Article 2017-11 Gentile Encounters
Chapter 38: Gentile Encounters
Introduction
Jesus reached out to non-Jews occasionally. In order to do so He had to surprise and shock His disciples sometimes, but for Him no such thing as despised people groups exist. On the contrary, Jesus reaches out to those who are despised by others, by breaking down all barriers that hinder this process. During His outreaches He teaches His disciples certain principles by means of example. By leaving the worn paths of habit, Jesus extends God’s Kingdom. He shows how ideally, cross-cultural missions translate quickly into local evangelism.
Scripture reference
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve that you come under my roof …” (Matt. 8:8)
A Canaanite woman … came to him crying out, “Lord … have mercy on me! (Matt. 15:22)
They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes (Luke 8:26)
And he sent messengers … who went into a Samaritan village … (Luke 9:52)
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back … and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan (Luke 17:15,16)
Now there were some Greeks … with a request … “we would like to see Jesus” (John 12:20,21)
The story
Not only is the Lord of the Harvest desperate to find laborers for His vineyard, the world, He also longs to see representatives of all nations in His Kingdom. Although Jesus was sent by His Father primarily to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’, sometimes He met Gentiles too, whom He blessed one way or another. This was necessary, especially for His disciples, who had to learn that their mission would eventually go beyond the Jews to the Gentiles.
Jesus met a Roman Centurion whose faith He called an example for the Jews. Later He healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman. There were people from Tyre and Sidon in the crowds He preached to. We saw already that Jesus and His disciples ‘invaded’ the Gentile territory of the Gerasenes and cast a legion of demons out of a man there. Occasionally there were even encounters with Samaritans. Shortly before Jesus died there was a group of Greeks that wanted to meet Him. Now we will zoom in on one of the best documented and most spectacular examples of cross-cultural missions that Jesus left us.
It was hot. They had walked for hours, on their way from Judea to Galilee, but not via the usual road. The Jews normally did not travel via Samaria, situated between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north. They rather crossed the Jordan River, traveled through Perea and Decapolis, and then crossed the river again into the northern regions. Samaritans were not popular, on the contrary: it was a despised, mixed race, planted there by Assyrians and Babylonians during the exile. Worse even, was that their religion was mixed as well, half Jewish and half Gentile. No Jew could live with that, so they didn’t and if they could avoid it they didn’t even travel through Samaria. Some of Christ’s disciples had tried to remind Him of proper habits, but He had just smiled and explained that they would do many things differently on their trips. He had not come into the world to leave things unchanged, and He would start with the thinking of His disciples!
Upon approaching the village of Sychar, He sent His pupils into town to buy lunch; it was almost noon. He sat down to rest a while under a tree near Jacob’s well and some time later a woman came to the well, carrying a jar. Shyly she looked around, and ignored the sitting Jew. But then He started talking to her!
Scripture reference
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” … 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) (John 4:7,9)
The story, continued
‘Can I have a drink from you, please?’ It sounded kind. Surprised and a bit confused she said ‘But you are a Jew. I am a Samaritan. A woman even. Jews and Samaritans don’t talk. Don’t you know that?’ Like Jesus’ disciples she was well aware of the rules. Jesus ignored her rules as He had done with the disciples. Undisturbed He went on and approached the woman as any woman can be approached best: by making her curious. ‘If only you knew what God wants to give you, and Who it is that speaks to you, you would have asked Him for a drink of living water!’ She turned and put her jar down. He had her attention now. Surprised she answered ‘You don’t even have anything to draw water with, so, how will You bring that living water to the surface?’ With a slight mocking undertone she continued ‘Are you greater than our father Jacob who dug this well and used it for himself and his cattle?’ Jesus, ignoring her undertone, kept her in suspense a little longer. ‘With that water you’ll be thirsty again soon. With My water you’ll not only never thirst again, but even become a wellspring of it yourself.’ The woman chose pragmatically. ‘Sir, please give me that water, so that I don’t have to take this walk from town every day.’ The charm of curiosity was broken. Jesus decided to approach her from another angle now.
‘Why don’t you call your husband?’ He encouraged her. Oops. She blushed. Now what?! She could hardly tell Him that… ‘I don’t have a husband,’ she opted for what sounded as a reasonable and acceptable answer, not prepared for what He was going to say next. ‘The four you had after your husband can hardly be called by that title, not to mention your present number six. Indeed. You have none.’ It was dead-silent for a while. Who was this Man? How did He know? She was so confused that she didn’t know what to do, but she still wanted that special water. Now she changed the topic, embarrassed.
