Loving Beyond My Tribe
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Intro
Intro
Season of Prayer: 2-3 Minutes
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It was 1995 when the first Disney Pixar digitally animated movie took the world by storm with none other than Toy Story. I was 5 years. The movie depicts from the toys perspective of trying to bring joy to their owner. Star characters of the film are Woody, voiced by Academy Award winning actor Tom Hanks and Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, known at the time for his hit sitcom, Home Improvements. Since the 1995 release the Toy Story franchise which consists of 4 movies has grossed over 3 billion dollars. Sitting down together before the release of Toy Story 4, Hanks and Allen talked about the friendship of their characters Woody and Buzz in the movies and their own real life friendship that had spanned decades. In the original movie Buzz becomes his owner Andy’s favorite toy, much to the chagrin of Woody who has been the favorite toy for years. Eventually jealousy, betrayal, and pride are overcome and two rival toys become best friends. In real life Hanks, and Allen share different political beliefs. Hanks has been known as a political left wing supporter and Allen being a vocal supporter political right wing. However, politcal views aside, Hanks and Allen spoke of their longstanding admiration for each other and a friendship that would not be broken by political views. They embody the words well Toy Story’s most famous song. You’ve got a friend in me.
As the upcoming election looms, it is hard not to get sucked up in it. In its proper place elections, I believe are a great thing, and I am proud to cast my vote, not just in national elections but at the local level also. I do believe it is imperative to be respectful to those who stand in line with you possibly voting opposite you. How we treat and respond to those who believe differently is an opportunity for us as Christians to set ourselves a part from all the chaos and noise. We have to learn to live with more love in our hearts even with those we might disagree with from A to Z.
When Jesus walked on this planet some 2000 years ago. He entered into the world in very politcally divisive time. Whether it was disputes between Pharisees and Sadducees, Jews being Occupied by the Romans, and native squabbles between Jews and Samaritans. And none of these groups could quite put Jesus in a box regarding his views and teachings. Jesus did not discriminate with his reprimands, nor did he discriminate in whom he ministered to and extended love and healing to. Jesus could look into the hearts of each man and woman and see the selfishness and hidden agendas in each person, and yet he still felt love and compassion.
Today we are going to look at the example of Jesus as he navigated the politics of his day and what lessons he taught his disciples and still teaches us today.
Before we go any further, lets take a moment to pray.
I’m sure many of you are aware of the contentious relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans, but I’m guessing there are number of you who may not know why. Let’s look at the genesis of this neighborly feud.
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The nation of Israel was divided into two nations in the days of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12). Israel was composed of the ten tribes to the north, and Judah was made up of Judah and Benjamin. The animosity between the Jews (inhabitants of the Judah, the southern kingdom) and Israelites began immediately after the division, as Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom (with Jeroboam as her first king). Rehoboam assembled an army to make war against Israel to reunite the kingdom, but God intervened through His prophet Shemiah (1 Kings 12:21-24). Later, in speaking of the reign of Abijam, Jeroboam’s son, 1 Kings 15:6 says “there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.”
Immediately after the division, Jeroboam changed the worship of the Israelites in 1 Kings 12:25-33. No longer did the inhabitants of the north travel to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and worship (cf Deuteronomy 12:5-14). Instead, Jeroboam set up idols in Dan and Bethel.
Later, after Israel’s fall to the Assyrians, they began to intermarry with the Assyrians, contrary to Deuteronomy 7:3-5. This is why the Jews hated the Samaritans as “dogs,” or “half-breeds.”
The Samaritans were also a continuous source of difficulty to the Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem after returning from Babylonian captivity (Ezra 4, esp v 10; Nehemiah 4, esp v 2).
Eventually, the religion of the Samaritans evolved to the point that they held only the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy) as being the law of God, rejecting all the books of poetry and prophecy. Furthermore, they claimed their copy of the Pentateuch was the only original copy (a claim still made today by what few Samaritans still survive). Obviously, this was/is a claim rejected by the Jews.
https://housetohouse.com/jews-samaritans-hate-one-another-much/
To trade with the Samaritans in case of necessity was indeed counted lawful by the rabbis; but all social intercourse with them was condemned. A Jew would not borrow from a Samaritan, nor receive a kindness, not even a morsel of bread or a cup of water. The disciples, in buying food, were acting in harmony with the custom of their nation. But beyond this they did not go. To ask a favor of the Samaritans, or in any way seek to benefit them, did not enter into the thought of even Christ’s disciples.
