Are you hurting?

          In the 1980’sand 90’s there was a contemporary Christian singer by the name of David Meece who wrote and sang a beautiful song called “We were the reason.”

            I listened to his testimony on Focus on the Family last week.  He grew up in a dysfunctional family with a violent alcoholic father who frequently beat his mother and threatened to kill her.  One night his father missed the garage and drove the car through the side of the house and into David’s bedroom, got out of the car with a gun and told David he was going to kill all of the family, starting with him.  He held David in a choke hold, pressed the gun between his eyes, and growled, “You’re worthless.” 

            He didn’t pull the trigger … but his words devastated David.  The last time he saw his father the police were taking him away.  Later in life, David became a Christian and used his musical talent to bless others, but it was years before David could forgive his father and allow God to heal the hatred he had for his father.  But he did!

         Last Sunday I spoke about making hard decisions and I read part of a story found in Ezra and Nehemiah.  Their hard decision, based on the Law of Moses, was to not have anyone inter-marry with the Jewish people in order to keep them from idolatry.  The result was a number of Jewish men sent their wives and children back home!

Ezra 10:3

… let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these foreign wives and those who have been born to them …

            What a devastating decision!  That left me wondering what happened to those families and the hurt of rejection that I’m sure pierced their hearts!  So I want to follow this rejected group of people from the Old Testament into the New Testament and see the results.  First, let’s look at the people who lived among the Jews as they returned to build the Temple.

Ezra 4:8-10

1 Rehum and Shimshai wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes,

10 (from) … the nations … deported and settled in the city of Samaria,

            The people who lived in Samaria didn’t like the Jews and usually angry people are attracted to each other!  Although it isn’t specifically said, I believe the families removed from Jerusalem probably started their lives over in Samaria where their home tribes lived.  

             Perhaps over time they got over their anger.  What do you think?  Five hundred years later and animosity existed between the two groups as they continued to harass each other!  Sharp words are for a moment … but hatred lasts forever! 

            Listen to what happened with Jesus, the disciples, and a Samaritan village:

Luke 9:51-56

51 … Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem;

52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.

53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.

54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;

56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went on to another village.

            Wow!  Have ever felt the sting of anger that became a bitter hole in your soul?  Anger and payback creates anger and payback that creates anger and payback.   The emotions were running hot!  The disciples had grown up in a society where Jews and Samaritans refused to accept each other and it had not changed.  The Samaritans were a nation of mixed ethnic origin, mixed religions, and a deep anger toward the Jews and their religion.  Obviously, the Jews responded in kind but Jesus gave grace!

Luke 17:11-16

11 … While He was on the way to Jerusalem …

12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him;

Jesus spoke healing to them and sent them to the priest at the Temple.

15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice,

16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.

            Jesus was willing to minister with grace!  However, the distinction was real to the disciples and the emotions of anger and distrust between the two nations were so volatile that Jesus gave instructions to the disciples to avoid Samaria in their first attempt to evangelize and heal the sick.

Matt 10:5-6

These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

            The disciples were still learning and Jesus sent them to their own culture first.  I’m not sure the disciples had enough loving compassion in their hearts as yet to minister grace to someone whom they had hated for a lifetime!  It was not until after the disciples had grown in the faith and were filled with the Holy Spirit that Jesus gave them broader instructions:

Acts 1:8

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

            It was never God’s intention to leave a hurting world without a place of grace.  Jesus cultivated a spirit of grace in His followers that we can learn from!  Jesus changed His world by the power of the Holy Spirit!  

            In His teaching, Jesus used the story of the Good Samaritan as a pivotal point in drawing a picture of “Love your neighbor.”  This story was told in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:30

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.

            In the story, a priest and a Levite came by and offered no help to the Jewish man who had been robbed, beaten, and was in danger of losing his life!

Luke 10:33-34

33 "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

            An unlikely helper.  One of the first steps to healing your hurt is to see the other person in a new light.  In the story of David Meece, he had prayed for the ability to forgive his father but forgiveness didn’t come until God gave him a picture of his father as a little boy.  A little boy crying because of the abuse he had also endured.  When he saw his father as a human being trying to find something to heal his own hurt … he wept and forgave his father.

            Stop and take a look at the person who hurt you … see them as a little child with their own need.  See them as a person of value in God’s eyes.  That will not change who they have become, but it will change the way you see them and is a first step toward healing the hurt in your soul.

            Jesus demonstrated His love for hurting people in John four as He sat at a well in Samaria.

John 4:7-9

7 …There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."

8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

            The conversation Jesus drew her into was about Living Water.  Her response identified the spiritual separation that hurt creates in a person.

John 4:19-24

19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

            The Samaritan woman, along with her nation, had a spiritual separation from worship at the Temple.  Hurt not only separates us from one another but it causes us to attempt to find “some other way” of being in a right relationship with God.  I’ve heard people say, “God and I have an understanding” as a method of saying their unforgiveness was okay with God.  Jesus understands the hurt and is willing to heal us if we let Him!

            After Jesus dealt with the spiritual need she had in her life, she was overjoyed!

John 4:28-30

28 So the woman left her water pot, and went into the city and said to the men,

29 "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?"

30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

41 Many more believed because of His word;

            As the early church continued in the grace of Jesus Christ they did fulfill His mandate for preaching the Word at Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the remote parts of the earth.  The first evangelistic crusade into Samaria was led by Philip:

Acts 8:4-6

4 … Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.

6 The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.

14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,

15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

25 So, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 

            Jesus is in the business of healing hurts!  Whether you have been mistreated or you have mistreated others … Jesus wants to change your life!  There is joy in being set free of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, and revenge.  Let Jesus start the work today.