Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem

The kind of stuff I was thinking about 

leading up to Easter 2014

Chapter Nine in Luke has got to be one of the most action-packed chapters you may ever encounter in the Bible. In only sixty-two verses, we see thirteen different dramatic scenes flash before us:

1. Jesus sends out the twelve Apostles 
2. Herod is perplexed by news about Jesus — Is he Elijah? 
3. Jesus feeds the five thousand 
4. Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ 
5. Jesus foretells his death 
6. Jesus talks about taking up your cross daily to follow him 
7. The Transfiguration! 
8. Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit after disciples are unable 
9. Jesus foretells his death again 
10. Jesus talks about who is the Greatest 
11. Jesus talks about how anyone not against us is for us 
12. A Samaritan village rejects Jesus after Jesus sets his face on Jerusalem 
13. Jesus spells out the cost of following him 

Each of these scenes provides a lot to think about and talk about. I’ve been reflecting on number twelve when Jesus was rejected by the Samaritan village.

Verse 51 says: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him;.”

Presumably, to arrange for a short overnight stay?

Verse 53 continues: “but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.” To the Samaritans, going into Judea could only mean one thing: you were friends with Jerusalem, the Samaritan’s historical religious rivals since before the days of Elijah. No friend of the Jews in Jerusalem could be their friend— i.e., “anyone who is for them is against us.” Sort of the opposite of what Jesus had said to his disciples!

For the disciples, heading to Jerusalem had another purpose —Jesus was going there to become King of the Jews. Naturally, James and John bridled at this Samaritan enmity towards their future king.

There is a kind of irony in all of this: on an earlier occasion, Jesus and his disciples were traveling north, having “abandoned Judea” (Jn.4:3). John will later recount the incident of the Samaritan woman at the well and all the goodwill that resulted from that short stay in Shechem, in Samaria.

Maybe they assumed the Samaritans would receive Jesus enthusiastically on his return south to Judea. Reports about Jesus’ earlier visit had no doubt gone out throughout their country by then.

James and John were indignant, and without considering what Jesus would wish to do, the “Sons of Thunder” wanted lightning — “Fire from heaven”— to teach the Samaritans a lesson.

After all, that is the way Elijah replied to the bullying tactics of Samaria. Did he not say, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” (2 Kings. 1:10-12)

“Lord, show them that you, too, are a man of God” That’s what James and John wanted Jesus to do. Hadn’t the Transfiguration proved that their Jesus was greater than Elijah?

While the sons of thunder were proposing what course Jesus should take, Jesus had already turned away, metaphorically speaking, and had wiped the dust off his feet. Instead of rebuking the Samaritans, Jesus turned to rebuke James and John.

The NRSV notes that some ancient authorities read:” Jesus rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.”

If he consented to their suggestion and punished these Samaritans with fire from heaven, then the whole of the province of Samaria would have been shut to the Gospel after that, and the Gospel story, as we know it today, would be a very different one.

It was a simple lesson, which the apostles were slow to learn, that once you have used violence or hard words of judgment against anyone, your hope of having any kind of relationship with them may be gone forever.

A few months, or maybe even a couple of years later, the apostle John returned to Samaria with Peter and received an enthusiastic reception. They had come to share the spiritual essence or power with all who had embraced the Gospel of Jesus’ resurrection, as preached by Philip. (Acts 8:14)

Indeed, if fire from heaven had consumed the Samaritans on that earlier occasion, would John’s return to empower the Samaritans have been possible?

Does this help explain why there has been so much suspicion from the LGBTQ+ community towards those in the church who are piously calling fire down from heaven on the gays since 1980, at the start of the AIDS epidemic?

What rebuke might Jesus have for us today when we wish for the destruction of our enemies? Could it be the same as it was for Peter and John?

“You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.”