The Breaker-down of Barriers

John 4:5-42                              SERMON

Sermon Title:  Jesus the breaker down of barriers

By: Pastor Salome Pathak

Jesus’ mission was to break down barriers, to take down barriers between people; whether it be spiritual, cultural or ethnic barriers. We still have some of those same barriers today. And Jesus came to break them down, and to set up the reign of God – the shalom of God in Christ Jesus. [Shalom means peace. The reign of God is God active in community, here now - Emanuel - God through Jesus Christ with us now] He seeks to bring about the wellness – the wholeness of broken people. His aim is to bring peace, shalom to lives, ravaged by sin, brokenness, worries, and sicknesses in a way that no other Rabi can.

The preceding verses in this Gospel, indicates to us that it could have been an argument from some religious leaders in Jesus’ day about why was Jesus making and baptizing more disciples than John that caused Jesus to leave Judea, and go to Galilee. I believe Jesus loved being in Galilee because the people of Galilee were receptive to him. It was packed with people who did not know the rules of the law. And even if they did I don’t think it mattered to them. This made them receptive to Jesus. And I think Jesus like that very much. The Galileans wanted to hear what Jesus had to say to them. So I could understand how when Jesus got tired of listening to the squabbles among the religious leaders, he would want to escape to a place that was more receptive to the Gospel.

But there was one problem getting to Galilee. Jews and Samaritans did not mix. So, whenever Rabbis or priests were going to Galilee they would take a journey around Samaria, just so that they could avoid having an encounter with Samaritans. It would take them (6) days to get to Galilee, whereas, if they were to go through Samaria it would only take them 3 days. But Jesus was about mission, he was about reaching out to people, not just the Jews, but to all kinds of people - hurting people, broken people, sick people, rich people and poor people. Jesus was a missional Rabi, a missional priest! He was and is the breaker-down of barriers. And I believe Jesus had every intention to go through Samaria on his way to Galilee. And no doubt it was a refreshing change for him. I believe that Jesus knew that when he made the decision to go through Samaria, something beautiful would happen there.

On the road to Galilee just before getting to Sychar the road to Samaria branches off into a fork. And right at that fork lays Jacob’s well – still there today

Jesus was tired out from his journey and he sat down near the well to get some rest, while his disciples went into the city to buy some food. It was unnatural for any Jewish person or persons to be seen in the city of Samaria even to buy food. But Jesus’ disciples went go get food in the city of Samaria. Something happened to change that. They were in the company of the breaker-down of barriers! Jesus had changed his disciples’ way of thinking.

There was an aged old quarrel between Jews and Samaritans and Jesus’ mission was to break down that barrier. This quarrel started when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Samaria, captured it, conquered it, and transported most of its people to a place  called Media (2 Kings 17:6). The Assyrians brought in other people from Babylon and from other places, to Samaria. The remaining Samaritans began to intermarry. So the Jews believed that the Samaritans had committed an unforgivable crime. To the Jews the Samaritans had lost their racial purity.

Not so long ago, in the United States and other parts of the world, people were captured and forced to become slaves to others.  And the stain and stigma of slavery still haunt many of God’s precious people to this very day.   They are still being oppressed by the idea that they were slaves, by the mere color of their skin and by their country of origin. It was through no fault of their own, and yet to this day they are being stereotyped and discriminated against even in the churches.

      But the breaker-down of barriers was not and is not about race or racial purity.  He was not and is not about the religious Jews or Samaritans. And today He is not about whether we are black, white, Hispanics, Muslims, Christians or other. No, no! Jesus was and is about people, he is about community. Jesus was and is a missional Jesus and Messiah - one who brought salvation to the human race. One who reaches out the bowed down, to the one who is hurting, to the one who has an issue.  And he trained his disciples to be missional disciples, to be about the mission of binding up wounds and touching lives in a positive way. He trained his disciples to follow His example and to go into all the world and become breakers-down of barriers. They were not just to stay in their own little circle of believers, or in their own little community, but to go into all the world and care for all people. Jesus calls us to go into all the world and care for those who are different from us, care for those who speak a language that is different from ours, and to proclaim to them the Gospel of Christ – the good news of repentance and baptism.  And Jesus has promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age.

 THE DIALOGUE:

      The Gospel tells us today that while Jesus was sitting by the well at Sychar a

Woman came there to draw water. Jesus asked the woman to draw him some water from the well so he could drink. The woman was puzzled, so she asked Jesus ‘I am a Samaritan and you are a Jew’ and yet you ask me for a drink?   

Perhaps it was one of the few times in this woman’s life that she found someone with whom she could talk. To her Jesus seemed sympathetic, warm and inviting. She could see kindness in his eyes. She saw in Jesus someone who did not feel himself to be superior or critical of her. And she did not feel condemned by Jesus but instead she felt understood. She felt as though she had met a friend.  

The woman’s long walk to the well at Sychar was not in vain. She met a Rabi friend who was the breaker- down of barriers. One who would break down the barrier between her and those in her community who were critical of her.

When Jesus tells the woman, “I will give you living water and when you drink it you will never be thirsty. It will become in you a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” In her narrow thinking, she asked Jesus, Sir, give me this water that I may never be thirsty. As if to say - I don’t want to have to come all this way to Sychar to draw water and I can’t go to the well in my village, because I am considered to be the moral outcast.  So, not having to become thirsty ever again – would be perfect for me! But Jesus, the breaker-down of barriers, would not quit until the woman came face to face with truth. Jesus asked her to fetch her husband and come back with him. And suddenly she caught sight of herself. She was compelled to come face to face with herself and the inadequacy of her life. So are we today, when Jesus comes to us, we come face to face with our own inadequacy.

We see also in the previous chapter of John’s Gospel, how Necodemus, a leader of the Jews, he also came face to face with Jesus, when he came to Jesus by night to find out how he can receive salvation. But he was ashamed to be seen in public with the breaker-down of religious barriers, Jesus the Christ. And when he met up with Jesus, Jesus had to chip away at his way of thinking until he came face to face with the inadequacies of his life. Yes, when we meet up with Jesus we come face to face with our inadequacies. We realize that we are helpless to help ourselves, we are helpless to save ourselves, and we must throw ourselves in the arms of the breaker-down of our barriers. We must come into the presence of God, with a broken spirit.  And like David we need to cry out, “Create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51). 

The breaker-down of barriers did not take sides with Samaritans or Jews. He always seek to restore the outcast and the ostracized to community, to lift up the bowed down, and walk in solidarity with those who are oppressed.

Jesus ignored an ancient cultural feud just to save the woman at the well. He touched her life in a way that she was never the same again.  When Jesus touched her life, she forgot that she was ostracized or an outcast from community. With the joy of being set free, she ran back to her community and told them about Jesus. She invited them to come to Jesus the Messiah who changed her life. They did come to Jesus and their lives were changed.

What Jesus did for the woman at the well, he did for the woman’s oppressors. The breaker-down of barriers, lifted up the woman’s head, put a spring in her steps and joy in her heart. What Jesus has done for her he can do for us if we come to him and put our trust in him. Amen.