be alarming to some. I am going beyond the obvious lesson that Baptists should stop “hating” Catholics or that charismatics should stop belittling anyone who can’t speak in tongues. I scandalously suggested in my book, Lead a Horse to Water, that Christians might want to think of Mormons and Muslims as believers who need to be further educated. I am not implying that they have saving faith, only that they have misguided beliefs much like the Samaritans in Jesus’ day.

In the teaching at my church lately we have been encouraged to make every effort to see things as God sees them. Looking at things through Heaven’s eyes is the only way to see clearly. It occurs to me that in chapter four of his Gospel, John was putting flesh on the concept he had expressed so memorably in 3:16 that, “God so loved the world that He gave…” “The world” Jesus loved included the hated Samaritans. He loved them. That’s how God saw them: loved ones. Who is there in your world that you should love like Jesus loved? Who is your “Samaritan woman?”

The Battle is NOT Political

I have been chided recently for bringing “political” issues into a faith-based arena. I have argued that my concerns are philosophical rather than political, although even I see the weakness of that line of reasoning. All political ideas are founded on one philosophy or another, so in reality, politics is a branch of philosophy. Indeed, all human thought and behavior is grounded in some particular way of seeing the world – a world-view – which is what philosophy means in this context.

Because all human activity is based in a philosophy, even our faith-based notions come from a foundation that depends upon philosophical attachment. A world-view, a philosophy that accepts the existence of a divine being will order the universe in accordance with its placement of the divine being. In a biblical world-view, the divine being is revealed as the Supreme Being, so all human activity in thought or deed must be judged by the Supreme, Yahweh God. Christian thinkers during the Enlightenment called theology “the queen of the sciences.” This nicely expresses the necessity that the study of God and the understanding of His ways must reign over all other human activities.

At this moment in history, our culture is being attacked on two fronts: the COVID 19 pandemic and the supposed battle for equal justice represented by groups like Black Lives Matter. (For more on the truth about BLM see "Why I Won't Support Black Lives Matter") On each front, people from both the right and the left (politically) are being accused of “politicizing” the struggle. As I have just demonstrated, everything humans do is based on a philosophical framework, politics no less than anything else. Politicizing an issue is like “making” the Pope Catholic. If by “politicizing” one means bringing the pandemic or the racial struggle into the realm of government, the term may have some meaning. However, the human government’s activities are no less tied to a philosophical base than anything else.

For this reason, a biblical thinker must view the government’s actions through the lens of Scripture, the revelation of God. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 13 that the institution of government is ordained by God. This does not mean that God necessarily approves of any given regime, rather He institutes order to reign in chaos. In the case of the struggle for equal justice (so-called), many of the participants are calling for the removal of government restraint or in essence, anarchy. This is contrary to the principle explained in Romans 13.

 On the other hand, government actions related to the pandemic are thought by some to be an overreach into matters that ought to be private. However, this too comes under the heading of the Romans 13 concept of reigning in chaos as it is within the government’s authority to protect the greater good even if it means restricting the freedom of the individual. Stopping the spread of COVID 19 must be a community effort, and if even a few members of the community ignore protective measures, the whole community may be harmed. I must admit though, forbidding church gathering does seem like a violation of the First Amendment and the idea that government does not have the right to tell us not to do what God commands.

My point here is to apply biblical thinking to these practical matters. This is essential if one is to maintain a biblical world-view. But there is a deeper issue that underlies every situation one may encounter. Paul instructs believers that the battle we face is not ultimately fought in the physical/practical realm. As he put it, “our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against… the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” As believers we seek to bring about the prayer Jesus taught us that, “[God’s] will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our enemy will always be attempting to thwart that effort whether it is by physical disease or political disruption. But the battle is not political; it is always spiritual in the final analysis.

Why I Won't Support Black Lives Matter

I recently saw a "Friend's" post on Facebook that was supportive of Black Lives Matter (BLM). The article he linked from The Bold Italic is thinly veiled communist rhetoric. I suspect many people don't know the truth about BLM.  The fact that many people would deny the truth is at the root of the problem. Truth no longer matters; some people believe if I am aggrieved, I am justified in making up my own truth. Here is an article that contradicts that idea: “Don’t be Afraid to Think for Yourself.”

