Samaria of heaven [Lent 5; St. John 8:46-59]

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Jesus speaks to you today, saying:

“Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

In John 4:4, Jesus says that He must go through Samaraia and since we have encountered Samraia in one form or another throughout the gospels, it would be beneficial to know just what Samaria is. For we have Jesus commending the Good Samatian, but we have the Jews condemning the Samaritans as demons, in the gospel today.

The word “Samaria” comes from the Hebrew “shamar” which means to guard or watch. Thus, a Samaritan is a guardian or a watcher. It was this name that the owner of the mountain gave to it, in northern Israel. 1 Kings 16:24 tells how Omri, king of the northern part of the kingdom of Isreal, “…bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.” Which means “patiently standing through the night watch”.

At this time, the people here were not Samaritans, but Israelites. Israelites that had broken from Jerusalem and her kings. Israelites descended from Abraham and inheritors of the promise of the Messiah. In other words, brothers and sisters of the Jews.

However, no righteous king ever held the office in Israel, and Judah in the south fared little better with her kings. This leads to a worship of false gods. Though there was a temple in Samaria, the capitol city of the north, the gods were many, on account of which God gave them up to their sinful desires and sent Assyria and Babylon to conquer and destroy them.

It was then that an interesting pause takes place. The King of Assyria brings foreigners to live in Samaria and because the place was holy, because of the Lord’s Name dwelling there, and because the new tenants did not fear the Lord, He sent lions among them to kill some of them (2 Ki. 17:24-25).

Miracle of miracles, the king of Assyria commanded an exiled priest of God be brought to live among the people and teach them all about God. What the priests of Israel failed to do in Samaria, the king of Assyria does in unbelief. Though they still worshiped other gods, the people of the area were at least now hearing the true Word.

After the Jews own exile into Babylon ended, they returned to their southern kingdom to find the “northerners” in this state of mixed religion and ever after entertained a jealous feeling towards them as strangers and enemies, calling them “samaritains” after the mountain, and not Israelites.

So the Jews hated them, as they do all other nations (gentiles; goyyim). So it is that the Jews use this word to insult Jesus today. So it is that Jesus uses this name to refer to the merciful, Good Samaritan. And in the case of the 10 lepers, Jesus calls the one a stranger, for he was a Samaritan. And also gave this charge to His disciples: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans” (Matt. 10:5).

In mentioning Jacob’s Well, in John 4:6 with regard to the adulterous, Samaritan woman, Jesus shows that the Jews should not be jealous, but repentant, for during the time of Jacob and the Patriarchs, it was the Jews who possessed that land in the north, not the Samaritans. But, by sloth and transgressions they had lost it, so little is the advantage of excellent ancestors if descendants are not like them.

Moreover, after such a short, tiny trial of lions, the new Samaritans immediately returned to right worship, while the Jews still do not hear the words of God, as Jesus says in the gospel. (NPNF 1^st:XIV:107-108)

It is the Galileeans and Samarians that receive Him (John 4:45). Both of these groups of people believe, to the shame of the Jews, and Samaritans are found to be the better for they believe at the word of the woman at the well and desire Jesus to stay among them, whereas in Galilee they believed after miracles, such as turning water into wine.

Not so the Samarians. They believed Him through His teaching alone. They understood that their role as guardians had come to an end, because the true Guardian, the true Watcher had come. “He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps” from Ps. 121:4 now not only refers to the Jews, but to Israel of the north as well. And if Israel of the north, then Samaritans, Galileans, and all nations.

“He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations” (Psalm 66:7). 

“Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue” (Isaiah 28:11)

When Jesus talks about foreigners and nations in the Bible, He is not necessarily talking about those outside the Jews. He is talking about Himself. For Jesus is the Messiah that comes from the outside, from eternity, to do His normal-yet-alien work of guarding and forgiving sinners.

To emphasize this point of salvation needing to come from outside yourself, He is raised in Nazareth of Galilee. And as we are told, no good thing comes out of Nazareth, much less that area of Samaria.

So it is that to the sinner, to those do not hear the words of God, honor the Father, or does not keep Jesus’ Word sees this work of truth as a lie. For though Jesus is a foreigner, from eternity, He is just like us except without His own sin. Though Abraham has died, he lives. Though Jesus is accused of having a demon, the Holy Spirit looks like a demon to those not of God.

And that is all of us. Which is why Jesus came for all of us. He has adopted us as sons, sons of the foreigner, in order that by this alien power of forgiveness, we too would share in eternal life. We too would have our ears unstopped by Baptism. We too would have our lameness cured by the Bread of Heaven.

This life in sin and corruption that we are familiar with, Jesus calls foreign. His Word says we must leave here and the only way out is through death and resurrection. He appears to us as the king of Assyria, destroying all we know, and dragging us to the font, to exile in heaven.

Though that sounds funny to say, our sin and the devil always want us to live in an upside-down world where the Lord is evil. Jesus has come as our true Samaritan, our true Guardian. He receives all the insults, all the injury, and all the calumny, but does not seek His own glory. He does not seek revenge, but silently passes in front of His shearers as they condemn Him and cast Him out of the city.

It is of the very moment on His cross that our Lord said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all [nations] to myself” (Jn. 12:32) and “He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isa. 11:12) and “On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will come together against it” (Zech 12:3).