Ko wai koe? Who are you?

 

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.

(Luk 9:51-56 TNIV)

Ko wai koe? Who are you? It is such an important question. Simply, asking a person who they are is more than just asking for their name, it is asking for their story. And, today I am going to tell you a story – a story that will put these verses into context. A story that does not come with a three point sermon, but a story with a deep meaning. Do not call judgement on a people because they don’t think like you. Do not even presume you are right because you know Christ. Instead, get to know people. Get to know their stories and realise sometimes you have to grow as well and sometimes the rejection you have experienced has a connection to your own deeper story.

So, who am I? Ko wai au?

Today, I am not going to speak to you as Fiona. Even though I am. I am going to put myself into the shoes of the Samaritan village. I come to you as a woman from that village who was there when the messengers of Jesus rocked up and demanded a place to stay. I was there when the Sons of Thunder, the disciples, James and John wanted to call fire down from Heaven to destroy us. And, you know what, no one asked us for our story, our version of the events. So, I am here to give you a deeper story.

Ko wai au? Who am I.

I was born in Samaria about 20 years after the big Earthquake in 31BCE. King Herold’s great temple Augusteum had been completed and our people were still hated by the Jews. This hatred went back centuries. You see my people, the Samaritan people, have strong connections with the Jews. In fact, they are our direct relatives. Our people come from the line of Abraham and Jacob.

But our family line broke after the death of King Solomon. Solomon had not treated us Northern tribes well and when his son Rehoboam became King, our people sent up Jeroboam (you can read about this in the book of 1 Kings) from Exile in Egypt. Jeroboam cried out for justice for our people, Rehoboam refused. And from that point, David’s Kingdom broke into two – the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. We each had our own Kings and we hated each other.

Things got worse after the Assyrian conquest. Our cities were plundered and our menfolk were taken away. Our women were forced to intermarry with the Assyrian victors; we were raped, beaten and made to bear their children. The purity of our bloodline was broken. It is true, we deserved a bit of a shake up. We had lost our way with Yahweh, years of corrupt Kings leading to the infamous Ahab and Jezebel meant, as Elijah warned us, Yahweh would take his zealous anger out on us. And, I have heard, that some of you Christians struggle with the Old Testament because it does talk about the zealous anger of God. But it is zealous for a reason – you see the story of my people, the Samaritans, is not one of God turning his back on us – it is a story of us, being chosen for a purpose, turning our back on God. His zealous anger was one of love for the world.

And, it was a warning to the Kingdom of Judah as well. And they would experience the zealous anger of Yahweh. Later, under the Babylonian conquest, Jerusalem would fall and they, the Jews, would be taken into exile into Babylon. Nebachadrezzer would be a man of his word. Our cities fell as well. But we rebuilt them. And then the Jews returned. And the way that they treated us. You wouldn’t believe it.

We were the ones that stayed behind. We rebuilt the cities. Then they came back. They had a letter from King Artaxerxes saying that they had permission to take trees from our forests and that the land was theirs – can you believe it? Our governor at the time, Sanballat, was horrified. His reaction was to stand up for us – he wrote a letter back to the King. And we were ignored. It only made the situation worse.

Your book of Nehemiah explains this situation – but again it is from the side of the Jews. It doesn’t give you our story. But you know people hate you when they call you “enemies” in their history books. And Nehemiah does this, he doesn’t call us brothers, he calls us enemies. And okay. I am not trying to get you to side with me. But just to understand our history goes deep. Jacob had 12 sons – only three of those sons make up the Jewish people.

The other nine, make up Samaria. And yes, we went astray but that doesn’t mean that the sons of Judah, Benjamin and Levi were perfect – far from it. Not only were we a nation divided – we were brothers divided, a family broken and divided with hate.

You see if you want to know my people – the blood runs deep, the hurt is real and it was real when the Messiah walked the Earth. The Jews would spit upon us on the streets. They would cross the road. They refused to marry our people. They shut us out of the Temple in Jerusalem. Those of us lucky enough to convert to Judaism found ourselves locked in the outer courts with the Gentiles. Can you imagine that – we whakapapa to Jacob but we are not Jewish enough to be a descendent of Abraham – it doesn’t make sense I know. But the hate was real.

So real that Jesus would use our people in a famous story about love. You call the story the Good Samaritan. If I was to give you a title to make that story seem like it was meant to be today it would be called the story of the Good Enemy. There is no way a Jew would describe us as “good” – just think, back in Nehemiah’s day we were “enemies” – how can an enemy be good? It is just not possible. But Jesus used us to drive a point home, do not judge a people because of the colour of their skin or where they are in life. Do not judge a people if they have gone off the rails at some point and started worshipping false Gods. Do not think yourself perfect because you have the answers.

