Readings for today: 2 Kings 16-17, 2 Chronicles 28
“And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities…To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.” (2 Kings 17:24, 34)
Samaria. The heart of the former northern kingdom of Israel. Utterly destroyed by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. The people of God deported and scattered throughout the empire. New people groups from all over imported in. They brought their own gods with them. They mixed and married with the people left in the land. The result was a melting pot of culture and religion and ethnicity that made the area anathema to the Jews. It’s hard to overstate the animosity Jews held for their Samaritan neighbors. And yet Jesus intentionally visited this region. Intentionally sought to save the Samaritan people. And Jesus sends us not only into this region but to the ends of the earth as well. (Acts 1:8)
It’s one thing to read these stories. It’s quite another to stand in Caesarea itself on the shores of the Mediterranean. It’s powerful to stand before the home of Simon the tanner where Peter receives his vision from the Lord of a great Gentile mission. There are no words when you stand in front of St. Peter’s in Joppa and ponder the fact that it was intentionally built with an orientation to the west rather than the east to point God’s people to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. (Admittedly, Joppa is a little south of Samaria but the point holds.)
How did it all begin? In tragedy and heartbreak. The kings of Israel abandoned their faith in God. They led God’s people into all kinds of idolatry. They modeled their reigns after that of their pagan neighbors. They wanted to be kings who ruled like the other kings of the earth. Again, the result is judgment. Exile. Death. Destruction. Some people I know can’t believe God would ever do such a thing. They believe God’s judgment calls into question his goodness. They blame God for creating our mess in the first place. Such arguments are fundamentally flawed. They ignore human freedom and responsibility. They are deflections. Attempts to shift the blame off ourselves for pain and suffering we bring down on ourselves. As creatures made in God’s image and given dominion by God over His creation, we are accountable for the way we choose to live our lives. Created to bring God glory and graciously steward all God has made, we will be judged based in no small part on how we do. Called by God to love Him first and love our neighbor as ourselves, we will be held liable for every careless word, thought, deed, and act of worship. This is sobering and would be downright scary except for Jesus Christ. He is faithful where we are not. He is true where we are false. He is whole where we are broken. He is good and He is love and He offers His own life in place of our own so that we may live.
What will we do with such a gift? How will we choose to live in response to what God has done for us? For me, it almost ups the ante. I find myself wanting to commit more and more of myself to Him because of how He has committed Himself to me. I find myself wanting to serve Him with all my heart because of how He first served me. I find myself pursuing faithful obedience not out of obligation but from a deep sense of gratitude that my God would die for me. This is the heart of the gospel and it is for Jews and Samaritans and Gentiles and anyone who would call on the name of the Lord.
Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 13-17