HarvestInsider

“… and you will be my witnesses… in Samaria…”  Acts 1:8

Jews did not get along with Samaritans.  The hatred between their two cultures had raged for hundreds and hundreds of years.  They didn’t associate with each other, nor did they like one another.  The cultures believed the worst about each other, and they were convinced that they were right in what they believed.

When Jesus told the disciples that they were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, they probably nodded with understanding and agreement.  These areas were filled with people just like them… Jewish people.  They had the same religious background, they had the same heritage, they had the same nationality.  But when Jesus added in the region of Samaria, I can imagine the disciples taking a look at each other and wondering if they had missed something.  Samaritans couldn’t be a part of our outreach project, could they?

Yet the calling of Jesus wasn’t just to reach out to people who were like them, or even to people that they liked.  God called them to reach out to every person, no matter their religion, their heritage, or nationality.  So the question is, who are the Samaritans in your life?  Who are the people who are so different from you, that you have separated yourself from them emotionally and spiritually?  Is it an ethnic divide?  Is it a political divide?  It is a cultural divide?  You and I are called to step into and engage our Samaria.