The Day I Met Jesus (CHR) by Frank Viola & Mary DeMuth

Author:Frank Viola & Mary DeMuth
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: REL012000
ISBN: 9781441222398
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-23T18:30:00+00:00

A Tale of Two Mountains

When Jesus put His finger on the sore spot of her past and present situation, He wasn’t wagging His finger in her face to shame her. He simply revealed that He knew exactly who she was and understood her anguish.

Photine’s response that Jesus must be a prophet was striking because Samaritans didn’t believe in prophets like Jews did. Samaritans believed no real prophets lived after the death of Moses. Except for the one Prophet they were all anticipating. You see, the Samaritans weren’t looking for a political Messiah from the line of David. They were rather waiting for a Prophet like Moses who would restore all things. The Samaritans called him the Taheb, or Restorer. He was the equivalent of the Jewish Messiah.

Feeling uncomfortable with Jesus’ highly personal observations, Photine quickly changed the subject and waxed theological (John 4:18–19). She brought up the theological division over two rival mountains. The Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim and the Jews worshiped on Mount Zion. Samaritans refused to worship in Jerusalem, preferring their own temple built on Mount Gerizim in 400 BC. The Jews didn’t recognize Mount Gerizim as a place of worship, and in 128 BC they destroyed the Samaritan temple. This only added to the bitter hostility between the two people groups.

Samaritans practiced circumcision and Sabbath observance, but they only accepted the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). They also regarded Israel’s history as apostate. They claimed that the true sacred site stood on Mount Gerizim. They rejected the location and validity of the Jewish temple.

Jesus went on to tell Photine that God the Father was turning the tables on how people would worship Him. God now sought any person to worship Him in spirit (in reality, not pretense) and truth (according to who He really is) from any place—a new era with a new kind of worship.

Such an idea was revolutionary to first-century Jews and Samaritans.

When Photine moved on from the subject, suggesting that one day the Restorer will come and sort all of these worship controversies out, Jesus stunned her by saying, “The person you are speaking to right now is the Messiah!”

The marvel of the story is that when He uttered those words, she actually believed Him. The Messiah of the Jews and the Taheb of the Samaritans, God’s representative on earth, was a Jew! And even though He knew her shameful past and her sinful present, He offered her living water.

Photine had never seen just gentleness in a man. No criticism, no condemnation, no anger. She had known the sting of racism and prejudice from Jews all her life, yet she received none from Jesus.

What a Lord!

During their conversation, the disciples returned, bearing food in their hands. They were stunned to find Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman, and were hesitant to ask Him about it.

But Photine was so transformed by the encounter that she rushed to tell the elders of Sychar about this man. Utterly preoccupied, she abandoned her water pot.

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