Neither here, nor there! - John 4's implications for the Middle East

What lies at the root of the trouble which is threatening to destroy our world today?

Well, it's a piece of land, about 60 miles long and 30 miles wide, and is what used to be called the land of Palestine. It's a series of problems following the setting up of the State of Israel in 1948 when thousands of Arabs were forced into exile as President Harry Truman gave in to the Jewish political lobby in New York and Britain decided to wash its hands of the problem, leaving the Arabs to sink or swim.

Things were made worse when, in 1967, the American-backed Israeli army destroyed the Egyptian air force on the ground, took control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in what came to be called the Six-Day War.

These actions, accompanied by various atrocities, including the massacre of 250 Arabs by Israeli terrorists in the village of Deir Yasin, near Jerusalem, are important factors which help to explain the hostility of the Islamic world towards Britain and the United States today. Those problems of 30-50 years ago simply haven't gone away and, with the rise of Islam and its increasing power worldwide, extremist groups are out for revenge.

Grievances

You see, the state of Israel is a festering grievance to the Arab and Muslim world, as Gerald Butt puts it in his remarkable book, A Rock and a Hard Place: 'The role of the West in supporting Israel is interwoven in Arab minds with the trauma of defeat and the knowledge that so many lives were thrown away in fruitless attempts to challenge the military superiority of the Jewish state. It is estimated that in the 1967 war alone at least 26,000 Arabs were killed.'

The fact is that both Muslims and Jews attach great importance to the sacred and holy places of their past. Their religion is rooted in their history and the events which happened to their forefathers - in particular, Abraham and his immediate descendants. The identity of both Arabs and Jews depends on those places being preserved and protected.

But both groups are claiming the same land as their own. We know that in both Islam and Judaism, religion, politics, economics, history, geography and culture are all bound together. So who controls the Holy Land is of great significance in their sense of identity and success.

Sucked in

We should also remember, however, that at times the Christian church has got sucked into this way of thinking. The Crusades grew out of the belief that Jerusalem was still the Holy City which 'the Church' must liberate from the 'infidel'. Between 1100 and 1350, thousands of young knights from Northern Europe sharpened their swords and saddled their horses and traipsed off to the Middle East to give their lives in the cause of God. All this, under the banner of papal blessing and the promise that death in the defence of the Holy City meant an immediate passport to heaven (sounds familiar?).

Even today, thousands of pre-millennial American churches, believing that the State of Israel is still at the centre of God's plans for the future, are quite happy to support the Jews, assuming that the Arab is the enemy.

Woman at the well

But what's all this got to do with us, as we open our Bibles at John 4? Well, more than you might imagine. You see, among all her other problems the woman we meet in this passage had fallen into the age-old trap of thinking that religion is about far-away places with strange-sounding names. She thought that God had somehow tied himself to certain sacred locations and you had to visit those places and somehow lay claim to them if you were going to experience his blessing and favour (verse 20). Whereas, Jesus plainly shows her that, in the new religion he had come to bring, names and places on a map are of relative unimportance; in fact, they were 'neither here, nor there'.

Hence the title of our study. You see, what our Lord Jesus does with this woman is to take her to the heart of true religion. He shows her that it's not only her morality that needs to change but her whole way of thinking about God. In fact, until her thinking about God has changed, in a sense her morals are 'neither here nor there'. For, as the Bible shows again and again, you can't change behaviour without changing character and you can't change character without changing beliefs. 'As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.'

People have to discover personally who God really is and experience the power of truth in the conscience and the soul. We, however, tend to get things the wrong way round. For example, people say, 'Look at the world! Isn't it in a terrible state? We need to clean it up. We need more policemen on the beat, more teachers in our schools, more social workers in our cities.' But Jesus said, 'You must be born again.' Or, as in her case, 'You must taste and drink the living water.'

True nature of worship

In other words, you have to be converted and until you are converted you will always be tied up with short-term interests and material objectives. We need to look carefully at Jesus's way of dealing with this woman as he shows her that the whole business of the mountain of Samaria or the city of Jerusalem is 'neither here, nor there'.

In particular, as Jesus developed the conversation, he showed her that the nature of worship results from the nature of God himself, 'God is Spirit' (verse 24). Now, of course, Jesus could have said lots of other things about God, but the thing she needed to hear was that God is Spirit. You see, for one thing, she had lived an immoral life and that's always easier if you imagine that God is confined by certain times or to certain places. If you think he lives on a mountain, he is not likely to see what goes on in the bedroom. But the God whom Jesus presents is an infinite presence. As we read these words, five things come to mind.

As Spirit, God is:

1 Invisible. We live in his sight but he doesn't live in ours and that's a huge advantage which should create profound reverence.

2 Untouchable. No assault is possible upon the bunker of his infinite superiority. Psalm 2, 'He that sits in the heavens laughs.'

3 Immortal. Being Spirit there is neither deterioration, death nor decay. Our God will never be surprised by some hidden condition or rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

4 Invincible. His plans are permanently on course and so he whose infinite power spoke the material creation into being will fully succeed in the work of the new creation.

5 Accessible. God's invisibility does not mean he can't be known - for faith locates his gracious presence and receives his fatherly promise. So the sincere believer can enter into a lasting and happy relationship with this glorious, yet tender, Being.

And Jesus's words here constitute a wonderful invitation to put aside the ambitions and regrets of our present crumbling world and rise to enjoy that enduring reality which he has secured 'for all who believe on his name'.
In view of these things - the rest of history is 'neither here, nor there'.

Malcolm MacGregor is pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Ipswich.