Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees
had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
(although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), He left
Judea and went away again into Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. (John 4:1-15)
Edward DeBono is a man who travels all over the world, giving seminars
on how to think. He teaches what he calls “lateral thinking,” and he
illustrates what he means by that from an experience early in his life.
Some
thirty years ago he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. One night he attended a
party in London. The party lasted late, and he got back to Oxford after the
gates were closed. Traditionally in that college the gates were locked at
twenty minutes past midnight. So, in order to get to his room, he had to scale
the college walls.
There were
two walls, and he said, “I got over the first one without too much difficulty
and came to the second wall. It was about the same height as the first one. I
climbed that, and jumped to the other side only to find myself outside again.”
He had
climbed in and out across a corner of the wall. He tried again, this time with
more careful attention to where that second wall was. He noticed that there was
a gate in the wall, and as the gate was lower than the rest of the wall, and
provided footholds, he decided to climb over the gate. He did, and as he was
sitting astride the top of the gate, it slowly opened. It had never been locked! He said he learned a lesson from that. No
matter how good you are in climbing a wall, you should always pick the right
one.
And when
he applied that to problem-solving, he called it “lateral thinking.” Instead of facing problems head-on, instead of
trying to climb over them just because they are there, try lateral thinking. And by that he means try solutions that are
not obvious. Don’t attack the problem
head-on. Take detours, moving latterly,
or even sometimes moving backwards, until you find the gate that no one knew
was open.
Reflecting on our Scripture lesson
my approach was to do as usual and think “head-on.” There are obvious lessons in the text, and
I’ve taught them before, and so have many of you. If you approach the text head-on you see it.
- The breaking down of barriers is a central lesson. Jesus shattered racial barrier, social barriers, and the barrier between men and women.
- There
is also the lesson about the universal presence of God, Jesus *said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour
is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship
the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the
true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such
people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:21-24)
- Then there is still another huge lesson. Jesus makes the
radical claim that He is the source of meaning in life. Jesus
answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will
thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall
never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well
of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14)
These devotionals could have been
about any one of these obvious and great truths in the Scripture. But, let’s do some “lateral thinking” about
this passage. Back away from it, move in
and out of it, take some detours in thinking, look in from the side rather than
head-on, and this is what you may come out with:
- One,
there is a Samaria in all of our lives.
- Two,
there is a ministry in Samaria.
- And
three, Samaria is to pass through, not to stay in.
Scripture to Claim:
The LORD is my
shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me
beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of
righteousness For His name's sake. (Psalms 23:1-3)
