Listen:  95 Question 5

Let’s read John 8:48-49, “Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me.”  Verse 48 shows these Jewish people were referring back to a previous remark they had made in John 7:20, “The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil…”  In their absolute rejection of the Lord Jesus and His words, these people accused the Lord of being a Samaritan and of having a devil.

To call the Lord a Samaritan was a great insult.  In John 4, when the Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman, we read of her response in John 4:9, which says “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”  The Samaritans were a people who were a mixture of Judaism and paganism.  They were generally hated by the Jews.

The Lord Jesus, who came to save sinners by offering Himself as the one perfect sacrifice that was able to put away our sins, was accused of being demon possessed.  What blasphemy!  The One who defeated Satan was accused of being led of Satan.  What great hatred these men had for the Lord.  Psalms 69:4 was written prophetically of the Lord.  That says, “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.”

Hebrews 12:3 tells us to, “…consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”  The Lord endured these things out of love.  His desire was, and is, that all men be saved.  Christ endured hatred and rejection, yet none of these things distracted Him from fulfilling His purpose as we read in Luke 9:51, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  There He gave Himself for us that we, through faith in Him, might be saved.  (95.5)