PAPER 143: Section 6.
The Samaritan Revival
P1615:2, 143:6.1
On the evening that Nalda drew the crowd out from Sychar to see Jesus, the twelve
had just returned with food, and they besought Jesus to eat with them instead
of talking to the people, for they had been without food all day and were hungry.
But Jesus knew that darkness would soon be upon them; so he persisted in his
determination to talk to the people before he sent them away. When Andrew sought
to persuade him to eat a bite before speaking to the crowd, Jesus said, "I have
meat to eat that you do not know about." When the apostles heard this, they
said among themselves: "Has any man brought him aught to eat? Can it be that
the woman gave him food as well as drink?" When Jesus heard them talking among
themselves, before he spoke to the people, he turned aside and said to the twelve:
"My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work. You
should no longer say it is such and such a time until the harvest. Behold these
people coming out from a Samaritan city to hear us; I tell you the fields are
already white for the harvest. He who reaps receives wages and gathers this
fruit to eternal life; consequently the
sowers and the reapers rejoice together.
For herein is the saying true: `One sows and another reaps.' I am now sending
you to reap that whereon you have not labored; others have labored, and you
are about to enter into their labor." This he said in reference to the preaching
of John the Baptist. P1615:3, 143:6.2 Jesus and the apostles went into Sychar and preached two days before they established their camp on Mount Gerizim. And many of the dwellers in Sychar believed the gospel and made request for baptism, but the apostles of Jesus did not yet baptize.
P1615:4, 143:6.3
The first night of the camp on Mount Gerizim the apostles expected that Jesus
would rebuke them for their attitude toward the woman at Jacob's well, but
he made no reference to the matter. Instead he gave them that memorable talk
on "The realities which a re central in the kingdom of God." In any religion
it is very easy to allow values to become disproportionate and to permit facts
to occupy the place of truth in one's theology. The fact of the cross became
the very center of subsequent Christianity; but it is not the central truth
of the religion which may be derived from the life and teachings of Jesus
of Nazareth.
P1615:5, 143:6.4
The theme of Jesus' teaching on Mount Gerizim was: That he wants all men to
see God as a
Father-friend just as he (Jesus) is a
brother-friend. And again
and again he impressed upon them that love is the greatest relationship in
the world -- in the universe -- just as truth is the greatest pronouncement
of the observation of these divine relationships.
P1616:1, 143:6.5
Jesus declared himself so fully to the Samaritans because he could safely
do so, and because he knew that he would not again visit the heart of Samaria
to preach the gospel of the kingdom.
P1616:2, 143:6.6
Jesus and the twelve camped on Mount Gerizim until the end of August. They
preached the good news of the kingdom -- the fatherhood of God -- to the Samaritans
in the cities by day and spent the nights at the camp. The work which Jesus
and the twelve did in these Samaritan cities yielded many souls for the kingdom
and did much to prepare the way for the marvelous work of Philip in these
regions after Jesus' death and resurrection, subsequent to the dispersion
of the apostles to the ends of the earth by the bitter persecution of believers
at Jerusalem.