Jesus was not a pussycat; he was a tiger. These are not my imageries. These I picked from the late Anglican Bishop J.A.T. Robinson. If Jesus had been a pussycat no one would have bothered to pick an AK 47 to deal with him! Jesus, during his time, was perceived as a disturber of the status quo. He was indeed. So he was crucified.
Jesus did not do great things; he built nothing; certainly he built no 4000-seat mega church; organized no big companies, or power blocks; gave no blue prints for any great movement. But he broke traditions that maintained the status quo, an apparent peace. People of his time, like many today, preferred that peace. This phoney peace has the tendency to breed an attitude of ‘you in your small corner and I in mine’, a counterfeit co-existence.
Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-42) promotes a “pro-existence”, drastically different to a mere tolerance, a shallow co-existence. Jesus, unlike the Rabbis of his time, always journeyed through the Samaritan (the enemy!) territory, not my clique.
That was a big sin for the Jews of his time. He even committed a greater sin: Chatted with a woman. That too a Samaritan woman! It was shocking even for the Samaritan woman. For she has never before experienced such “radical love”. Jesus’ was a love that did not shy away from acknowledging its own vulnerability and need! He was thirsty; and he hesitated not to receive a drink from a Samaritan woman.
In a predominantly white – Caucasian community, it is possible to capture the impact of this text if you can imagine your self walking on a hot summer day, and walking through the inner city with no coins in you pockets, no credit cards in your wallet. You are not even carrying your water bottle, and then suddenly you stop to ask an aboriginal woman for a little drink from her bottle!
Jesus was aware that his own religious tradition encouraged him to avoid the Samaritan territory. Whenever the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to go to Galilee they preferred to avoid the shorter route of going through Samaria. Instead they would go east, cross the river Jordan, and go up north to Galilee, sometimes doing a second crossing of the river Jordan.
Jesus did not do great things; he built nothing; certainly he built no 4000-seat mega church; organized no big companies, or power blocks; gave no blue prints for any great movement. But he broke traditions that maintained the status quo, an apparent peace. People of his time, like many today, preferred that peace. This phoney peace has the tendency to breed an attitude of ‘you in your small corner and I in mine’, a counterfeit co-existence.
Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-42) promotes a “pro-existence”, drastically different to a mere tolerance, a shallow co-existence. Jesus, unlike the Rabbis of his time, always journeyed through the Samaritan (the enemy!) territory, not my clique.
That was a big sin for the Jews of his time. He even committed a greater sin: Chatted with a woman. That too a Samaritan woman! It was shocking even for the Samaritan woman. For she has never before experienced such “radical love”. Jesus’ was a love that did not shy away from acknowledging its own vulnerability and need! He was thirsty; and he hesitated not to receive a drink from a Samaritan woman.
In a predominantly white – Caucasian community, it is possible to capture the impact of this text if you can imagine your self walking on a hot summer day, and walking through the inner city with no coins in you pockets, no credit cards in your wallet. You are not even carrying your water bottle, and then suddenly you stop to ask an aboriginal woman for a little drink from her bottle!
Jesus was aware that his own religious tradition encouraged him to avoid the Samaritan territory. Whenever the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to go to Galilee they preferred to avoid the shorter route of going through Samaria. Instead they would go east, cross the river Jordan, and go up north to Galilee, sometimes doing a second crossing of the river Jordan.
Jesus taught the rule of God, the Kingdom, excluded not any of God’s creatures, including the Samaritans. Jews of his time hated and viewed the Samaritans derogatively as “dogs”. But Jesus never avoided people, even if they were not of his class, clan, creed, colour, or culture. For him, the “divine agape” embraces every creature; the immanent spirit of God is always inclusive. Hence, the compassionate God of Jesus includes you and me, the Muslim and the Hindu, the atheist and an agnostic! Such is God’s inclusion. Then what about the gay and the lesbian?
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