White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages (Vol. 3, p. 183).
And this is the context of a famished Jesus who decided to sit near the famous Jacob’s well. change slide
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
I imagine his actual words may have been a little more polite, but in any case his words catch the woman off guard. But Jesus had asked for a drink.
Such a favor no Oriental would withhold. In the East, water was called “the gift of God.” To offer a drink to the thirsty traveler was held to be a duty so sacred that the Arabs of the desert would go out of their way in order to perform it.
White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages
Consider this for just a moment, the king of Heaven, and the creator of all oceans and the ones who controls all waters, was now dependent on a stranger’s kindness for even a drink. You might even be tempted to think, “What’s the big deal? Its just a cup of water.” but remember the context.
Desire of Ages commentates: change slide
“The hatred between Jews and Samaritans prevented the woman from offering a kindness to Jesus; but the Saviour was seeking to find the key to this heart, and with the tact born of divine love, He asked, not offered, a favor. The offer of a kindness might have been rejected; but trust awakens trust.”
White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages (Vol. 3, p. 184).
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I like that phrase, “Trust awakens trust”
In the book written by Ben Sasse, entitled “Them, Why we hate eachother and how to heal, the author talks about growing up in a small town where most friday nights much of the town would gather in the local high school gymnasium and watch their high school basketball team play. He says he used to think of those old bleachers as “homeroom” for the whole town. He says while people did care and watch the games, many were coming just to socialize and swap stories with folks. He writes, as a teen, I have faint recollections of discussions of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, but there was always the sense those discussions were subordinate to the subjects that really mattered. He writes people walked away from political discussions without thinking ill-will of each other, because that sort of talk happened in the context of actual relationships and centered around local things that were a lot more important. change slide
He writes, “Right now partisan tribalism is statistically higher than at any point since the Civil War. Why? It’s certainly not because our political discussions are more important.” He suggests, it’s because the local, human relationships that anchored political talk have shriveled up.”
Personally I also believe this to be true. I have lots of friends who are on different sides or perspectives in political opinion. Its not that I have never been involved in a heated debate before, but those friendships are maintained due to the fact that we were and always were FRIENDS first. We have built a relationship that is not so flimsy that if we vote differently that we couldn’t all go camping together. It should also be that way in our family reunions as well.
Anybody want to debate politics at the thanksgiving table this year?? But family is largely family, regardless of who you vote for or agree or disagree with. Trust awakens Trust
Thats been my experience, friends and family are often the exception and can be somewhat “tolerated,” even with opposing viewpoints.
I’ve observed the tendency with many to be a little bit more quick tempered, and words sharper, for those whom we don’t have built or established relationship…and as I mentioned a few sabbaths ago. There is a tendency to become bolder in our words when said behind a keyboard or smart phone, because often those relationships can lean more superficial, than real deal.
Hearing the request by Jesus, the woman at the well ready to draw water for her own needs, is caught off guard mostly because this strange man is clearly a Jew. change slide
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Church family, true love and kindness extends beyond our tribe. A few weeks ago during our God’s closet shop day, Little Denver Burgin and I were helping direct traffic onto our campus. Some of our surrounding neighbors to the church were out walking and getting some exercise in. On their second lap they approached me and asked who was this event for?
It was nice to be able to answer, this event and these clothes are for those who need it, plain and simple. She smiled and immediately said, thankyou to your church people for supporting the neighborhood and community.
The question seemed to ask, is this only for Adventists? or Christians? Is everyone allowed?
Is there a barrier to showing kindness?
Jesus had been breaking down barriers throughout his ministry. He did not come to save the Jews only, but all people. He was embodying what was intended for God’s chosen people, to be a light to all nations.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
She saw before her only a thirsty traveler, wayworn and dusty. In her mind she compared Him with the honored patriarch Jacob. She cherished the feeling, which is so natural, that no other well could be equal to that provided by the fathers. She was looking backward to the fathers, forward to the Messiah’s coming, while the Hope of the fathers, the Messiah Himself, was beside her, and she knew Him not. How many thirsting souls are today close by the living fountain, yet looking far away for the wellsprings of life!
