Jesus, Son of God—Bringer of Unity, Preserver of Persons

Warner M. Bailey

Grace Presbytery includes a period of planned theological discussion in every presbytery meeting. Looking ahead to the forthcoming release of the report of the Task Force on Peace, Unity, & Purity of the Church, they have chosen to focus on the meaning(s) of peace, unity, and purity in three successive presbytery meetings. In June the presbytery will reflect together on unity. Two papers from pastors of different theological perspectives will serve as resources and discussion starters for the presbyteries. With their permission, we share them here. To read "Synonyms: Unity & Uniformity?" by the Rev. Dale W. Patterson, please click here.

In Jesus’ day Jews had permission under Roman law to kill Samaritans who strayed beyond the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple.

Luke 17.11-19 tells the story of Jesus cleansing ten lepers, 9 Jewish and 1 Samaritan. He sends them to the priests for authentication of their cleansing and readmission to their community and house of faith. Only the Samaritan reverses his tracks praising God and falling at the feet of Jesus, thanking him. Jesus pronounces him saved, made whole.

Lepers were “unclean” people and as such outcasts and peculiar persons. They were required to prove their healing to religious authorities before they could be readmitted into proper society. These strictures applied to both Jews and Samaritans.

Jews and Samaritans were caught up in a history of antagonism that stretched back five centuries or more at the time of Jesus. Religious hostility between these populations resulted in separate and exclusive worship centers. In Jesus’ day Jews had permission under Roman law to kill Samaritans who strayed beyond the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple.

The radical move Jesus makes is not to lay his Jewish “trip” on the Samaritan.

For Jesus to send the Samaritan along with the 9 Jews to Jerusalem priests would result in certain death. Jesus honors the uniqueness of the Samaritan’s ethnicity and religion by sending him to his own priests. He does this that he might live. The radical move Jesus makes is not to lay his Jewish “trip” on the Samaritan. He does not take the “Samaritan” out of the Samaritan.

But the Samaritan whirls in his tracks and races back to Jesus, praising God and falling at the feet of Jesus—an obvious act of worship—thanking him. This cleansed person has been graced with insight that his own priests are no longer adequate representatives to receive his response to God for his healing. Only Jesus can fill this role. The picture of the Samaritan praising God and thanking Jesus in an act of worship makes a powerful statement of who Jesus is as Son of God.

What is the connection between Jesus’ honoring the uniqueness of the Samaritan, sending him to his own priests, and the Samaritan’s coming to see him as Son of God?  Jesus did not force the Samaritan to become something he could not (a Jew) because Jesus is grounded in something exceedingly more ultimate than ethnic or cultural purity or religious superiority. Jesus did not need to lay his Jewish prejudices on the Samaritan because Jesus is our window into God.

Jesus does not take the “Samaritan” out of the Samaritan.
He honors the Samaritan and gets a disciple.

Therefore, because Jesus was so grounded, he was free to care for the Samaritan as a Samaritan. The Samaritan was graced with insight to see that the courtesy Jesus extended to him, sending him to his own priests, grew out of the grounding of Jesus in God like no other earthly representative could ever be. Under the power of this insight, he came back to Jesus and worshiped him. Jesus pronounced him not only cleansed, but saved.

Jesus does not take the “Samaritan” out of the Samaritan. He honors the Samaritan and gets a disciple.

Jesus brings unity to his Church as those graced with insight confess him with one voice Son of God. Our unity rests in our common confession. As Son of God, Jesus preserves diversity as an expression of God’s care for the preciousness, uniqueness, and giftedness of life. When the church is faithful to these two poles—unity and diversity—the unified voice that confesses will not drown out the diversity of speech, and the diversity of expression in the church will keep clearly focused on the worship of the Creator who heals and makes whole everything that is lost, regarded as unclean, and marginalized.