Here’s the truth about BLM. The Communist Party USA reprinted a BLM pamphlet on their website. The BLM author, Jarvis Tyner, is executive vice chair of the Communist Party USA and a long-time member of the communist party's national board. In the pamphlet Jarvis writes, “With capitalism came modern American slavery and the government policy of racist oppression and brutality.” The language throughout the pamphlet is communist propaganda, linking the cause of BLM with communist ideology. For more details on BLM's background, read this: https://capitalresearch.org/article/blm-roots/.

Some people argue that we should ignore the philosophical underpinnings of an organization as long as some portion of their agenda matches ours. We can all agree that we should take every legal means to rid our police of individuals who habitually use force inappropriately. What is not reasonable is the call to abolish the police altogether because of a few bad actors. That is the anarchist mantra on parade. If you doubt that fact, read this article: “Antifa… Exploit Protests…”

I don't believe we need BLM or ANTIFA to lead us. I reject the assumption that BLM has a solution to the problems we face; communism is not the answer. By now, we should all be aware how poorly the communists do with human rights issues. Even though our hearts go out to the victims and families of those harmed by violent acts, we must not let our emotions drag us into solidarity with people whose aims are antithetical to biblical principles.

One might ask if we cannot align with an organization with which we disagree on their terms if they are doing something good. To engage in discussion on someone else's terms is to ignore the false premise on which the other’s structure rests. I will not enter into the false narrative being perpetrated by BLM that all police are evil. I will counter the lies on which it is based. I think it is enough that we simply live in accord with biblical principles, and by doing so we will solve any issue we face in society today one person at a time. Let’s march under this banner: Jesus Proves All Lives Matter: He Died For All.

Worship His Majesty

Majesty is one of those words we hear somewhat frequently in church circles, but we seldom use it in everyday speech in America. I’m not sure we have a real sense of what it means.  If we lived under a monarchy, we might have a glimpse of what majesty looks like in an earthly ruler, but even then, I suspect the root meaning might be tainted by our prejudice or simple familiarity. If you didn’t happen to care for His Majesty, Prince Harry, for example, your sense of the title would be colored.

I encountered the word in a devotional reading recently, and I realized I didn’t have a clear idea of what it meant. So, I did what English teachers do: I looked up the etymology of majesty. I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn it was from the Latin root “major.” It was the synonyms for major that really got my wheels turning: important, serious, or significant. Significant is from “sign”; this made me ask if there is a sign of God in my life when I declare His majesty. I had to ask myself how important or serious God is in my everyday life.

Next I decided to see what word in the Greek New Testament was translated as majesty. It is megas (μέγας) or a derivative. Not too many years ago the word “mega” was quite common in popular speech as a synonym for awesome or excellent (eg. Bill and Ted’s adventure) or rad (as in radical). When Jude offers, “glory, majesty, power, and authority” to God (v.25), he piles up words that have their ultimate mega-fulfillment in God alone. God deserves all the glory (excellence, preeminence, dignity: δόξα) because He has the power (strength: κράτος) to accomplish His will, and He has the authority (legal right: ἐξουσία) to do as He pleases.

I cannot truly “worship His majesty” as the beautiful old chorus directs unless I submit to that majesty in my everyday life. If I submit, there will be evidence because as someone has said, you only truly believe that which appears in your behavior. Or as Jesus said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Or James’ proclamation as J.B. Phillips renders it: “bare faith [belief] without a corresponding life is… useless and dead.” (James 2:17)

I fear there are too many useless Christians parading around today. Here is one example to test the usefulness of your faith: are you wearing a face mask in public places? Seriously. In his article on The Gospel Coalition, Brett McCracken gives four biblical reasons to wear a mask. The two most significant are that it shows love to our neighbor (the Greatest Commandment) and it shows respect for authority. McCracken also list the concepts of respect for weaker brothers and using our freedom for the sake of the Gospel.