White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages (Vol. 3, p. 184).
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The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
At this point the woman now sees past the barrier of Jew-Samaritan.
The next verses reveal the woman’s troubled past. Likely some by poor choices and some by awful circumstances. Jesus makes her aware he knows by revealing this truth to her.
“Before this soul could receive the gift He longed to give, she must be brought to recognize her sin and her Saviour.”
White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages (Vol. 3, p. 187).
The woman is recognizing this is no mere kind Jewish man. This man is a prophet. Rather than discuss her past or present she decides to search for answer of a longstanding quarrel between the Jews and Samaritans. change slide 2x
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Desire of Ages Chapter 19—At Jacob’s Well
Jesus had shown that He was free from Jewish prejudice against the Samaritans. Now He sought to break down the prejudice of this Samaritan against the Jews. While referring to the fact that the faith of the Samaritans was corrupted with idolatry, He declared that the great truths of redemption had been committed to the Jews, and that from among them the Messiah was to appear.
Desire of Ages comments: change slide
He desired to lift the thoughts of His hearer above matters of form and ceremony, and questions of controversy.
White, E. G. (1898). The Desire of Ages (Vol. 3, p. 189).
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But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
What had started by just a strange but casual greeting from a Jew, the woman had had her entire life changed.
The disciples, as I mentioned earlier had not had their prejudices broken yet. They returned confused as to why Jesus was talking with a Samaritan. As the woman leaves to go and tell others about this incredible experience she has just had had, Jesus takes time to mentor his disciples. change slide
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
Jesus tells his disciples, there is a Harvest right in front of them. Don’t let your tribalism prevent you from seeing the people right in front of them who were His children as well. He looks out and motions them to the groups coming now to listen, all because he had looked beyond his tribe and had asked for water.
Yes Jesus was not unaware of the politics and social issues of his day. One of the groups which been a great struggle for him was the Pharisees.
The Pharisees started in the intertestamental period as a group who were upset because the people were abandoning the purity of the covenant that they had made with God and were being lax in their morality and in their obedience to the commandments of God. So the Pharisees sought to draw together and draw apart from the masses and to set a moral example. These were the conservatives of the day. They had a high system of honor and virtue, and they committed themselves to obeying God. In fact, one sect among the Pharisees believed that if they could keep every law that God gave in the Old Testament for just twenty-four hours, then that would prompt God to send the Messiah to Israel.
But a lot of things had happened between the day of the formation of the Pharisees and the time of Jesus’ incarnation, when they masqueraded as devotees of righteousness and obedience. In a word, they were counterfeit. They were fake. And nothing reveals a counterfeit like the presence of the genuine. When Jesus walked this earth, true righteousness and holiness was manifested by Him before the eyes of the people. It didn’t take exceptional brilliance to discern the difference between the real and the counterfeit. So the Pharisees were exposed, and because they were exposed by the true and authentic holiness of Christ, they hated Him, and they couldn’t wait to get rid of Him.
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Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus
Christ’s exercise of authority in the cleansing of the temple had roused the determined hatred of the priests and rulers. They feared the power of this stranger. Such boldness on the part of an obscure Galilean was not to be tolerated. They were bent on putting an end to His work. But not all were agreed in this purpose.
There were some genuine priests and pharisees who feared opposing someone who spoke and acted with just spirit led authority. A simple study of the scriptures would show God showing judgment on the nation of Israel for opposing and even killing God sent prophets who had rebuked them.
Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus
Nicodemus shared these feelings. In a council of the Sanhedrin, when the course to be pursued toward Jesus was considered, Nicodemus advised caution and moderation. He urged that if Jesus was really invested with authority from God, it would be perilous to reject His warnings.
Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus
Since hearing Jesus, Nicodemus had anxiously studied the prophecies relating to the Messiah; and the more he searched, the stronger was his conviction that this was the One who was to come.
