Day 234: Acts 8:14–25

When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed God’s message, they sent Peter and John to them (v. 14).

Does the location of Samaria and its relationship to John ring a bell of any kind to you? The first bell this reference probably rings is the word Christ spoke over the eleven disciples in Acts 1:8 before His ascension. I’d like to suggest that when Christ made the proposal that His disciples would be witnesses in Samaria, He raised a few eyebrows. Jerusalem? No problem. Judea? Absolutely. Ends of the earth? We’re Your men, Jesus. But Samaria? Jews despised the Samaritans! If Gentiles were the target of the Jews’ prejudices, then the Samaritans were the bull’s-eye. And the feelings were mutual. Samaritans were considered by most Jews to be a mongrel breed. They were border people who lived in the strip of land between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews didn’t associate with the Samaritans (John 4:9).

The idealists among us might be thinking, “But surely since they followed Christ, the disciples didn’t have those kinds of prejudices toward people.” Luke 9:51–56 gives a far more realistic picture. Our friends James and John wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village because of a small slight. Don’t assume they were being overdramatic and didn’t really mean what they were saying. That Jesus took great offense to their suggestion is clear as He turned on His heels and gave them a swift rebuke.

Yes, Jesus saw something lethal in James and John’s hearts that day. But instead of threatening His childish followers with a dose of their own medicine, Jesus chose a far more effective route. In Acts 8:14, Jesus arranged to assign John to be an ambassador of life to the very people he volunteered to destroy. Don’t think for an instant John’s assignment was coincidental. Even as the words fell from Jesus’ lips in Acts 1:8, He may very likely have looked straight at John when He said, “. . . and Samaria.”

Earlier I mentioned our naïveté to think followers of Christ are automatically void of prejudices. Whether our preferred prejudices are toward denominations, people of other world religions, colors, or economics, they are usually so deeply ingrained in us that we just see them as “the way we are” rather than as sin. But make no mistake—prejudice is sin. The prejudgment and stereotype of a grouping of people is sin. Plain and simple.

One of God’s redemptive tools for dealing with prejudice is appointing His guilty child to get to know a person from the group she or he has judged. I was reared in one denomination and had very few if any relationships in my young life with anyone outside of it. Much prejudice evolves from pure ignorance, and I grew up judging some groups of people that I simply didn’t understand. But God wasn’t about to let me stay in my bubble, because He intended to develop in me a heart for the entire body of Christ. His redemptive way of accomplishing His goal was to place me in the position of getting to know others who practiced their Christian faith in ways that differed from mine.

The most obvious work God did in my life involved a woman from one of those churches that my old church would have considered maniacal and unsound. I was in my twenties and “accidentally” developed a friendship with her before I knew where she went to church. I fell in love with her heart for God. She had such a love for His Word, and we boasted in Him often and developed a deep friendship.

When I found out her denomination, I was stunned. She wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t a maniac. She wasn’t unsound. When my other friends would make fun of people from that church, I couldn’t bring myself to join in anymore. The jokes weren’t funny.

I don’t think for a second John missed the point when the apostles sent him and Peter to the Samaritans. He came face-to-face with them. They, too, were created in the image of God. They, too, loved their children and worried over their welfare. They, too, bruised when they were hit and wept when they were sad. They seemed so different from a distance. Somehow, up close and personal, they didn’t seem nearly so . . . weird. Then something really amazing happened. “Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17 hcsb).

Well, well, well. They got their wish after all. They did call down fire on the Samaritans. The kind of fire that destroys things like hate. Meanness. Prejudice. For those who let this Holy Fire consume them. The kind of fire that destroys the old and births the new. Our God is a consuming fire, and that day He lit the hearts of Samaritans at the hands of Jews.

I want to say something that sounds simple, but it is so profound to me right at this moment: How I praise God that we—sinful, selfish, ignorant mortals—can change. John wasn’t stuck with his old prejudices. God neither gave up on Him nor overlooked the transgression. God was gracious enough to push the envelope until change happened. Acts 8:25 concludes the segment by saying that Peter and John “traveled back to Jerusalem, evangelizing many villages of the Samaritans” (hcsb). How like Jesus. He turned John’s prejudice into a fiery passion.