Do not judge and do not think you are perfect. After all you are learning, and you might just learn from the people you call enemies. You just might learn how to love, and you might find them demonstrating what it is to be a neighbour to someone in need.

That’s the back story of my people. That’s why we didn’t open up our houses with open arms for Jesus, his disciples and all the other people who were following them to Jerusalem. But even with this back story there is a little more to the picture.

Your scriptures capture this story perfectly. Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem. Messengers went ahead to prepare the way for him. They rocked up to our village. And do you think they even bothered to ask who we were? No, as far as they were concerned, we were nothing but despicable Samaritans. So, they rushed in with their message. Jesus had told them he was going to die. Jesus is the son of God and has to get to the Temple in Jerusalem. We must give him a bed.

There was no – ko wai koe. There was no – who are you. It was all – this is us, this is our message, you must accept it. There was no connection attempted and with a history of disconnection this is so so important.

So, if I can tell you anything – if you have a message, if you have good news. Ko wai koe – who are you? Get to know the people you are sharing it with. Get to know them deeply. Make a real connection. Just don’t rock on up and say – do I have a message for you. Instead, rock on up and say Ko wai koe? Who are you? And mean the question when you ask it. Don’t drive to your answer and merely ask Ko wai koe, who are you, because you have a hidden agenda; you want something, you want to share your news, your opinion, and once you have shared it, it is journey finished, connection broken again. Ko wai koe, who are you, ko wai au, who am I – get to really know the people outside of your life. Journey with people, take the challenge and try to get to know people you don’t know, people who challenge you. But remember, when you do; you are starting a journey, not finishing it.

After all, you might have the good news – but you also might be still learning it in your walk every day.

This happened to the Sons of Thunder – James and John. You heard how they reacted when they heard that we had not offered them a bed. Their response was to ask if they should call down fire from heaven. Hopefully, you understand with me sharing with you the back-story why their reaction was like it was. I didn’t blame them – for me I just went – typical Jew – all prepared to talk a why of love but not prepared to walk it.

You know I bet that there are times that you are like that, even being a Christian, it is easier to talk about a life of love. It is so much easier than demonstrating to others what I life of love looks like.

I have been looking at some of your message boards, you call something “Facebook”. I don’t get why it is called “Facebook”. It is not a book and you really can’t see the face of the other on a device. You really can’t commit to a journey with people on a device but so many of you try to.

But I have been looking at some of the posts of Christians. Talk about calling down fire from heaven. There are curses on parliament, on gay people, on abortion supporters. It is so funny, you will see someone’s Facebook and there are heaps of God Loves You Memes and in amongst the Memes, the pictures of flowers and scriptures, are “Some Leader is Going to Hell” – talk about walking a life and way of love. Christians can be so much like the Sons of Thunder – react quickly with condemnation rather than love.

This is so James and John. But the Sons of Thunder like you all also have a deeper story. They learnt from their saviour. Soon after the accession of Jesus into Heaven, Phillip came to Samaria. He came and briefly lived among us. He prayed for many of us, and miracles occurred in our cities. He lived a life of love among us. There was great joy in our city. You can read about this in your book of Acts.

He even convinced Simon the sorcerer of the healing power of the Savior Jesus Christ. To convince Simon – wow – it was huge. Simon himself had healing gifts. Simon felt that he had access to a special spirit, something he called “great power,” but he followed Phillip around. And Phillip, he didn’t condemn Simon, he didn’t tell Simon he was going to Hell. No, Phillip just loved Simon and shared with him the good news of the Cross and the healing and restoration of the gospel message. Phillip journeyed with Simon and Simon saw Christ in this journey.

Phillip started with ko wai koe – who are you. And once a deep relationship started, he moved into Ko wai te Karaiti?, who is Christ? James and John witnessed all of this, along with the other disciples, and as a result, Peter and John journeyed to Samaria to help Phillip. They too developed a relationship with Simon. But also, and it really hit us how things changed, John no longer saw us as Samaritans, as people to condemn, as enemies and outsiders to the line of Abraham. John, one of the Sons of Thunder, saw us as brothers. It was massive. It had its own healing.

