Week Three A – Into Samaria
Monday 8th March This week, we are in Samaria, the middle region in between Galilee and Judea. Samaria is its Old Testament name – today it is known as the West Bank, and it’s full of Palestinian villages and towns.
The West Bank is less developed than the modern State of Israel. For pilgrims, it’s a bit closer to our expectations – shepherds in traditional dress, bazaars where you can buy figs and dates and spices, and lots of olive trees.
Pilgrims are often surprised by this part of the Holy Land. First of all, it’s under Palestinian control, claimed by Israel and recognised internationally as an ‘occupied territory’. The population is largely Arab-Palestinian. There are very controversial settlements here, in response to an active policy of building new Jewish settlements. You’ll see refugee camps from the highway into Nablus.
Relations today between Jews and Arabs are a bit like those between Jews and Samaritans in Jesus’ time. As pilgrims, we’ll notice lots of security, checkpoints, and Israeli officials might ask lots and lots of questions about our reasons for visiting.
Last week, we saw some places where Jesus went, where he was in contact with Gentiles. If that was shocking, it’s scandalous that he comes here!
And we all know the scandalous parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’:
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
Luke 10: 30-35
Sometimes, Christian pilgrims have ideas about the Palestinians that are challenged, in a similar way to the lawyer to whom Jesus first tells this parable.
The many churches around the Holy Land are attended mainly by Palestinians – they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. You might hear a call to prayer in Arabic or the words ‘Allah huw Akbar’ and not realise they’re coming, not from a mosque, but form an Anglican church! And some of these Christians will be opening up their churches, welcoming and showing us around, starting tomorrow with Jacob’s Well.
Many of these Arab Christians could do with our support and prayers. One organization that runs projects among them is Embrace Middle East – click here to take a look at some of the work they do.
Tuesday 9th March Today we are at Jacob’s Well, or the Well of Sychar, on the outskirts of Nablus/Shechem.
Like so many of the places we’ve imagined since Sunday School days, a big church has been built over the top of it – in this case, an Orthodox monastery.
This is where Jesus broke a journey to Jerusalem in John 4:
Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
John 4: 1-24
It’s a controversial conversation, and nobody is more surprised than the Samaritan woman: ‘You? Are asking me for a drink?’
Jesus should not really be talking to a woman in the first place (big no-no in the ancient world!), let alone a Samaritan one. But it’s noon – good girls aren’t hanging around wells at this time of day, if you understand me.
The location is tense, too. This is ‘Jacob’s Well’, and it’s a religious site that Jews would love to control but was smack bang in the middle of enemy territory.
That’s Jesus for you. He isn’t afraid of what people might say. Let tongues wag – Jesus has good news for Samaritans as well as Jews. In fact, it’s better accepted by notorious sinners – tax collectors, prostitutes – than by religiously respectable people.
Wednesday 10th March Join us tonight at 7.30pm for a short Lenten service at @CastlerockDunboe.
Join us again on Thursday this week – hope you have a strong stomach – we’ll be visiting the place where Samaritans still worship by offering sacrifices Old Testament style!
Greek this Week 