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Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
A couple things here: 1. I believe most anyone of us would have had reason to mistrust Nicodemus, let alone be willing to meet with him. Nicodemus was part of a group that it was not uncommon to stone individuals for anythings deemed blasphemy. This very well could have been one of the first plots of arresting Jesus, as would happen only in a couple years time. But…trust awakens trust
2. Jesus did not look at the outward appearance of Nicodemus, its not that he was unaware of what peoples he represented but he saw him as another soul to be won.
After expressing and teaching Nicodemus the concept of being born again. He looks at him and says,
“you don’t understand these things? Aren’t you a respected teacher of Israel.” change slide
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Jesus was confirming what Nicodemus was suspicious of…Could this man be the messiah? He had diligently studied the scriptures, and he understood much of the signs of the messiah and even better understood the purpose of the Messiah better than his corrupted colleagues.
Jesus reminds Nicodemus how loving God was. He even gives a reminder to him that the savior was present to love and save far beyond the Jews. He loved far beyond His tribe.
This is the context of a verse most all of us have memorized
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“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
This was Him…this was the Messiah!
Jesus reminds Nicodemus of his role as a religious and social leader to the people, even he would be judged, perhaps even stronger, that because he was exposed to the light he had a moral obligation to live with this integrity. Esssentially, “you can wear the robes and look the part, but if you are doing evil, you will be exposed. change slide
But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus
Nicodemus had read these scriptures with a clouded mind; but he now began to comprehend their meaning. He saw that the most rigid obedience to the mere letter of the law as applied to the outward life could entitle no man to enter the kingdom of heaven. In the estimation of men, his life had been just and honorable; but in the presence of Christ he felt that his heart was unclean, and his life unholy.
Among reaching another soul, albeit secretly, Jesus proved he was was willing to engage someone who represented a group that was his harshest critics. He expressed truth but lovingly, and because of this, his points landed.
Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus
Jesus was acquainted with the soil into which He cast the seed. The words spoken at night to one listener in the lonely mountain were not lost. For a time Nicodemus did not publicly acknowledge Christ, but he watched His life, and pondered His teachings. In the Sanhedrin council he repeatedly thwarted the schemes of the priests to destroy Him. When at last Jesus was lifted up on the cross, Nicodemus remembered
Desire of Ages Chapter 17—Nicodemus
The light from that secret interview illumined the cross upon Calvary, and Nicodemus saw in Jesus the world’s Redeemer.
Later after Christ’s ressurection and ascension, Nicodemus became a Paul in his own right. He became the disciples, now apostles greatest allies in the early church. He lost his worldly wealth, but his faith and resolve were stronger than ever.
If Jesus cared enough to trust and share truth with kindness and love to a sin filled samaritan woman and a conservative legalistic pharisee, two people who were firmly encamped in different tribes of thought and lifestyle, can we ask ourself, who is beyond my tribe, God wants me to love.
Maybe its someone your standing in line with, waiting to cast your vote with? Maybe it someone who posted that outrageous politically driven facebook post. Maybe it was that homeless person who came in our church looking for food, water, or even money. Maybe Jesus isn’t asking you to preach some eloquent sermon or share the right literature. Maybe he is asking us to expand our love radius to outside our given tribe.
And if you disagree with someone, I hope you can treat them those people as Jesus did, as neighbors.
Ben Sasse, in his book about how being a good and friendly neighbor didn’t have to be a partisan issue. He writes: change slide
“When we look around our neighborhoods, we should have eyes to see what we share common interests and goals that are more important than just about any question of federal policy—chief among those goals, raising our children to become kind, thoughtful, gritty, respectful adults who use their skills and talents to serve others. I don’t want to worry that politics is going to prevent my neighbor from keeping an eye on my kids when they’re all playing in the front yard; and I want my neighbors to know that, even if we disagree on every policy from A to Z, my wife and I will scoop their son up if he scrapes his knee. There truly are things that unite us above and before the things that divide us. We have plenty of actual enemies looking to harm us. We don’t need to add to their ranks. To quote Lincoln, “We are not enemies, but friends.”
Church family, trust awakens trust. This local church body is made up of liberals, conservatives, republicans, democrats, older people, and young people. When Jesus said to nicodemus that the Son of God came to save the world, he meant everyone. His love was not a partisan issue, or a tribalism issue. change slide
Jesus taught us to love beyond my tribe.