John
4:7-9, 13-14, 19-26 (NIV) When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said
to her, "Will you give me a drink?"
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The
Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.
How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with
Samaritans.)
…
13
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I
give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
…
19
"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our
fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we
must worship is in Jerusalem."
21
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship
the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship
what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the
Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the
Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and
in truth."
25 The
woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming.
When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then
Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
NOTE: One of the
saddest stories of scripture is when Jeroboam led a revolt of ten tribes of
Israel and set up a separate nation. The sad part of the story is not the
revolt, but rather Jeroboam's decision to set up two high places for worship so
that the people would not return to Jerusalem. The decision was a replay of the
golden calf incident in the desert and ultimately was a major reason for the
destruction of the norther kingdom 200 years later by Assyria. Amazingly, the
Samaritans, who are the distant relations to the northern kingdom still believe
that one of the high places was the correct place to worship. Intermixed with
falsehood was the truth of the Messiah. Jesus had just explained the falsity of
the women's belief. Her answer was to defer to a coming Messiah to judge her
truth. Jesus, boldly, reveals to her that he is that Messiah, therefore what he
just said was truth. Jesus displays a right kind of tolerance. He was very
accepting of the person and respectful, but he corrects her wrong theology.
Tolerance does not mean that all beliefs are true or equal. One can hold a
false view, but another does not have to accept that view as true. Jesus, very
clearly, tells her that her view is false. When she tries to defer the
conversation, he makes it even more clear by claiming to be the very person who
would ultimately clear up the confusion. This is probably one of the best
examples of correct tolerance in scripture: respectful attitude (to a normally racially hated group) with
respectful and gentle correction using truth. We ought to follow the very same
model in our interactions with people of different views. We can't claim to be
the Messiah, but we can clearly articulate the claims of the bible. Whether a
person chooses to believe or not is their decision.
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