Racial Labels

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jn. 4:20

The Samaritan woman, perceiving that Jesus was of the Jewish race, attributed to him the standard Jewish belief that men ought to worship in Jerusalem. It was an utterly superficial judgment. Jesus was a Jew, but not in the sense that he shared all opinions with his compatriots. Naturally as a Jew, and until the authorities of his own people cast him out, his worship centered in Jerusalem. But it was not a narrow nationalistic worship that he observed in the national shrine. He told that worldly woman, “The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Neither the Holy Mountain of Samaria nor the Holy City of Jerusalem was the exclusive place of worship. For God’s call is for the spiritual worship of the heart which is subject to no form, time or place.

The Samaritan woman made a serious mistake in attributing an opinion to Jesus on the basis of her observation of certain racial characteristics. Even so, to apply a racial label to any man without considering whether or not he deserves it is a great injustice. And this is true both by way of commendation or blame. For each individual is not only a representative of his race or nation. He may be, first of all, a man.