What If? the Strangest Dream – Greg Albrecht

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“WHAT IF…?” A STRANGE, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE DREAM –

What if the spiritual eyesight of every human being, contorted and darkened by hatred, grievances and recrimination, were miraculously healed in favor of reconciliation and forgiveness?

What if it was impossible for anything like the Holocaust to ever happen again? What if it was truly impossible for the Hamas Massacre of October 7, 2023—or anything like 9-11, Hiroshima, Nagasaki or the ruins and desolation of Gaza to ever happen again?

What if planet earth would one day be transformed, let’s just say, like the new heavens and the new earth (Revelation 21) where the terror and atrocities of dictatorial despots like Stalin, Lenin or Hitler would never be allowed?

What if a cleansed and transformed cosmos never observed anniversaries of horrific military massacres because militaries were evil relics of a brutal and bloodthirsty past?

What if armies and soldiers no longer existed … and all implements of warfare and violence, like swords and spears, tanks and jets, drones and bombs, now served productive agricultural purposes, as dreamed by the Hebrew prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 2:4?

What if the entire world revered the love of Jesus, who loves, cares for, bandages and heals white, brown, and black; Muslim, Jew and Christian, indiscriminately?

What if everyone abandoned their holy huddles, the circles of self-interest and inbreeding where religious, military and nationalistic wagons are circled, and loved EVERYONE?

MORE THAN A RELIGIOUS CLICHÉ — REALLY, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

Consider how Jesus, a Jew, responded to the Samaritans, a hated and despised religious minority living in the “Holy Land” during his earthly ministry on earth.

The Samaritans of Jesus’ day were settled in the northern part of the land of Israel by King Sargon of Assyria (2 Kings 17:22-41) some seven centuries before Jesus, eventually becoming “replacements”  for the northern tribes who were taken captive.

The Samaritans intermingled and intermarried with Hebrews left behind after the Assyrian conquest—their actions then might today be described as cultural appropriation. When someone’s culture  and religion are assumed, when their identity is taken/ stolen, by another individual or collectively by a national or racial entity, rage and recrimination usually occur.

When the Samaritans started to claim they also worshipped the God of Israel, the Jews were not amused.

About 140 years after the Samaritans were resettled in the northern part of the land of Israel, the Jews in the southern kingdom were taken captive. The Samaritans took advantage of the Jewish captivity and moved into the former kingdom of Judah. When the Jews started to return from their Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem, Samaritan communities resisted  them politically and religiously—see the fourth chapters of both Ezra and Nehemiah.

By the time of Jesus, the Samaritans had lived in the land for 700 years. By the time of Jesus the Samaritans had built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim as an alternative to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. By the time of Jesus the animosity between Samaritans and Jews had a long, acrimonious history.

Luke records the disciples of Jesus were treated rudely by the Samaritans. The disciples wanted to retaliate and “call down fire from heaven and destroy them” (Luke 9:51-55). But the Prince of peace “rebuked” his disciple’s desire for revenge. 20 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, the Jewish historian Josephus wrote that Samaritans massacred Jewish pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THE “GOOD” SAMARITAN?

While Luke does not necessarily represent his Gospel as an accurate chronology, he does juxtapose the inhospitable treatment of Jesus’ disciples by the Samaritans with the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the next chapter (Luke 10:25-37). Coincidence? I don’t think so!

After Jesus reiterated his two great commandments—loving God and loving one’s neighbor—a young Jewish lawyer asked him for a precise definition of “neighbor.” Jesus responded with a parable,  and he gave the role of the heroic first responder to a Samaritan who ministered to the needs of a Jewish man who was beaten and left for dead.

It was “just” a parable. It wasn’t a news report. Jesus was not claiming that such a thing had ever, or even recently, happened. Jesus had a choice as to who he would cast as the hero of the moral of his tale. Why choose a Samaritan? Why did Jesus deliberately push religious hot buttons? It seems to me that religious hot buttons needed to be pushed then—and still do now!

When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one came back to thank him. Luke 17:18 identifies the grateful healed leper as a Samaritan. When Jesus stopped at a well in Samaria (John 4:1-26) he talked to a woman. That was scandalous enough—but this person he asked for a drink of water was an oft-married woman who was now living with a man without benefit of marriage, a woman who was—wait for it—a Samaritan!

The “woman at the well” was no parable. The story was reported by John as a factual event. When she talked about her “church” (holy place) Jesus did not insist his “church” (“holy place”) was better but said that a time was coming when brick and mortar churches/temples/ would be irrelevant to worship of God (John 4:21-24).

SAMARITANS AND JEWS … PALESTINIANS AND JEWS

Fast forward approximately twenty centuries. In the late 1800s, Jews started to return to the historic land of Israel/Palestine, and they lived side by side with Arabs whose families had lived there for many generations. History tells us during this time many Arabs also immigrated to the land the Jews were developing and rebuilding, finding employment. Both Jews and Palestinians coexisted, but not peacefully, enduring constant conflict, which has escalated over the past century.

The Arabs who became known as Palestinians were primarily Muslims (but also included 9% Christians). Just as the Samaritans of Jesus’ day claimed to be brothers of the Jews, Islam shares Abraham whose name means “father of many nations”) with the Jews, and both claim descent of race and faith though Abraham’s two sons, the Jews from Isaac and Arabic Muslims from Ishmael.

The “feud” has existed for many centuries, in the same geographical setting. From as far back as Isaac and Ishmael, to Joseph and his brothers, from Ezra and Nehemiah, to the time of Jesus, and now, with the Palestinians and the Jews.

Can Samaritans and Jews be good neighbors? Jesus thought so. Can Jews and Palestinians be good neighbors? Yes. Are they? Not so much. Can Jews, Arabs and Palestinians—can Jews and Moslems realize and admit that their destinies in this world are inexorably tied together?

Martin Luther King Jr. famously had a dream … in I Have a Dream he quoted one of the great Messianic dreams of Isaiah:

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight…”

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream has been a favorite “dream” of mine for well over 40 years. It was written by Ed McCurdy in 1950 and covered by many artists over the decades.

My favorite versions are by Johnny Cash and Simon and Garfunkel. Its lyrics beautifully portray the hope and dreams of all who yearn for peace—an end to warfare.

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before.

I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.

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