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“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

- Acts 7:51-58

In Matthew's description of Jesus' trial, the high priest orders Jesus to say whether he is the Messiah. Jesus' response is fascinating, not least because he doesn't say, "Yes - I'm the Messiah".

First, he says - "that's what you say"! Why would you call a duck a duck? If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc. Why would you call someone the Messiah?

Second, he says, "I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven". This tips the high priest over the edge, who considers the language blasphemous, and tears his holy robes.

In Stephen's trial, it's that same claim that finally ignites a volatile situation - "I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God". It is this kind of talk which condemns both Jesus and Stephen to death.

Why was Son of Man talk was worse even than Messiah talk? All over the Bible, 'Son of Man' is just a poetic way of saying 'human'. The answer lies in Daniel 7, where the prophet has a Son of Man vision. In that vision, the arrogant beast-kingdoms of the earth are judged and thrown down. A human figure is led into the presence of God and given an everlasting kingdom, and all the people of the earth serve him.

The Jews hoped for a King-Messiah, a human saviour from the line of David who would bring about national redemption through political and military means, but Son of Man vision takes things to a different level. This is not about any mere human, but The Human - sharing in 'Ancient of Day's' authority over all things. Jesus' claim was to be more-than-Messiah. And Stephen's vision was a confirmation that Jesus death, resurrection and ascension meant that he had been enthroned not as a human king, or the 'king of our hearts', as the songs say, but the Lord of everything.

Times of suffering come to us all. When they do, it is worth remembering it was this revelation of a reality more real than everything which he could see and hear around him - the stones, the fists, the curses - that sustained Stephen through fear and pain and into the presence of Jesus. It's not politicians, influencers, despots, bankers, generals, judges or tech-entrepreneurs that are in control. Jesus, Son of Man, is on the throne.

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Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
- John 5:4b-7

Let's get this straight... did Jesus have to go through Samaria? It was the shortest route, but it was not the only route. If Jesus 'has to', it is not a geographical imperative so much as missional necessity. Jesus had to go through Samaria because that is where the Samaritans were and that was where he would meet the Samaritan woman.

There's the first bit of scandal. For various reasons, and even though they shared a religious heritage, the Jews despised the Samaritans. They were seen as untouchable. Jesus readily crosses what at the time was thought to be an important barrier. But that's not the only code-breaking going on. Biblically, wells are places of betrothal. Wells are involved in the first meetings/betrothals of Rebekah and Isaac, Jacob and Rachel, and Moses and Zipporah. Oh, and one last thing. This is the area where Jacob's family had settled for a time. The story - which you can read in Genesis 34 - is one of deception, illicit sex, and a terrible massacre. At the centre of that story is Dinah, apparently unloved by her father, used or ignored by others.

This, then, is a very strange place for Jesus to find himself in. What was he up to?There is in fact a discussion of the woman’s marital status and a confrontation of her dubious past and present. After all of the betrothals in the Old Testament, hospitality is offered and received. In Exodus 2, Zipporah goes back to her father and reports she had been saved by an Egyptian shepherd. Jethro, although a priest of Midian, eventually recognises God’s power and becomes a worshiper of Yahweh. The Samaritan woman leaves her water jar and goes back to the settlement. She has been saved by the Good Shepherd, and many believe because of her testimony. Just as Moses ends up staying in the house of Jethro, Jesus stays with the Samaritans for two days. So, it is and it isn’t a betrothal scene - but the marriages in the Old Testament always are a moment where God's plan continues to unfold. That is the core of what is happening here.

But if the woman is like Zipporah, she is also like Dinah - an unloved daughter of Jacob. And just like Jacob himself, she is grasping for connection and satisfaction. And just like Jacob, this grasping has gone wrong in so many ways. And just like Jacob at Bethel, the meeting with Jesus convinces he that God has been closer to her than she could have imagined.

In Jesus words to the woman - "bring me your husband" - I hear a word to us. Bring me your plans, your dreams, your grasping. Tell me, did they work? If we're honest enough to admit that they have not, then a new opportunity opens for us - the living water of new life, flowing without end.

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Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

- Deuteronomy 34:10-12

In the Israelite understanding a prophet is not someone who predicts the future or someone who speaks truth to power. Prophets may do these things, but they're more than that. A prophet was someone who had a radical encounter with God’s presence, was invited into God's council to intercede on behalf of Israel, and then was commissioned to go and speak to Israel on God’s behalf.

In the Old Testament, Moses is THE archetypal prophet. More than anything else, Moses was a bridge between God and humanity. He was a man of two worlds. When he spoke, God spoke. To reject or criticize Moses was to reject or criticize God. And Moses’s primary objective was to reconcile humans and God. To carry his people’s burden and to be their bridge back to God. The Burning Bush and Horeb, Mount Sinai help us see major brush strokes when it comes to encounter with the terrifying and beautiful presence of God.

We then transpose these encounters with the encounter Peter, James and John had with the transfigured Jesus on a third mountain. The very thing that Moses longed for: "God, show me your glory". The very thing that Romans tells us all of creation is longing for. Peter, James and John are looking at the glory of God. Looking with an unveiled face, not at his back, not hidden in the cleft of the rock. They’re seeing Jesus - God - and they're not dead.

And after watching all of that up close and personal, Peter, James and John are sent first to Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and to the ends of the earth to tell everybody what they’ve seen.

And to tell everyone what is to come.

Tell everyone that one day, just like the veil in the temple was ripped in half, the skies too will be split from east to west, as though with lightning. And all people will see Jesus as he truly is: the King of all creation, coming on the clouds of heaven, adiant with power and glory.
Beautiful. Terrifying.

The invitation is to surrender. To walk up the mountain. Into the presence of God. Even though it seems terrifying.