Paper 143 Overview: Going Through Samaria

At the end of June, A.D. 27, Jesus and the twelve apostles departed from Jerusalem due to increasing opposition from Jewish religious leaders and traveled northward into Samaria. They spent several weeks teaching the Samaritans, who received their message enthusiastically, and this experience helped most of the apostles overcome their prejudices against these people, though Judas Iscariot continued to struggle with accepting them. The group then traveled to Greek cities near the Jordan where Jesus taught important lessons about courage, self-mastery, and the universal appeal of his gospel message.

During their time in Samaria, several significant events occurred, including Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, a time of rest and relaxation on Mount Sartaba, and extensive teaching about prayer and worship during evening sessions on Mount Gerizim. Jesus taught that true religion is an individual's personal relationship with God, that prayer strengthens spiritual receptivity, and that worship is the soul's communion with the divine Father. This period of ministry marked significant growth for the apostles and established foundations for future evangelism in this region.

At the end of June, A.D. 27, Jesus and his twelve apostles left Jerusalem because of increasing opposition from Jewish religious leaders. They stored their personal belongings at Lazarus' home in Bethany and traveled north into Samaria, where they tarried over the Sabbath at Bethel. For more than two weeks, they taught both Jews and Samaritans in this region, many of whom traveled significant distances to hear the good news of the kingdom.

The people of southern Samaria welcomed Jesus' message eagerly, and most of the apostles were able to overcome their cultural prejudices against Samaritans. Judas Iscariot, however, found it especially difficult to accept these people. By the end of July, Jesus and his apostles were preparing to visit the Greek cities of Phasaelis and Archelais near the Jordan, where they would face the challenge of presenting their message to predominantly gentile audiences.

During the first half of August, Jesus and his apostles established their headquarters in the Greek cities of Archelais and Phasaelis. These communities were primarily populated by gentiles—Greeks, Romans, and Syrians—with very few Jewish residents. In their interactions with these Roman citizens, the apostles encountered new challenges and objections to their message about the coming kingdom, which differed significantly from the resistance they had faced from Jewish audiences.

Philip voiced a common concern when he asked Jesus how to respond to gentiles who considered their teachings suitable only for the weak and passive, not for those seeking strength and aggression. Jesus replied that his mission was to reveal the Father's loving character, emphasizing that divine love has its disciplines and that his gospel was meant for all people—rich and poor, weak and strong. He prophetically told his apostles that proclaiming this message would require extraordinary courage and spiritual heroism, as many would eventually die for their loyalty to the truth.

Jesus himself exemplified perfect self-control, never retaliating when reviled or threatening his tormentors when he suffered. When Andrew inquired about the difference between John's teaching of self-denial and Jesus' approach of self-control, Jesus explained that John taught the way of righteousness through self-examination and self-denial, while he brought a new message focused on self-forgetfulness and self-control.

Jesus taught that mastering oneself is greater than capturing a city and represents true moral development and spiritual growth. He contrasted the old way of suppressing, obeying, and conforming to rules with his new approach of transformation through the Spirit of Truth, which strengthens believers from within. This spiritual renewal enables the joyful performance of God's will and liberates people from self-bondage and fear, making them "masters of the self and all that pertains to the desires of the flesh" rather than slaves to rigid religious practices.

Around this time, the apostles experienced increasing tension and emotional strain as they struggled to maintain harmonious relations with John the Baptist's disciples. Andrew, feeling overwhelmed by these interpersonal conflicts, approached Jesus with these problems. Rather than directly intervening in these social difficulties, Jesus suggested they all take a three-day period of rest and relaxation on Mount Sartaba.

Jesus instructed Andrew to privately ask each apostle to avoid mentioning their troubles during this retreat. On the mountain, Jesus taught them the value of rest and the effectiveness of temporarily setting aside problems to gain fresh perspective. After three days away, the apostles returned with improved attitudes, having discovered that many of their perceived problems had diminished in importance or resolved themselves. This experience significantly improved their relationships with John's followers and taught them valuable lessons about handling interpersonal tensions.

The enmity between Jews and Samaritans had existed for over six hundred years, dating back to approximately 700 B.C. when the king of Assyria, after suppressing a revolt in central Palestine, forcibly relocated more than 25,000 Jews from northern Israel and replaced them with foreigners. The religious antagonism intensified after the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity, when Samaritans opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and later assisted Alexander the Great, who permitted them to build their own temple on Mount Gerizim.

This historical tension made Jesus' decision to enter Samaria a significant test of the apostles' loyalty. Despite their cultural aversion to Samaritans, the twelve were not opposed to preaching in Greek cities of the Decapolis and Syria, but entering Samaria required them to overcome deep-seated prejudices. Their willingness to follow Jesus into this region demonstrated that they had developed a form of personal loyalty to him that transcended their cultural biases and religious traditions.

When Jesus and his apostles arrived at Jacob's well near Sychar, Jesus remained at the well to rest while Philip took the others to arrange for food and lodging. When a Samaritan woman named Nalda came to draw water, Jesus asked her for a drink, surprising her that a Jewish man would speak to a Samaritan woman. Their conversation deepened when Jesus offered her "living water" and demonstrated insight into her personal life, including her complicated marital history.

Though initially flirtatious and then defensive, Nalda soon recognized Jesus' spiritual authority and attempted to divert the conversation from her personal situation to theological debates about proper worship locations. Jesus perceived her spiritual thirst beneath her evasiveness and told her, "I who speak to you am he"—the first direct declaration of his divine nature on earth, remarkably offered to a Samaritan woman of questionable reputation. When the apostles returned, they were astonished to find Jesus speaking alone with her, but Jesus had compassionately addressed her as "a daughter of the Most High," and she went on to bring many from her city to hear him.

The evening that Nalda brought people from Sychar to see Jesus, the apostles urged him to eat after their day without food. Jesus responded, "I have meat to eat that you do not know about," explaining that his nourishment came from doing God's will. He told them the fields were "already white for the harvest" and that they would soon reap where John the Baptist had sown, referring to the prepared hearts of these Samaritans.

Jesus and the apostles preached in Sychar for two days before establishing a camp on Mount Gerizim, where they remained until the end of August. Jesus taught that the central reality in God's kingdom is that God is a Father-friend and humans are brother-friends. He emphasized that love is the greatest relationship in the universe and truth is the greatest pronouncement of these divine relationships. The work they accomplished in these Samaritan cities yielded many souls for the kingdom and prepared the ground for Philip's later successful ministry in this region after Jesus' death and resurrection.

During the evening conferences on Mount Gerizim, Jesus taught many profound truths about prayer and worship. He explained that true religion is the personal relationship between an individual soul and its Creator, while organized religion represents humans' attempt to socialize worship. Jesus emphasized that worship needs to alternate with service, just as work should alternate with play and philosophy should be balanced with poetry.

Jesus defined prayer as designed to increase spiritual awareness rather than knowledge, explaining that it spiritually sustains while worship is divinely creative. He described worship as "effortless attention" and "true soul rest," representing the finite individual's identification with the Infinite. Prayer was characterized as "self-reminding" or "sublime thinking," while worship was "self-forgetting" or "superthinking." These teachings on Mount Gerizim, though not fully grasped by the apostles at the time, would continue to influence believers throughout subsequent generations on earth and other worlds.