Sermon Tone Analysis

We have a problem of overreacting to things in our culture.

Our instantaneous news and social media driven culture seems to demand immediate responses to events, incidents, and more.

So often, some people will react without thinking about the ramifications.

In response to the deaths of some African Americans at the hand of police officers - there were many cries to de-fund the police.

Those deaths were tragic and avoidable, but there must be a better solution than getting rid of all law enforcement.

I’m grateful the President began to address that narrative.

When it seemed that the origin of COVID-19 that started this pandemic originated in China, incidents of racially motivated crimes against people of Chinese descent increased.

In 2003, when the nation of France refused to join in the war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, some people because calling French Fries, Freedom Fries.

This reaction did little more than cause people to look foolish.

In the late 90s, when Disney was perceived to be making morally questionable choices in their programming and days of recognition, Southern Baptists voted at their annual convention to boycott all things Disney.

I find it interesting and ironic that this year, roughly 25 years later, the SBC is meeting in Anaheim, just blocks from Disneyland - and are even offering discounts to the theme park.

I don’t think Disney is any more moral today than they were in 1997 - what changed?

One of the things that seems to make things worse today is that if you don’t hold the same view or build up the same barriers, then you’ll get canceled or cut off as well.

All of these cancellations and protests seemed to set up a barrier between the righteous and the unrighteous, the clean and the unclean.

While social media seems to have ramped things up in recent years, this is not a new problem.

Jesus dealt with it in his day.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus was frequently pushing people to look at their biases and prejudices And even divisive religious practices.

He pushed against the tendency to ignore or ostracize people for a variety of reasons.

He was referred to as a glutton and drunkard because He chose to hang out with people who struggled with those vices.

He was called a friend of sinners because he invited dishonest (tax collectors) and sinful people (the adulterous woman) to follow him.

Jesus seemed to be in the business of breaking down bad bias barriers.

Today, as we consider Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, we are going to look at the bad barriers he broke down around the woman and the results in her life and the lives of the others in the community.

In the passage we read, Jesus has a very interesting conversation with this woman.

I found their conversation enlightening and full of lessons to be learned.

The underlying lesson seemed to be that…

Jesus was not confined by the Cultural Barriers of His day.

He was more concerned with the truths of the Bible and the advancement of the Kingdom than he was with the man-made traditions that were put in place to keep people from sinning.

So as we consider this passage today, we will consider some of the cultural barriers that Jesus broke through in this one encounter and the results.

First of all, we notice that…

Jesus Broke Through Cultural Barriers

There are several things that Jesus does to reveal to us what he thought about the cultural barriers that permeated Hebrew culture in that day.

First of all, Jesus…

Walked through a defiled land (4)

If you were to look at a map, you’d be able to see Judea, Samaria, and Galilee all in a row, from south to north.

Jesus was down in Judea, not too far from Jerusalem, and decided that he needed to go to Galilee.

So He heads north.

The challenge is that directly north of Judea is Samara.

The tension between Jews and Samaritans ran so deep that Jews, according to some scholars, would not enter Samaria for fear of becoming ceremonially unclean.

Many times, even though it was the quickest route between Galilee and Judea, some strict Jews would travel around Samaria in order to avoid this defiled land.

The region of Samaria was formed when the kingdom of Israel divided.

After Solomon, the people of the northern Kingdom (Samaria) decided to set up their own kings – often ungodly.

Their faith became watered down and even somewhat mixed with other religions.

Because of this, Samaritans and Jews disagreed with each other on issues of the faith And so Jews refused to interact with Samaritans and refused to be defiled by walking through their land.

Jesus broke through that barrier.

In addition to walking through a defiled land, Jesus…

Talked to a woman (7)

DA Carson writes that…

“Some Jewish thought held that for a rabbi to talk much with a woman, even his own wife, was at best a waste of time and at worst of diversion from the study of Torah.”

(Carson, The Gospel According to John, p. 227)

Jesus clearly disregarded this bad cultural barrier in talking with her - which is why she responds to him by saying,

More than just talking to any woman, Jesus talked to a woman…

... of a defiled race (7)

The Assyrians came and conquered the people of Samaria, the northern kingdom.

When they resettled the land, many Assyrians intermarried with Samaritans.

This caused many pure Jews to look down on the Samaritans.

According to the Bible Knowledge Commentary, there was a Rabbinic writing that stated that “Samaritan women were considered as continually menstruating,” which essentially deemed them as permanently unclean.

Again, Jesus did not consider this bad barrier worthy to be observed.

Jesus talked to this woman, of a defiled race, …

… and a defiled lifestyle (18)

For many strictly religious people, this woman would have been considered sinful because of the fact that she had been married so many times.

But it’s not only the religious people that treated her this way.

If you look in your bibles at John 4:6 - what time of day did Jesus meet up with this person?

The sixth hour or about noon

Several of the commentators have pointed out that being in the middle of the day, this woman would have been coming to the well alone - because none of the other women would have wanted to be near her either.

Many women would have gone in groups at the beginning or end of the day.

She probably had a sort of reputation.

Sometimes those reputations are well-deserved.

Many times, those reputations are difficult to shed, which may be a bit why there is such harshness in her tone with Jesus.

Have you ever come across people who present a hardness in their personality?

I wonder if this woman had been hurt so many times by her former lovers that she presents this hard edge to her personality in order to drive people away or as a defense mechanism - and yet Jesus looks right through that and engages her.

He sees who she is, that she has value, that she has hurt.

He doesn’t really comment much on her lifestyle, but he offers her hope and a future.

With this conversation, Jesus introduces a pattern of talking with outcasts in order to reveal the fact that God’s love is for everyone.

We already talked about this briefly, but elsewhere in Scripture He showed this by…

Working with a Tax Collector (Mt.

9:9-13)

For many folks, tax collectors were viewed like some view politicians today.

They were not to be trusted because of their cheating ways.

Jesus, breaks with this accepted view and sees value in the person – even bringing him into his discipleship circle.

He also demonstrated the love of God by…

Forgiving an adulteress (John 8:1-11)

In this encounter, several religious leaders of his day bring a woman who was caught in adultery.

They had already cast judgment on her and sought to stone her.

They also wanted to trap Jesus.

His response was forgiveness.

“If any of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”

For Jesus, her value was not in her mistakes, but in her creator.

He called her to leave her sinful lifestyle, but did not condemn her.

In addition to working with a tax collector and forgiving a sinner, Jesus showed the love of God by…

Healing the ceremonially unclean (Mt.

8:20-22)

Now, in this encounter, Jesus is walking through a crowd and a woman, who was unclean because of a bleeding problem, touched him in order to be healed.

Her very act of faith made Him ceremonially unclean – because she touched him.

His response was not anger or rage or bitterness.

His response was love – “your faith has made you well.”

Jesus also demonstrated the love of God for us by…

Touching and Raising the dead (Mt.

8:23-26)

Again, this very action would have made him ceremonially unclean.

And yet Jesus lived the pattern that Paul describes in Phil. 2 - looking to the needs of others.

We could go on and on talking about the way that Jesus was willing to minister to people of a “defiled lifestyle”.

Let’s briefly reflect on some…

Contemporary Considerations