Old Testament: Nehemiah 11-13
Poetry: Psalm 24
New Testament: John 4
Tribalism is one of those coins with two sides. It has aided in our survival as a species, yet it influences us to do things that are very unhelpful in the modern world. It is beneficial or even necessary to belong to a tribe. We need things like community, cohesion, protection, sharing of resources, cooperation, and a sense of identity and belonging. But a tribal mentality views anyone on the outside as a threat to all of those good things, often leading to polarization, discrimination, racism, or even violent conflict.
We favor people in our in-group, often at the expense of the outsider. We believe our group is better than other groups and that we have the correct deities or religious practices, and that they do not. Any outside influences or new ideas might be a threat to our way of life, so naturally we want to put up a protective hedge and resist any change. We are stuck in a paradox where we need tribalism and at the same time need to get rid of it. Is it possible to keep the good parts of it and jettison the bad?
Tribalism is in the backdrop of John chapter 4. There was a longstanding tension between the Jews and the Samaritans, mostly over religious practices. They shared many beliefs, but disagreed on some things, most notably about where worship should happen. The Jewish tribe insisted that worship should happen at the temple, while the Samaritan tribe insisted it should happen on a mountain. Each tribe believed the other was not worshiping correctly and perceived the other as some kind of threat to the integrity of proper worship. This all sounds completely insane to us, but we’ve all heard stories of church splits that happened over something ridiculously miniscule.
By talking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus broke down the tribal barrier that existed between them. He showed that having the conversation with her was more important than obeying the cultural pressure to not have the conversation. He showed her that she had value and was not a threat to him. This living water Jesus is talking about apparently knows no tribal or cultural boundaries.
Whatever ancestral disagreement they had about where worship should take place was not going to be relevant anymore. He tells her that the time is coming when worship will take place neither on the mountain nor in the temple, but true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth. In other words, it’s not going to matter where we worship anymore. It’s all going to be about the heart that the worship comes from.
There is another part of the conversation that deserves some consideration. Verses 16-18 are usually interpreted as Jesus gently calling the woman out for her sin of adultery or promiscuity. That may be. I’ve heard another interpretation that I think changes the mood of the passage.
Women at this time in history don’t have the same kinds of rights that women have now. It was a highly patriarchal society that had not elevated the status of women very far above property. The right or ability to divorce belonged to men, or if a woman was able to initiate one, it would be with great difficulty. Given the context, when we learn that she has had five husbands, we shouldn’t assume she was responsible for the mess. It is more likely that her previous husbands had exploited their right to divorce, with the result being that she had been abused and passed around like property. And it’s not likely that the man she is with now is going to offer any improvement for the abusive cycle she is in. So when Jesus tells her that he knows about her situation, it is not to condemn her of sin, but to offer his acknowledgment of and empathy for what she has been through.
Is that the “correct” interpretation? I’m not in a place to claim that, but I do feel this offers a refreshing angle on the passage.
From another part of the reading today, there is something in Nehemiah 13:23-27 that collides with our discussions of tribalism and of divorce. Nehemiah has discovered that many of the Jewish men have married foreign wives. This is considered a problem because it was against the law of Moses for the Israelites to intermarry with the surrounding nations. Solomon was guilty of this also, and it was a big part of his downfall. The intermarriage allows other religious ideas to creep into the tribe, and it likely leads the men astray to worship other gods. To protect the purity and identity of the community, Nehemiah orders that the foreign wives (and their children?) be sent away. I can appreciate the need to protect the tribe, and the desire to uphold the law. But on the other hand, Nehemiah’s hardline response to the problem always strikes me as overly harsh. Breaking up families is not a good thing, and what’s the fate of the people who are sent away? It makes me wonder how Jesus would have dealt with it.
From John 4, we begin to see how Jesus challenged the tribal constructs. He reached out to an outsider and heralded a time when the tribal God of Israel would no longer be just for Israel, but for all peoples and nations. In order to connect with the one true God, we no longer need to be in this place or that, or have a certain racial or cultural identity, or be in the right in-crowd. We only need to be in Spirit and Truth. By example, Jesus is inviting us to suspend some of the deepest instincts of our tribalism and embrace a spirit of inclusion.
-Jay Laurent
Reflection Questions:
1. What tribes do you belong to?
2. Do you recognize any tribal instincts in yourself? When are they helpful? When are they not helpful?
3. Who is an outsider to you, and what would it take to just have a conversation with them?
Seek Grow Love 