There are so many other ways that you can reveal God’s majesty, His significance in your life: pay your taxes, drive the speed limit, give a “significant” portion of our money to the cause of Christ, refuse to gossip, discover your spiritual gift and use it. There are more, but I have already quit preachin’ and gone to meddlin’, as someone has said. That’s the point. Our faith should “meddle” with our behavior. You are the only Jesus some people will ever see. How will you show His majesty?

Grace Realized

Most Christians know that grace is defined as undeserved favor. It means you get something you don’t deserve; you get something for nothing, essentially. It’s not “for nothing” if you consider what Jesus Christ had to suffer to purchase your grace, but there is nothing more you have to do. While I say most Christians know this intellectually, many still feel unworthy to receive it. That is the point: no one is “worthy,” or it wouldn’t be “grace.”

It often takes a physical demonstration to bring the truth of what grace means home to the recipient. I have such an experience to recount. My wife and I were comfortably retired, travelling the country in a large fifth-wheel RV. (See "Mounting Everest") We enjoyed being where it doesn’t snow in the winter and being back in beautiful Michigan for the summer. The fly in our ointment came as we discovered that our commitment to ministry in Michigan was being diluted by our being gone for six months every winter.

We believed that God was calling us to resettle in Michigan – to come off the road as it were. We had thought to retire in Montague, Michigan where we had been spending our summers in the RV. However, the ministry and church we were involved with is in Muskegon, twenty miles down the road. It happened that we were making that forty-mile round trip just about every day, sometimes in two vehicles. The gas costs were enormous.

Enter our pastor/realtor, Nick. We asked if there were any houses for sale in the neighborhood of the church. Our “dream house” would have to have four bedrooms because we wanted to establish a sober living home for women in transition from incarceration or drug addiction. Nick suggested that the house across from the church might be coming on the market, and he would ask the Lutheran church that owned it if they were interested in an offer.

After several months of investigation and negotiation, we were able to buy the house at a steep discount to the appraised value. We discovered that it not only had the necessary bedroom, but it also had a fireplace, basement workshop, three-stall garage and other hidden goodies we were ecstatic about.  Because we had not owned a house for almost five years, we were able to obtain a “first-time buyer” package that required virtually no money down. That suited us perfectly since we had minimal savings. Grace realized #1.

Having spent five years out of any house, we had divested ourselves of most of the accoutrements of a home. Another one of our pastors, Bill, does drywall part-time and he helped us repair some water damage that had occurred several years ago. The causes of the leaks were fixed, but the damage had been left unrepaired. Through generous friends’ donations of appliances and furniture and the low cost of buying at second-hand stores, we were able to furnish a 2,500 square foot house for $220. Grace realized #2-3.

The house had been built as a top-class home in 1948. Time had taken its toll, but the bones were solid. We made necessary upgrades, including installing a shower and mini kitchen in the area where our guests would live. The largest expense was replacing the original 1948 windows that had deteriorated beyond repair. This was accomplished with a no-money-down, no-interest, no payment for twelve months loan arrangement. Much of the remaining cost went onto no-interest credit cards. Grace realized #4.

Fast forward fourteen months and we were in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic of 2020. We had chosen to refinance the house and get some cash out of equity to pay for the windows before the interest was added to the loan. With the restrictions of the C-19 situation, the re-fi dragged on relentlessly toward the due date for the loan payment. A call to the company holding the window loan garnered a three-month extension of the no-interest period. Grace realized #5.

We closed a few days after the initial period of no interest but in plenty of time to save the thousands of dollars the accrued interest would have added. With the extra cash from the re-fi and the CARE benefits we were entitled to because of COVID 19, we were able to pay off almost all of the credit card debt accumulated in our remodeling, some overdue income taxes, and a subsequent surgery on my shoulder. Grace realized #6.

I saved the best for last. The required appraisal of the house for the re-fi revealed another move of the hand of God. During the fifteen months we had owned the house, the real estate market had changed drastically. The supply of houses for sale was far below the demand of buyers, so prices had risen dramatically. With the market change and our improvements to the house, the appraisal came in over 30% higher than our initial appraisal only months earlier. We effectively gained many thousands of equity dollars just for enjoying the blessing of God in the house He provided. Amazing grace #7 realized.

