Jesus makes a difference to those he meets

Have I mentioned before my thought about being “born again”?  Dear Nicodemus of the enquiring mind, posed a question to Jesus: “How can a man be born when he is old” (John 3: 4)?  My Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary says of him: “A Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews and a teacher of Israel (John 3:1, 10), whose secret visit to our Lord was the occasion of the discourse recorded only by St. John.  In Nicodemus a noble candor and a simple love of truth shine out in the midst of hesitation and fear of man.  He finally became a follower of Christ, defended him in the Sanhedrin, of which he was a member (John 7:50-52), and after the crucifixion came with Joseph of Arimathaea to take down and embalm the body of Jesus.  (John 19:39)” 

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicodemus) says: “Biblical historians have theorized that he is identical to Nicodemus ben Gurion, mentioned in the Talmud as a wealthy and popular holy man reputed to have had miraculous powers. Christian tradition believes that Nicodemus was martyred sometime in the 1st century.”

My little thought about being “born again” is, that we are born again when we know that we were never born into matter and do not die out of matter, for “man is not material, he is spiritual” as the Scientific Statement of Being demands that we know - see Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p. 468:9.

Chapter 4 brings the story Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the Sychar well.  Samaria, my Bible dictionary tells me, was an area of the Holy Land which was probably about 20 miles from north to south and 30 miles from east to west.  It was just south of Galilee and west of the Jordan, but difficult to give exact boundaries.  Oh boy!  It has a complicated history.  The area was depopulated at the time of the captivity of Israel and populated later by Assyrians.  Arch-villain of the story of Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem (see the book of Nehemiah), Sanballat the Horanite, gets a mention!  His daughter married Manesseh, who was expelled by Nehemiah and settled in Samaria, where he and his family became high priests.  The Samaritans “are said to have done everything in their power to annoy the Jews.”  (Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary under ‘Samaritans’)

In a word, the Jews and the Samaritans didn’t get on very well.  Although Samaritan worship was now purely Jewish, they accepted only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament teachings.  Sounds a bit like doctrinal disagreements among to-day’s Christians.

The story of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at the well is an illustration of the universal nature of the Christ.  Even though the men believed Jesus, they wouldn’t take the woman’s word that Jesus was indeed “the Christ” (John 4: 29), the Saviour of the world.

Joyce Voysey