Good News for a New World

John 4:1-41

            Shortly after Jesus began his public ministry, he began to attract the attention of some of the most influential persons in Judean culture.  Before long a coalition of executives, religious leaders, and politicians began giving their time to help promote the work of Jesus through “The Jesus of Nazareth Evangelistic Association.”    These individuals provided Jesus with the best available advice concerning strategy and methods that would have the widest possible effect. 

 More and more Jesus depended upon them to help his growing work be efficient and successful.   This group advised Jesus to avoid the stereotypical image of a religious leader by attending weddings and banquets.

Then, one day Jesus came to his advisors and told them he was thinking of a new venue for his work.  He asked them to discuss it and get back to him with their opinion.  The advisors agreed to think about the suggestion and report their recommendations to Jesus as soon as possible.

After considerable discussion one of the businessmen said, “You know, one of the things I love about Jesus is his enthusiasm.  But I say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  I honestly think he should stick to what he knows, nothing succeeds like success, after all.  No one’s ever done what he’s proposing before and with good reason.  We need to tell him what every good salesman knows that you’ve ‘gotta know the territory’ and he doesn’t know that territory.”

Nodding in agreement, a politician added, “On top of that I doubt Jesus has assessed the impact this would have on his base.  Most of these people would take exception to a project like this.  Some might be offended enough to withdraw their support.   We need to tell him this would be an unsound move—however noble his motive might be.”

“Noble motives have their place,” a religious leader commented, “but those motives have to be weighed against the possibility of success.  The crowds who come to hear him now have a background that makes them open to what he says—that’s not true of some people.  The demographics are against him.  We need to tell him, kindly to be sure, that he should have a more refined focus for his ministry.”

And so, following the advice of his board of directors, Jesus decided against entering Samaria.

I certainly hope you know this scenario never took place.

John says Jesus “had” to go through Samaria.  Technically, there was more than one way to go from Judah to Galilee but those routes were longer.  Now, it’s frequently been suggested that most Jews would have gladly taken the longer trip to avoid going through a region which they considered to be unclean, as bad as any Gentile nation.  That’s probably not true.  What is true is that most Jews had a low opinion of Samaritans.  That Jesus saw Samaria as a place of opportunity where he could invite people into the Kingdom of God would have amused and probably outraged the average Jew.

And that ill-will had been around for a long time.  Of course, rejection begets rejection.   So if few Jews had anything good to say about Samaritans, Samaritans had little good to say about the Jews. 

Had anyone asked the first band of Jesus’ disciples, they would have said there were no Samaritans on their list of “prospects”.

No one would have expected much success in attempting to take the “good news” into this new world. 

Still, Jesus saw Samaria as a place of opportunity.

You know the story. 

Jesus began by reaching a woman and most Jewish males believed women weren’t very astute, religiously.  Throughout his career Jesus trampled all over that notion. 

Then, too, this woman had such questionable morals.  I won’t go into the details but trust me this woman was no saint. So, again, there wasn’t much hope for reaching her with a spiritual message.

Of course, Jesus did reach her and she did become, well, a saint.

Of course, one convert may be something of an anomaly.  Maybe like a Republican in the Kennedy clan.  Reaching many others would be out of the question.

Guess what?  The woman heads back to town and somehow convinces the townsfolk to follow her out to meet Jesus.  To make a long story short, John tells us that “many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus becaquse of the woman’s testimony.”  In fact, they will proclaim him as “the Savior of the world.”

I confess I’ve never noticed the juxtaposition before but this story comes just after the chapter with one of the best known verses in the entire Bible.  It’s a verse most Sunday school children can quote:  “For God so loved the world....”  John makes that statement and then off Jesus goes to Samaria.

Now, Samaria was not a world Jesus’ disciples were inclined to love.  There’s a good chance they didn’t want to go into that world.

But Jesus didn’t say “Go into all the worlds where you feel at home and comfortable.” He just said, “Go into all the world.”

As I look through Christian magazines and books or listen to Christian broadcasts or even the conversations of a lot of Christians, a recurrent theme seems to be “We don’t like this world.” 

As a consequence we either withdraw from any contact with the world or we insist on going into the world as if it were another world.

Well, we don’t live in the world of fifty or a hundred years ago.  We live in a new world.  You don’t need me to tell you have rapidly things are changing.  Some of you have cars that will tell you when you’re about to run out of gas, tell you rather insistently sometimes.  Chances are most of you don’t have a map in your car. you have a GPS.  Of course, that GPS could be on your phone because who has a phone that only lets you talk to someone.  Leonard Sweet points out that in the realm of communication this is a TGIF culture: Tweet, Google, i-Phone, and Facebook. 

It’s a world that thinks differently about you and me.  I may love church history, especially the men and women who helped to make society better.  Yet, if I should tell some people that Evangelical Christians were at the forefront of the fight against slavery, they won’t believe me.  Christians are racist bigots.  Dangerous, in fact.

And answer this:  When was the last time you saw a sane Christian on TV?  If you do see a Christian on a TV show or in a movie, that man or woman is mentally or emotionally unstable at the best or a rank hypocrite or vicious psychotic at worst.

Most inhabitants of this modern world have never heard it was the Biblical notion of a Creator who infused the universe with observable order and discoverable laws that gave birth to science.  Instead, we’re simply told that the Bible and Christianity are “unscientific.”

I could go on but all of this reminds us that we live in a world where many Christians prefer not to be.  They find themselves in Samaria but can’t get Galilee off their minds.  So, they long for the world of a bygone era and become susceptible to any politician or movement promising bring back that old world. 

We have to accept the world we are in.  What worked fifty years ago probably won’t work today.  A few years ago, just before we left Texas, the convention promoted what they called “simultaneous revivals.” The idea was that all these Southern Baptists churches having revivals at the same time would attract crowds.  It didn’t have a particularly great impact.  I think the problem was that our leadership made the assumption that the “world” actually cared what Southern Baptist churches were doing. 

To some degree, I’d like to return to the old world.  But I know we can’t.  Let me give you an example.  When I was younger we used the “Four Spiritual Laws” to share the gospel.  The method was effective and still has its uses today, but things have changed.   Remember that first law?  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  Quote that first law to a stranger today and you might hear the response, “I know it’s here in the Quran.” 

Even those who aren’t from a different culture are hard to reach today.  Philosophers and sociologists might be able to explain why things are different but keep in mind that our words don’t seem to have the impact they once had.  Then, too, fair of not, most people who learn you are a Christian probably expect you to be a bigot, to be ignorant, to be uncaring, to be judgmental.  It’s not fair but it’s the world we live in.

If you, recall the woman at the well in John 4 seems to have expected one kind of treatment from Jesus but was surprised to receive another.  She was surprised by his respect. 

I think that’s a clue for our world.  It's one thing to "love the lost" as a concept; it's another to respect them as individuals. 

When George Barna surveyed a number of Christians, he discovered that the majority had become Christians through the personal witness of a parent, a relative, or a friend.  A much smaller percentage trusted Christ after attending an “event” at the church or because of the pastor’s preaching. No matter the age-level, the great majority of those who have trusted Christ, have done so because of the influence of an individual.

 

Another survey of new church members showed that fewer than 2% percent just showed up one Sunday morning, fewer than 5% came because of a special program; almost 80% came because of a personal invitation.

 

Jesus understood the power of the personal touch and the personal touch has not lost its power.  Keep that in mind as you assess your call to this world.