I wrote yesterday about The Chosen’s handling of the call of Matthew where Jesus told Simon Peter, “Get used to different.”

The Chosen tackles the story of the woman at the well (John 4) in Season 1, Episode 8. The Gospel of John opens the account with this simple sentence:

He left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria. (John 4.3, 4, ESV)

He didn’t “have to” pass through Samaria at all. Most Jews in that day went out of their way to avoid Samaria, crossing the Jordan, going up the east side, then coming back. So The Chosen captures the inevitable discussion (argument?) that the disciples must have had with Jesus about this different approach.

“Forgive me, Teacher.” Andrew snatches the map from Matthew and shows it to Jesus. “It’s safer to go around Samaria by way of the Jordan and the Decapolis.”

Jesus smiles. “Did you join me for safety reasons?”

“But, Rabbi,” Big James says, “they’re Samaritans!”

Jesus stops. “Good observation. What’s your point?”

“Rabbi, these were the people who profaned our temple with the dead bones. They hated us.” John chimes in, “They fought against us with the Seleucids in the Maccabean wars. I haven’t even spoken to a Samaritan—”

“And we destroyed their temple a hundred years ago,” Jesus says. “And none of you here was present for any of these things. Listen, if we are going to have a question-and-answer session every time we do something you’re not used to, it’s going to be a very annoying time together for all of us. …So, follow me.”  (Text from The Chosen, Volume 1 by Jerry Jenkins)

I remember a conversation back in the early 70s with a black preacher. Someone asked him, “Who would be a better missionary to, say, Harlem, in New York City? Is that something white missionaries should leave to black missionaries?” He responded: “Jesus said to the Jewish apostles, ‘You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.’ [Acts 1.8] Jews hated Samaritans…and Gentiles. Now if you and I, both Gentiles, were in Jerusalem in those days, we wouldn’t be sitting in the back of the bus. We wouldn’t have been allowed on the bus! But Jesus sent all of us everywhere!”

Get used to different. And “follow me” means we don’t engage Jesus in a question-and-answer session every time he asks us to do something we’re not used to.

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. (Luke 9.23, NKJV)

And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” …Then he said to [Cornelius, the Roman centurion and his friends], “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. (Acts 10.13 – 15, 28, NKJV)