God has allowed us to bless others with the blessing He gave us through this sequence of events. I know He will continue to do so as long as we remain open to His leading. When the time comes to move on, the sale of the house will allow us to be completely debt-free with a substantial savings account to boot, a condition we could never have imagined less than two years ago.

I recount all this in the hope that someone will see, in our blessing, the potential of their own blessing. Or that someone will look back on their life and see the grace of God where they had not realized it before. I don’t see my wife and I as special, in some way “deserving” the blessing we have received, but there is one lesson to be learned. We would never have been a party to God’s good grace had we not submitted to His will for us.

We were not “ready” to stop travelling and buy a house when He called us to do so. We were enjoying retirement in every way, but we heard the voice of God asking us to set aside our pleasure for the sake of helping others. We did it, and here we stand, still missing the joys and freedom of the open road, but happy to be blessed ourselves in the act of blessing others. Long ago I learned a phrase I have used as a sign-off many times:

Blessed to be a blessing,

Clair

Living the Examined Life

Back in 2013 I posted a blog called "High Resolution Living." The purpose was to encourage careful observation of our surroundings so that we would take advantage of opportunities to make a positive impression. In other words, how to live like a believer. I still stand firmly on the major premise, but as I had occasion to re-read what I wrote today, I found myself choking on my own words.

This would not be the first time I have found it necessary to eat my words. I am prone to letting my mouth run with my brain disengaged. The problem comes when I make a unilateral statement in writing and then publish it for all to see. Back in 2013 I said, " Real men don't make resolutions; they don't eat quiche, and they don't carry 'man bags.'”

I now own what would certainly qualify as a “man bag.” I was teaching in the prison and I wanted a small, simple canvas bag to carry the few things I am allowed to take in. So, for Christmas I received the present you see pictured here: an ammo bag, thank you. (Not the appropriate name for something carried into prison by visitors.) I know; it’s a man’s purse. But it’s practical; it does exactly what I need done under the circumstances. It has few pockets so the guards can search it easily, and it is big enough to carry what I want to take in. Strike one.

It gets worse. A couple years ago my wife and I received a selfie stick. (That's one of those telescoping rods that allows you to get a self-portrait from a longer distance, for those who don't know.) My youngest expressed shock that we owned such a thing.  In 2013 I could have easily said real men don’t use selfie sticks; they wouldn’t even do selfies. My Facebook photos now abound with selfies. Strike two.

And worse yet, in 2018, I realized that it was not really “Christian” to say I hate cats. (Read For the Love of Cats.) Although I had made my serious dislike of cats known to anyone who cared to listen, I came to the conclusion that God loves all His creatures, and if I am supposed to be transformed into the image of Jesus, I would have to do the same. It didn’t seem Christ-like to hate cats – or any of the creation He made for that matter. Strike three; Ouch!

What is this all about? The Spurgeon devotional I am reading had a piece on Ecclesiastes 10:7 which Spurgeon crafted into the admonishment to “reign in Christ Jesus over the triple kingdom of spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of God the Father.” This reminded me of the frequently quoted statement by Socrates who said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” I will grant you that the sage was condemned to death soon after making that pronouncement, but it remains true, nonetheless.

I think I am pretty smart—most people who know me well think I am too smart for my own good – but I know that there is much I don’t know. This deficiency has nearly caught up with me in my old age making me question many of the things I have asserted as truth for much of my life. Hence the examination which makes life worth living, thank you Mr. Socrates. It is worthwhile, but it is not without pain and potential embarrassment.

For Christians this is especially important. Just think of the many things that Christians have historically believed to be true only to ultimately be proven wrong. The early disciples believed Jesus would return in their lifetime. The Roman church of the middle ages persecuted and martyred believers who asserted facts that contradicted the church’s interpretation of Scripture. (Galileo, Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler) The Crusaders believed they were doing God’s will to murder innocent unbelievers. Doctrinal misunderstanding abound: read “The Lies We’ve Been Told” and “Canaan Cannot Be Heaven” and “Many Called; Few Chosen” for examples.

