By: Obed Pineda
While the Master and the Samaritan woman conversed in the presence of the twin mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, the Lord had discovered that she was unaware of Whom it was that spoke with her (cf. John 4:10). Slowly, the wool upon her eyes unraveled as their conversation progressed and the Lord continued to guide her toward His true identity. His words to her, “if you knew,” fabulously summarizes the obstacle obstructing her spiritual sight from God’s will. The dearth of her spiritual insight was a combination of the improper training she received from her people’s religious teachers and her incorrectly interpreting spiritual things literally. Let us recall that “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1st Corinthians 2:14). The inspired apostle’s point is not that it is impossible for the natural man to learn spiritual lessons, it is to illuminate that if he attempts to use earthly wisdom to fully comprehend heavenly things, he will fail as Nicodemus did (cf. John 3:1-12). The Samaritan woman’s insinuated question of “Which mountain does God approve where one may worship Him?” (cf. John 4:19-22) exemplifies the crux of the apostle’s instruction. Her literal understanding that God’s acceptance or rejection of a person’s worship was contingent on which mountain he or she chose, further strengthened Christ’s confirmation that she did not know what the will of God was. The metaphorical boulder shrouding her eyes from understanding was her carnal (i.e. “natural”) mentality. However, the Samaritan woman’s inability to properly discern spiritual matters was not (and is not) exclusive to her. Truthfully, her and Nicodemus’ scarcity of heavenly wisdom was (and tragically still is) very common throughout human history. A primary reason mankind incessantly falls short of pleasing God is because he does not compare “spiritual things with spiritual words” (1st Corinthians 2:13, ASV). Hence, he begins to rely more on the external rituals and ceremonies of burnt offerings as the means of appeasing God’s wrath, and neglects to reason that these things are not what God seeks. This same irreverence, the prophet Samuel reprimanded King Saul for many centuries prior, boldly stating, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed better than the fat of rams” (1st Samuel 15:22). The prophet Isaiah, too, corroborated Samuel’s correction to Saul by announcing to Israel Jehovah’s lament, “‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?’ Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats’” because “‘Your hands are full of blood’” (Isaiah 1:11, 15). Holy Writ makes it obvious that the main ingredient missing in these animal sacrifices was man’s penitent heart (cf. Psalm 51:17). An absence of true penitence nullified the entire purpose of the sin offering “for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2nd Corinthians 7:10). If the one approaching the altar of God with his sin offering did so impenitently, then logic dictates that he will be a repeat offender and disobey the Lord’s commandment of “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Their unrighteous abuse of these rituals is unveiled by their refusal to obey all of Jehovah God’s commandments. They had deceived themselves to believe that by solely adhering to the requirements of the sin offerings they would be absolved of all sin. Ergo, it became a monotonous cycle of sin, earthly sorrow, bring to the priest the required animal for the sin offering, go through the cleansing ceremony, and repeat. This regrettable routine that man had fallen into braces the Hebrew penman’s explanation that these ritualistic sacrifices, particularly the Day of Atonement, were insufficient because they “cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience” (Hebrews 9:9). This fault also brightens why the sacrifice of the Lamb of God was superior to that of innocent animals. The Hebrew scribe establishes that “if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14)? It was established in our previous composition that one reason the Lord’s sacrifice was superior to that of animals is because, as the Hebrew writer verifies, He made the cognizant choice to be the world’s sacrificial Lamb (cf. Mark 10:42-45, John 10:17-18, 15:12-14). Still, it is of vital significance not to overlook the specificity of the type of sacrifice Jesus offered as a man to God; one without spot. The inspired Hebrew amanuensis earlier in the epistle proclaimed that “we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” and Paul lends his voice to the undeniability of this truth confirming “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (Hebrews 4:15 and 2nd Corinthians 5:21). The sacrifice that the Master made for humanity was not just by dying on the cross, but living His human life untainted from sin as well! Had the Lord participated in sin like the rest of mankind had, His sacrifice would have been made void, because He would have been offering more of the same, which the Father had already rejected (cf. Amos 5:21-24). Remember that the blood of animals was selected because it was naturally innocent due to their innate instinctual nature. Jesus’ sacrifice is superior because He “being found in the appearance of man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). His exemplary life untainted by sin, provides the basis for Jehovah’s ordinance that the sacrificial animals needed to be perfect, without defect or blemish (cf. Leviticus 22:17-33). Thus, these perfect animals were representing the flawless life Jesus needed to live, to be successful in securing mankind’s redemption from the wages of sin (cf. Romans 6:23). To be concluded…