I wrote this essay for a course that I attended.
Women often are the ones who get
negative results from the double standards created by the society. In a
heteronormative system, domestic work labeled as women's work is never
preferred as a real job that requires professional expertise as well. This is also
evident in the issue of migration. Male immigrants must experience social
injustices, such as very low payment, bad employer, and others. Women who
migrate because they have to meet family needs often experience injustice
caused by their status as "the weaker" part of the patriarchal
community. Countries that accept these migrants, both legally and illegally,
refuse to accept the fact that they need less-paid workers, especially in the
field of care and household. These two fields play an important role in social
and economic development in each country.
The story of Jesus' encounter
with the Samaritan woman can be a constructive theological lens to understand
the issue of migration on the American-Mexican border and the arrival of
migrants from Afghanistan or Pakistan to Europe. In the Gospel of John chapter
4, it is told that Jesus was running away from the Pharisees who were trying to
arrest him. In the verse 4, the evangelist deliberately writes that, Jesus
"must" cross the Samaritan area. Jesus is at the border of Galilee
and Judea.
Jesus arrived at a well believed
to be Jacob's well at noon. Then, a Samaritan woman approached the well to draw
water. Jesus, the Son of God, a Jew, asked to drink to Samaritan woman, who
were often labeled immoral because of her social status in society. The woman
is nameless, in other words, she is not considered quite legitimate as a
subject. The Samaritan woman did not give water to Jesus immediately but did
not refuse either. She made clear the existence of the margin separating her
from Jesus, which was her racial and gender status. Even the evangelist stated
that the Jews did not associate with the Samaritans. The evangelist's statement
refers to Ezra and Nehemiah, which then reminded me of Susanne Snyder's
writings on ecology of fear and ecology of faith.
Ezra and Nehemiah view the
mobility or existence of "strangers" as dangerous, so they should be
avoided. The Bible can indeed be used to point in two directions. Just like
Snyder showed that there is ecology of faith and fear in the Bible. Ezra
demands that the people of Judah make confession and ‘separate [themselves]
from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives’ (Ezra 10.11; Ezra
9.1-4, 10-12) (Snyder 2011, 12). Nehemiah is equally harsh. He refuses to trade
with ‘peoples of the land’ on the Sabbath and holy days (Neh. 10.31, 13.16-17)
and forbids all foreigners from entering the Temple (Neh. 13.3) (Snyder 2011,
13).
Snyder stated that similar
processes of exclusion are happening, also when national and other
socio-economic and political identities seem increasingly fragile. She noted
that the people in Judah were also experiencing real and multiple
socio-economic hardships at this time (Snyder 2011, 17). The people in Judah
put the Samaritans as the black goat for their fading sense of identity. Making
the Samaritans as the outsider gave them a kind of reassertion of who they are.
Similar to what is happening to the immigrants, the people of the U.S and some
European countries have been doing the same thing towards the immigrants. Economic
and political status seemed so vulnerable, so they blamed the immigrants, who
are in the weaker social status, as the source of these problems.
Jesus and the Samaritan woman
both met in their vulnerability. Jesus, the Son of God, showed us his humanity
by his thirst. The woman showed us that she also needs help, in this case, the
spiritual one. But, not one of them feel more dominant and powerful than the
other. The separation and alienation made by their environment did not influence
their hospitality to each other. Both Jesus and the Samaritan woman engaged in
the encounter. They shared stories and their needs. They both knew that this is
a risky encounter. Jesus, as a Jewish man, knew that He could not speak to a
woman. The woman knew she was prohibited to speak to a man, let alone a Jewish
man. But, both of them crossed the border of their own and showed kindness to
one another. Both Jesus and the Samaritan woman became the hosts and guests to
each other and shared their life in that particular engagement.