‘You’re a prophet, right?’ She smiled for the first time. If He knew about her marital circumstances, He might also be able to help her with her deeper questions, she thought. ‘Tell me, what is the right place to worship? You, Jews, say it’s Jerusalem. We believe it’s right here.’ Slowly Jesus got her where He wanted her. ‘Woman,’ He said, ‘a time will come soon that it doesn’t matter any more where you worship, as long as you worship in spirit and truth. But that is something of which you, Samaritans, understand nothing. After all, salvation comes from the Jews.’ The woman’s deep spiritual thirst was obvious now, and she decided to prolong her theological query a bit. She tackled a related topic. ‘What about the Messiah, Sir? Don’t You think that once He appears, He’ll be able to explain us all these complicated things?’ Slowly, and filled with an authority she had never heard anywhere before, He said ‘I, the One Who is speaking with you, am He.’ She stood, nailed to the ground, electrified. She looked at Him, and in her shock put the jar down again. Without another word she left the jar and started back to the village. If this really was the Messiah, the villagers had to know. This time they would listen. Now she really had something interesting to tell! Almost running she approached the city gate and went straight to the town square. ‘Now listen to this, people! There at Jacob’s well a man told me all I ever did…’
Scripture reference
Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” They came out of the town and made their way towards him (John 4:28,29)
The story, continued
When the disciples came back with food, they found that Jesus wasn’t hungry. He told them He’d had other food to eat. Had that woman given Him something? They had no clue, and didn’t want to ask. They got their answer anyway. ‘Look friends, see the fields!’ He pointed to the city, where there were no fields. ‘The fields are white for harvest. Crops can be gathered for eternal life!’ Before the disciples could engage in deep theological debate about what this might mean, they were distracted by a crowd, streaming out of the gates. They looked at Jesus in alarm. But He, seeing their fear, told them not to worry, because now Samaritans were about to meet their Messiah!
The Samaritans had believed the woman. After hearing Jesus they asked Him to stay, which He did for two days. By then almost all of them believed in Him, no longer because of the woman, but because they met Him themselves.
Comment
We must never forget that the ‘end vision’ of the missions era is that people from ‘all tribes, tongues, peoples and nations’ will be standing before the throne of God. At the beginning of the world missions period Jesus said that His disciples had to evangelize in ‘Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth’. He started in Jerusalem and Judea Himself and sent His disciples there too, on short-term outreaches. Yet He made clear to them that their commission entailed more than outreach to people of their own language and culture. He surprised them by some meetings with Gentiles and shocked them by even going to those despised Samaritans.
What happened during Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman? Firstly He overcame the cultural barrier (Samaritan/Jew) and the gender barrier (man/woman). Then He created an opening by arousing her curiosity. The next barrier Jesus tackled was the social dilemma of the woman when He told her ‘go, call your husband’. The woman then erected the next barrier, a religious one. Jesus crossed that one too, not by respecting her religious feelings but by plainly stating that ‘we Jews are right and you Samaritans are wrong because salvation comes from the Jews’.
Yet, He speaks about a time soon, where both worship forms, Jewish and Samaritan, will be done away with and a new form introduced. Summing it up, Jesus opened the conversation, crossed the barriers of culture and gender, social status and religion, and finally revealed His identity after He noticed true openness.
An interesting interlude then develops. The woman, with new boldness, returns to town on her first evangelistic outreach, leading her townspeople to Christ. When the disciples came back they were surprised that Jesus was violating the old and accepted cultural barriers, and astonished that He did not want to eat. They did not even dare to ask the ‘what and why’ questions. They had not yet learned to think in terms of missions and evangelistic outreach to lost souls. Therefore Jesus taught them lessons about ripe harvests, sowers and reapers, a reality that became visible at once. This paragraph shows how Jesus’ cross-cultural missions quickly changed into mono-cultural evangelism: the woman now evangelized her own community. Also, the villagers built their faith on Jesus directly, and not on Him via the evangelist.
The Samaritans, whose spiritual hunger was evident, urged Him to stay – which He did for two days, resulting in a greater spiritual harvest. These people understood that He was the Savior of the world and wanted Him, in contrast to the Gerasene pig-owners who had asked Him to leave and so probably never got to know Him as their personal Savior.
Discussion & dialogue
- Discuss the people group you are least inclined to evangelize (why?) and pray for it
- Discuss what acceptable ways there are to break down barriers of culture, gender, social and religious nature, like Jesus did, in the people group you try to reach with the gospel
- Which 6 of the 10 themes feature in this story and how? (Answer: see Teacher’s Guide)