And because we were no longer seen as outsiders. Because Simon was no longer seen as an outsider. John and Peter could eat at the same table as Simon. And it happened – Jew and Samaritan at the same table. Jew and Samaritan breaking bread together. Jew and Samaritan worshipping God together. And I was there at that table, when Simon asked for the power of the Holy Spirit, and Peter and John corrected him. I was there. The correction was real – Simon was prepared to give money for the Holy Spirit. Peter and John corrected him and told him that his heart was not in the right place. They didn’t call fire down from heaven. They just got to know Simon and found that they could then speak to his heart. I was there when Simon burst into tears and asked for prayer. I was there when the hands of Peter and John were laid on Simon and they prayed for him. It was a prayer of love, the tears of Simon were real, the love was real and the healing was real.

 

After that, Peter and John had such a connection with our people they found themselves welcomed throughout all of Samaria. They got to know us and they spoke to us out of love. They realized that we were not their enemy, and that the real enemy was their reaction to us when they wanted to call fire down from heaven. They brought themselves into check and got to know us.

This was huge for us. It was the beginning of real healing for many of our people. And it totally makes sense. In Acts 1:8, Jesus said

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

There are three places mentioned in these verses before the good news reaches the ends of the earth. There is Jerusalem, the holy city, the place of the Jewish temple. Then there is Judea, the homelands of the Jews, homelands to tribes that represented three of Jacob’s sons. And then there is Samaria, the other nine sons. The gospel message, the good news of the son, first brought healing to the family of Jacob. It brought restoration. It enabled my people to come back to their God. And from that restoration, the line of Abraham could fulfill their call and be a blessing for all nations.

Oh, I’m sorry, Ko wai au? Who am I?

I’m so sorry, I have been so caught up in telling you the story of my people that I forgot to tell you my story. Ko wai au? Who am I?

I am a Samaritan woman, yes. I have no family and no husband. I have had to fend for myself in these rough times. But I met this Jesus personally. It was something I never thought would happen. You see Jesus may not have stayed in Samaria on the nights before his death, but he did stay in Samaria in other times. And it was one of these times in which I had an encounter with him. And it was profound.

You see I had to get water one day from a local well. It wasn’t any local well. It was a very important well. We called it Jacob’s well. It was the well that Jacob had given Joseph. It connected us with our whakapapa. It was special. It was on our mountain of worship. While the Jews worshipped their God in Jerusalem, we worshipped our God here – at the site of the gifting of a well from a father to a son.

And while I was there, I met him. Jesus. He asked me for water, and I looked at him. I had to point out to him that I was his enemy, a Samaritan, he was a Jew.

I had to tell him that Jews and Samaritans do not associate with each other. He then shared with me about the gift of living water. I so wanted to know more about it. Jesus was so ko wai koe, who are you, in his discussion with me. He asked me to go back and get my husband. I said I had none and he affirmed this. But he also affirmed that I slept with many men and that this would need to change.

He spoke out of love when he said that the God we worshipped was not Yahweh and that change was coming. That there would be a time where people would worship in Spirit and Truth. I talked with him about the Messiah and he told me – I am the Messiah. I got to meet the Messiah personally. It was so life-changing for me. When his disciples found him they told him that he should have nothing to do with us Samaritans. He corrected them out of love.

I got to meet him personally. I went back home telling everyone about him. And my people flocked to him, to see the Christ, to meet the Messiah.

Ko wai au, who am I.

I am the Samaritan women, a sinner, an outsider.

I was there at the well.

I met the Christ.

I was there when messengers came and we sent them away.

I was there when the Sons of Thunder wanted to call down fire.

I was there when the Christ, told them that this is not the way of love.

I was there when Phillip came to know us.

I was there when Simon left his ways of sorcery.

I was at the Table when Peter and John corrected Simon in love.

I was at the Table when Simon wept and Peter and John prayed.

I was part of the story, part of the journey.

 

I have been told that I must give you a sermon. I must give you points to take away. I have given you a story. I hope that you have been able to get points from my story. But I know your gospel message because someone I considered an enemy, showed me love. I got to know your Christ because a follower of Christ got to know me.

I got to know your story because the disciples learnt from their mistake the night they asked for a bed and were rejected. The disciples learnt a simple thing – if you have been called to live a life of love, live it, don’t judge others, love others and know that there will be times that you will muck up. It’s okay because even your own faith is a growing journey, a developing story. What matters is that you are growing and developing.

Ko wai koe? Who are you?

Ko wai au? Who am I?

Connection with others starts with a simple question

Ko wai koe? Who are you?

Ko wai au? Who am I?