Wherever Jesus had to go, he went
as a Savior, among the Samaritans and others. Yet, he also went as a guest for
the people at the time. Despite the barriers that existed between the Jews and
the Samaritans, Jesus sought entrance among the strangers. When he was at the
margins, in his teaching and miracle-working, Jesus creates a new and different
center, one constituted by the meeting of the borders of the many and diverse
worlds, often in conflict with one another, each with its own center which
relegates the “other” to the margins. It is at this margin-center that marginal
people meet one another. In Jesus, the margin where he lived became the center
of a new society without borders and barriers, reconciling all peoples, “Jew or
Greek, slave or free, male or female” (Ga 3: 28) (Phan 2014, 101). From his
many encounters that we have seen as written in the Bible, he proclaimed God’s
love is for everyone, for the whole world.
When the migrants tried to cross
the U.S. border, they were trying to save their lives, just like Jesus tried to
save himself from the Pharisees. But the immigrants were dying to get some
money to feed their family at home or maybe just to feed themselves. Hence, the
government of the U.S., although many conservative-evangelical Christians acted
like the President was anointed by God, they seemed not to consider how harsh
their actions might be. The vulnerability of the US and these European
countries is that they do not realize their needs of their neighbors. When
someone thinks that s/he can do everything by her/himself, s/he will not think
that they live in a society, community, whose lives are interdependent to one
another. As Peter C. Phan stated in his writing, when the migrant is embraced,
protected, and loved, the migratory God—Deus
migrator—is embraced, protected, and loved. By the same token, when the
migrant as imago Dei migratoris is
rejected, marginalized, declared “illegal,” imprisoned, tortured, or killed, it
is the original of that image, the Deus
migrator, who is subjected to the same inhuman and sinful treatment (Phan
2014, 99). In seeking to overcome all that divides us in order to reconcile us
in all our relationships, Christian discipleship reminds us that the more
difficult walls to cross are the ones that exist in the hearts of each of us.
From a Christian perspective, the true aliens are not those who lack political
documentation but those who have so disconnected themselves from their neighbor
in need that they fail to see in the eyes of the stranger a mirror of
themselves, the image of Christ (Matt 25:31-46), and the call to human
solidarity (Groody website).
In the story of Jesus and the
Samaritan woman, the Son of God, therefore, in one fell swoop, broke through
two barriers—the one steeped in racial bigotry, the other a hurtful sexist
disposition that distanced the man from one of the sweetest treasures of God’s
creations (Jackson website). For John, the Samaritan woman represents the
consummate "outsider" who, after her transformative encounter with
Jesus, becomes not only an "insider" but also a leader, publicly
proclaiming Jesus the Messiah to both men and women via village communication
channels (Schenk website). Many sermons often speak only the sinful side of the
nameless woman. Yet, no matter how insignificant and sinful she is to our
judgmental eyes, she was chosen by God to proclaim the Gospel to the Samaritans.
She was transformed through her encounter with Jesus who was once a stranger to
her. The encounter between both strangers, Jesus and the woman, turned out to
be the way for proclaiming the kingdom of God. In the migration context, the
human made barrier or border that define countries may have some value, but are
not ultimately those that define by the body of Christ (Groody website).
Through this perspective, a theology of migration provides important aspects
and values that need to be practiced in our community and church. Jesus’s
ability to cross racial and social barriers is a wake-up call for our society
in the tears and needs of our neighbors. With Jesus, the margin becomes the
center where all of our racial, economic, political, religious status collapse
yet renew in God. In God the Migrator, each of us finds our new identity, an
identity that is beyond our human made ones. Realizing that Jesus was the host
and also the guest also brings us to look beyond the wall and even transforms
it into a new center where we are strangers to one another yet known in God.
References
Jackson,
Wayne. "Jesus and the Samaritan Woman." ChristianCourier.com. Access
date: January 31, 2019. https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/282-jesus-and-the-samaritan-woman
Phan,
Peter C. 2014. Embracing, protecting, and loving the stranger: A Roman Catholic
theology of migration in Theology of
migration in the Abrahamic religions. Edited by Elaine Padilla and Peter C.
Phan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schenk,
Christine. “Clueless preaching about Samaritan Woman Misses Point.” National
Catholic Report Online.org. Access date: January 31, 2019. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/simply-spirit/clueless-preaching-about-samaritan-woman-misses-point
Snyder,
Susanne. 2011. Encountering asylum seekers: An ethic of fear or faith? In Studies in Christian Ethics 24(3) (August
2011).
0 comments:
Post a Comment