For this reason, I believe it is important to keep the main thing the main thing, as someone once said. Jesus counselled us to seek first the kingdom and wait for all else to come our way. The kingdom to which He referred is a kingdom of the heart. Kingdom implies rulership; rulership in the kingdom of Heaven reigns in the heart. This brings me back to Spurgeon’s counsel; we must learn how to “reign in Christ Jesus over the triple kingdom of spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of God the Father.” A life examined in this way is ultimately the only life worth living. And for the record, I love quiche.

Canaan Cannot be Heaven

We are justified according to Charles Spurgeon in a devotional I read this morning. “The believer in Christ receives a present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit by-and-by, but now. So far as justification is the result of faith, it is given to the soul in the moment when it closes with Christ and accepts him as its all in all.” Spurgeon continues to explain using Scripture to make his point. There is NOW no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ, and we are accepted in the Beloved and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.

As usual, Spurgeon is spot on with his devotional theology. He corrects the common misunderstanding that Christians must work for their acceptance by God. However, in the middle of this encouraging piece, he uses a metaphor regarding the land of Canaan that is improperly applied. Spurgeon refers to entering Canaan as if it were a metaphor for going to Heaven. This idea became quite popular in the nineteenth century as evidenced by the number of sermons and hymns that use the analogy. The sequence those ideas followed was that Egypt was bondage to sin; the wilderness was our time on earth; Canaan was our entrance into Heaven.

I pray this is not true mostly because of what happened to the Israelites when they entered Canaan: they fought tremendous battles with enemies bent on their destruction. The Heaven I look forward to will be absent all enemies, because they will have been defeated and assigned to Hell at the final judgment. The other distressing aspect of Canaan as Heaven is that the Israelites lost the land through disobedience. Once gained, Heaven can never be lost; it is our eternal home in a manner of speaking. By contrast, on earth we do have enemies to fight and a “land” to maintain.  (For a good sermon on the Canaan issue see J. Vernon McGee “Have You Crossed Over Jordan.”)

I don’t believe the childish view that Christians leave this earth to spend eternity strumming harps and floating on clouds. Many people are repulsed by such a thought, as they should be. This idea minimizes the glory that will be ours when we meet our Savior and our Father. Nor do I expect to see a giant floating cube as the new Jerusalem. The writer of Hebrews says people in his day had already come to the new Jerusalem, so I believe it exists in some form yet today. People who mistakenly look for literal fulfillments of symbolic images often fall prey to error.

It gets tricky trying to understand the imagery and symbolism of the Bible’s apocalyptic literature. (See Understanding the Bible as Literature.) The waters are especially dangerous when challenging another person’s eschatology. It is my belief that the popular premillennial – dispensational (P-D) view of the end times rides on the same wave of misunderstanding that encouraged the Canaan-as-heaven mix-up. They both became popular in the nineteenth century alongside the British version of Christian Zionism that motivated John Nelson Darby’s “discovery” of the P-D interpretation of end times events. C.I. Scofield borrowed Darby’s ideas and they took off in America soon after.

I have no doubt that some of my readers are seriously offended at my position against P-D eschatology. If that includes you, please accept my apology; I don’t want to offend unless offense is necessary to make my point. The point is that we often cling to an idea drawn from a biblical interpretation that is not based on solid biblical theology. We need clear heads and pure hearts when approaching differences of interpretation that do not affect the ultimate message of the Scripture: Christ came with God’s call to bring His people back into His fold.

Answers may differ when asking what Canaan stands for or if the millennium is literal or figurative. Answers must not differ when asking why Christ came or what we are supposed to do about Him. I will quote Spurgeon’s closing remark from the devotional I mentioned at the top: “Let present privilege awaken us to present duty, and now, while life lasts, let us spend and be spent for our sweet Lord Jesus.” We are privileged to be children of our Heavenly Father. May we stop acting like children when debating disputable interpretations.