Jesus and the Samaritans

GOLDEN TEXT: “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” —John 4:42

JOHN 4:27-42

IN MATTHEW 10:5,6 Jesus is quoted as saying to his disciples, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, nor into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” It was perhaps because of these instructions that Jesus’ disciples marveled that he should talk with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Besides, socially speaking, there were definite lines of demarcation between Jews and Samaritans, and these restrictions were rigidly observed. But in this, as well as in other ways, Jesus overcame the world. He lived above the prejudices of his time, and was just as willing to present the kingdom message to a Samaritan as to anyone else.

Nor does this incident indicate that Jesus did not adhere in principle to the instructions he gave to his disciples, restricting them from going to the Samaritans. Those instructions had to do with their planned campaign of operation, while the brief association with the Samaritans noted in our lesson was merely incidental, occurring while the disciples were enroute to Galilee. Jesus abode with the Samaritans only two days, and the circumstances indicate that much of this time was probably spent with his disciples.

Our Golden Text indicates that a number of the Samaritans became convinced that Jesus was the Christ of promise. The Samaritans claimed an interest in the promises God had made to Abraham. They were the descendants of Gentiles who had intermarried with Jews, Gentiles who were sent to Palestine by Nebuchadnezzar after he had taken the Jews captive to Babylon. These Gentiles were still in Palestine when the Jews returned from the seventy years’ captivity, and through intermarriage the: Samaritan colony came into being. Thus they would have some knowledge of God’s promises, and evidently many of them had faith in those promises.

The apparent willingness of some of these Samaritans to hear and accept the kingdom message afforded Jesus an excellent opportunity to encourage his disciples to faithfulness in the harvest work of that time. Declining food for the time being, he said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”

And then, as though he wished his disciples would be equally concerned with the harvest work, he said to them, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”—vs. 35

Jesus further explained to his disciples that he had sent them to reap where they had “bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.” Throughout the entire Jewish age much labor had been bestowed upon the Jewish nation by one after another of God’s prophets and teachers in Israel. Now the harvest time had come.

This was the work which occupied Jesus. This was God’s will for him, and it was the all-important thing in his life. While he knew that he was not called to labor among the Samaritans, he was willing, when opportunity offered, to present the message to anyone who would listen and manifest some interest, as the Samaritan woman did, and as her friends later did. But the Jewish nation was the real harvest field in which Jesus and the disciples labored at that time.

Jesus’ instructions that they go not into the way of the Gentiles did not imply that God had no blessings in store for the Gentiles. It was merely that in God’s covenant with Israel a few more years of exclusive favor was due this nation. This was pointed out by the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, which spoke of the covenant being confirmed with this people for one “week”—symbolic week, that is, a period of seven years.

This period ended three and one-half years after Jesus’ death. And after his resurrection, knowing that the time was about up, he lifted his previous restrictions and commissioned his disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, beginning at Jerusalem. This commission was carried out by the Lord’s faithful people throughout the age, and now we are in another harvest period, the harvest of the Gospel age.

It is just as true now as it was in the Jewish-age harvest that those who reap receive wages, and gather fruit unto life eternal. But there are no restrictions now as to where the Gospel of the kingdom can be preached—no restrictions, that is, so far as races are concerned. It is, of course, a harvest work, and the labor is in the same general field where the Gospel-age sowing has taken place—which is throughout the professed Christian world.

QUESTIONS

What was one reason the disciples were amazed to find Jesus engrossed in witnessing to a Samaritan woman?

Did Jesus violate the instructions he gave to his disciples by witnessing to the Samaritans?

Who were the Samaritans, and why would they have some knowledge of God’s promises?

Why is the ministry of Jesus and his disciples described as harvest work?

Is there a similar harvest work at the end of the Gospel age?

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