I'm not sure what you mean by, "Maybe that is the interpretation from your translation"? I know that some people believe certain English translations of the Scriptures are somehow given holiness that other translations are not. So it is helpful to go back to the original language when there is doubt. I don't speak the original language, nor read it, so I find it useful to search the Amplified Bible which lists all possible meanings to the original words:
25The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, He Who is called the Christ (the Anointed One); and when He arrives, He will tell us everything we need to know and make it clear to us.
26Jesus said to her, I Who now speak with you am He.
27Just then His disciples came and they wondered (were surprised, astonished) to find Him talking with a woman [a married woman]. However, not one of them asked Him, What are You inquiring about? or What do You want? or, Why do You speak with her?
28Then the woman left her water jar and went away to the town. And she began telling the people,
29Come, see a Man Who has told me everything that I ever did! Can this be [is not this] the Christ? [Must not this be the Messiah, the Anointed One?]
Even better-- take every part of Scripture in its whole context. One has to know who Jesus is, and who the Samaritans were in relation to the Jews. A Jew did not speak to a Samaritan- The entire scene is similar to 60 years ago if the woman was black and the disciples were all white, in the Southeast U. S. You can well imagine what "marveled that he talked with the woman" looked like on their faces, and why she would leave.
Or put it in this context-- this is a paraphrase of a parable told by Jesus. (author: John Burke, in No Perfect People Allowed)
On one occasion a Christian religious leader stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the law?" Jesus replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
But the religious leader wanted to justify his actions (for if the truth be known, he despised some people who safely weren't his neighbors), so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, an evangelical Christian, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a gay man, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wound. Then he put the man into his own car, took him to a hospital and stayed to care for him. The next day he paid the hospital, saying, "Look after this man, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
The religious leader replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
John Burke points out: The Expositor's Bible Commentary notes that Jesus picked out the most hated of all persons in that religious culture, the Samaritans, in order to make his point.
The fact that Jesus has met with a Samaritan woman, and this story was recorded, is not happenstance. The "interpretation" that the Jewish men "ran her off" is not faulty. She was despised because she was Samaritan. She was further despised because of her morality. And the religious people forget how very much loved by Jesus are the despised of our society. Religious people forget about grace and justice. They rely instead of works of righteousness that they have done. And they don't seem to really notice that they run the despised away.....
In fact as the text continues, the disciples never appear to "get it."
31In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, "Rabbi, eat. Aren't you going to eat?"
32He told them, "I have food to eat you know nothing about."
33The disciples were puzzled. "Who could have brought him food?"
34 -35Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!
These despised people are ripe! We must be careful, so so careful, not to make the mistake of the Religious people who couldn't conceal their shock and disdain, and run them further away from the Truth. We must be ready to love our neighbor, embrace them, get into their lives and care about them.... this is the only way to show them Truth.
That was my point, is all.
0 comments:
Post a Comment