8:4 Therefore those who
were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. 5 Then Philip went down to
the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. 6 And the multitudes with one
accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles
which he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many
who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. 8 And
there was great joy in that city.
It's hard to imagine living through something like that -
being hunted by the authorities just for what you believe. As they went house
to house arresting believers many of them saw the writing on the wall and left
the city before being captured. Luke tells us that those who fled "went
everywhere" telling people about Jesus. To underscore exactly what he meant
by 'everywhere' he tells us Philip went to the city of Samaria.
Samaria used to be the capital of Israel after the twelve
tribes split. Jerusalem was the capital of Judah in the south and Samaria was
the capital of Israel in the north. Israel was then taken over by the Assyrians
and essentially assimilated into the Assyrians. They intermarried which was
forbidden and those in Judah began calling them half breeds. Over time the
relationship between the north and the South became as cold as ice. The region
of Galilee which was loyal to God and to Judah was actually in the north. This
was where Jesus grew up. I point this out because when Jews traveled back and
forth from the north to the south and vice versa the quickest route was through
Samaria but they usually traveled around them because the hatred was so deep.
When Luke tells us Philip went to Samaria to preach to them
about Jesus that is huge.
We only have to look at the rising racial tensions in the
United States to see how hard it is for walls of prejudice to come down. We
tend to nurse wounds and breed hatred into successive generations. We segregate
ourselves bases on colour, ethnicity, language etc... Time passes and the
invisible walls get higher and thicker. Nothing but the realization that the
same blood courses through all our veins can tear down the walls. For Philip it
was Jesus who taught him that. It was Jesus who sat down by a well and offered
hope to an outcast Samaritan woman hated by even her own people. It was Jesus
who sharply rebuked James and John when they wanted to call down fire from
heaven and burn up a Samaritan village. It was Jesus who told a story about
what it meant to be a true neighbour and made the hero of the story a man from
Samaria.
With Jesus there were no walls. All people were His people.
The man hunt in Jerusalem was a bad thing but it wasn't all
bad. It's our nature to seek comfort. It's our nature to settle in. The
persecution lead by Saul sent the thousands of Christ followers fleeing the
city and the very thing Saul was trying extinguish in Jerusalem began to spread
like a raging forest fire, even to the very heart of Samaria.
What was it Jesus said just before He left? "And you
will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth."
The spreading of the Good News had begun. God turned a bad
situation into something beautiful. He's good at that. Remember it the next
time something bad happens to you.
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