Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era –Part XXXIV
“A Samaritan woman came to drink water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink,’ for His disciples had gone away into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.” (John 4:7-9)
“For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.” Bias, discrimination, and racism existed in Jesus’ time. 1) Sexism: The Jewish mentality was women were baby-factories, reproduction machines. If they could not bare children, they became social outcasts. Just as Sarah, Abraham’s wife. 2) Racism: Jews stayed to themselves. If they could, they “had no dealings with outsiders.” Samaritans were considered outsiders to them. Jesus broke through the norms of bias and racism. Jesus not only directly talks to a woman requesting that she serve him a drink; he offers her, a Samaritan, “living water.”
Incredibly, He reveals to her, a Samaritan woman, that He is the Messiah before He reveals it to his own intimate 12 disciples. When Jesus or Paul entered a town, they sought a Jewish synagogue first because “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God or salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:6) Jesus breaks those norms by revealing his Messiahship outside the house of Israel first to a Samaritan, in fact a woman!
The result: Because of her testimony, her town comes out to hear Jesus, and invites him, a Jew, to stay with them, Samaritans, for two day! “Many more believed because of his word; ‘We believe because we have heard for ourselves and known indeed that he is the Savior of the world.’” (John 4:41-42) This first Non-Jewish revival would set the foundation Paul built his ministry upon.
Paul, a Jew’s Jew, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a defender of the faith, converts to following Jesus. He, too, goes to each town’ synagogue to evangelizes, but get rejected, so he take the “good news” to the gentiles “who gladly receive it.” He write to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, …; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatian 2:28)
Today’s church overlooks or denies racism among its ranks. The 1st century churched faced it heads on. A council in Jerusalem met over the “Gentile” Question: Can Gentiles Be Saved? If so, they are equal to Jewish believers and must follow Mosaic Law; believers of Pharisee background believed. The council concluded, “God knows peoples’ hearts, and he confirmed that he accept Gentile by given them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, or he cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestor were able to bear?” (Act 15)
“God knows peoples’ hearts,” and racism is a heart disease that affects the whole body, clotting life-giving flow. It causes spiritual heart attacks, which can be deadly. It blinded and anesthetized Southern Christians into justifying slavery. Only after a major Civil War could the church say, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man…; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatian 2:28) If we are “all one in Christ Jesus,” then we are all equal peers and joint heirs.
A new wineskin for this Covid-19 era is peer equality. Only when bias is gone, racism eliminated, and discrimination no longer in existence, can true peer equality flourish, and it can only exist through the transforming, redemptive, forgiving power of Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit.
Under an old wineskin, only one man can be on top of the church’s hierarchal pyramid. If a White church and a Black church decide to merge together, who becomes the “Lead” Pastor? In most cases, racism will raise its head. Under a new wineskin where there is linear leadership, everyone, as equal peers, walks with their brothers and sisters, either in front to be the “point man” to protect while leading the group into possible danger, or beside, arm-in-arm in support as an equal, or behind, protecting or cover one’s back. With no hierarchal pyramid, no one is “over” another. The willingness to linearly lay down their life for their brethren will surely defeat racism, bigotry, and prejudice.