Our ancestors were told to be fruitful and multiply "and
fill the earth and subdue it…" The
movement was to be horizontal, across the earth (I know the earth is
round). The heavens are God's domain,
not ours. At Babel they decided to say
no to filling the earth and subduing it and to fill the heavens instead and
make a name for themselves there. The Lord
saw that those created in His image were capable of doing whatever they set
themselves to do and decided that the unity of mankind was a problem if
directed to its own devices and desires.
The confusion of languages was a brilliant solution to the problem. Differences are accentuated and become a
source of pride, nationalism, tribalism and all kinds of other divisions. Pentecost was the reversal of that curse
because all were praising God and proclaiming Jesus, good unity of
purpose. Our role is to spread that
heavenly message horizontally across the earth.
Why did learning that the Pharisees heard that He was making
and baptizing more disciples than John cause Jesus to leave Judea? The short answer, John's answer, would be,
His time had not yet come, so He left to attract less attention. The woman at the well is there at midday
because she is not welcome early in the day when women were there. She is a loose woman and not acceptable to
other women. That she engages Jesus, a
man, a Jewish man, in conversation, is remarkable in that society where it
would have been shocking behavior to talk to a man not your husband. Jesus makes her an extraordinary offer,
living water, running water. She may not
be acceptable in her own town but she is still a proud Samaritan and she proves
it with her question, " Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us
the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jacob was "our father" not the
Jews, they are the true Israel is her claim.
He overcomes all that nationalistic and religious pride though when He
offers water that will enable her to no longer come to this well, her place of
shame and pain. Now, it doesn't matter
who He is or what He is, she wants what He is offering.
I love the idea that Abraham patiently waited, conveniently
overlooking the whole Hagar and Ishmael episode that plagues our world
today. The covenant with Abraham was
sealed by God's oath in the smoking pot passing between the animal carcasses,
essentially God saying, let it be to me as it was to these birds if I fail to
keep my promise. Jesus' death on the
cross is the oath of life for us. He has
sealed the covenant with the blood of Jesus, His Son. We know that the covenant is secure and that
it is a covenant of life because Jesus was resurrected from the dead, His sacrifice
was found acceptable to God. In doing
so, we know our high priest has indeed passed beyond the curtain, into the
throne room, and lives. He is greater
than Jacob. Let us make not our name but
His known in all the earth.
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