WHAT GROUP DID JESUS REBUKE?
Luke 9:51-56 NKJV
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
Jesus had to deal with two groups of people on His way to Jerusalem. Both groups were wrong, but He only rebuked one of them.
A rebuke is a strong correction. And the Samaritan village could have used a strong correction. But they were only keeping the tradition that Samaritans had kept for years. If a Jewish man was passing through their village with his face toward Jerusalem, they would reject him outright. At face value, that’s ridiculous, no pun intended. Samaria was between Judea and Galilee, so the quickest route was through Samaria. Some Jewish travelers would avoid the region altogether. The Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other at all. A common Jewish putdown was to call someone a Samaritan. That’s what the Jewish leaders called Jesus, a Samaritan with a devil.
But still. This was Jesus. And in another Samaritan town He stayed for a number of days and the people were blessed. But not this town. He is going to Jerusalem and they wanted nothing to do with Him. And did it ever make John and James mad.
So John and James had a great idea that had the semblance of being scriptural. They were going to call down fire and burn them up. After all, Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, did it once, so that sounded like an option. What the brothers failed to realize was that the people coming after Elijah were after his life. That’s a different situation and much more egregious than simply rejecting Jesus.
And Jesus was having none of it. He rebuked the brothers and told them they were unaware of the spirit, the mindset, they were operating in. Jesus let them know His purpose was to save lives, not destroy them. And evidently, a rebuke, a strong correction, does not destroy someone’s life. Jesus did not spend His time and energy trying to convince the Samaritan village to accept Him. He never forced His way into any situation. They simply went to another village. Jesus may have been tired and wanting to rest, but this was not a battle worth fighting.
APPLICATION
We still must be careful today of adopting the same spirit that John and James were operating in. There will always be those who dislike us or do not receive us even though our motives are pure. Jesus would have blessed that Samaritan village if they would have allowed Him to.
Unfortunately, I have seen this James and John mentality in the church world and, most definitely, in the political world. Wanting to destroy someone who rejects us and our ways is not how Jesus operated and is not to be our path either. We are here to save and bless, and sometimes, that requires just moving on instead of lashing out.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for Your classy example of how to deal with rejection and unkind people. I want to operate like You.