Today's text opens with, "As the time approached..." Up to now everything in Luke's gospel accentuates the coming of the Lord Jesus. But here in Luke 9, a shift has taken place. Now, the focus is on His going. And now, the Lord Jesus resolutely sets His sights on Jerusalem. The whole direction of the gospel of Luke dramatically changes. Up to this point we've seen His power, as He has been revealing Himself as the Messiah. But now, He's headed to the cross. Jerusalem meant one thing for the Lord Jesus: certain death.
His Galilean ministry had ended, after more than a year of miracles and preaching the good news of forgiveness. In less than a year He will be the recipient of God's wrath as He takes the place of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Before His exaltation, there has to be His humiliation.
According to v.51, "Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." He had to do that because it wasn't easy to do. There had to be self-discipline, there had to be conviction. There had to be resolve to go to Jerusalem. Even in the garden of Gethsemane, He said, "If possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not My will but Yours be done." Those words spoken while in the Garden shows His resolve to go through the suffering, the rejection, the execution, and the wrath of God on Him in His death. His resolve was unwavering.
In v.52 we learn that He sent messengers on ahead of Him to Samaria. They were leaving Galilee for the Galilean ministry was over. They're now headed toward Jerusalem in a meandering fashion for months. The first place they go was a village of the Samaritans.
Whereas Matthew focused his gospel on the Jews, Luke focuses on the world. Luke knocks down all the conventional walls that separate people from one another, walls of religious prejudice and racism. Luke reminds us extensively of how the Lord Jesus went to the tax collectors, the prostitutes and the criminals. He had a heart for those willing to admit their sinful condition. Of course this is the first step to becoming a follower of the Lord Jesus. Luke writes about lepers, the demonized, the diseased and the dead. The Lord Jesus had time for them all, including the women and thieves and those on the fringes of society. The Lord Jesus shattered all the stereotypes and Luke documents it.
When a Jew traveled from Galilee down to Jerusalem, he wouldn't walk through Samaria, he'd go all the way around, cross the Jordan twice, just to avoid going through Samaria, the place of those who were defiled and unclean. The Samaritans were a mixed race, semi-pagan offspring of Israelites from the northern kingdom who were left behind when the northern kingdom was taken into Assyrian captivity. They intermarried with pagans who were loyal to the Assyrian king so they were half breeds.They had abandoned their Jewish roots and heritage. They had embraced paganism.
According to v.53, "the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem." The Jews had so mistreated the Samaritans down through the years that the Samaritans had mounted a counter hatred toward their aggressors. They hated the fact that the Jews said that one could only worship at the temple in Jerusalem. They despised the Jews and the Jews treated them like dogs. The Samaritans temple had been destroyed in 128 BC, never being rebuilt again. So, they refused to allow the Lord Jesus' trip to Jerusalem to be easy. This wasn't theological, it was years of built up rejection and pain on both sides.
When they arrived in this town in Samaria, according to v.54, James and John said, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" James and John were known as the sons of thunder, they were volatile guys, having long been slaves to their anger. Some translations say, "Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elijah did?" Im sure they were thinking back to 2 Kings 1 where Elijah was in the same area. Some of the enemies of God got in a tiff with Elijah and he called down fire from heaven and burned them up.
A mistaken view of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem can lead to a mistaken view of discipleship. If Jesus had come to execute judgment and take up an earthly rule, then it would make sense for the sons of thunder to begin this judgment on this final siege of the Holy City. But the Lord Jesus came not to judge but to save. The surprise about the Lord Jesus as the Messiah was that He came to give His life as a ransom. This journey of the Lord Jesus to Jerusalem had as its design the liberation of all who will ever believe, and the disciples were the first recipients of such grace. In time, they would become as gracious as He.
In v.55 we read, "But Jesus turned and rebuked them." In the New American Standard Bible, in v.56 He said, "For the Son of Man didn't come to destroy men's lives but to save them." He came to seek and to save the lost. The Son of Man didn't come to destroy our lives but to save them. Compassion always cures more sin than condemnation. Biblical conservatism without compassion is one of the ugliest things in the world, but the addition of compassion makes it the most beautiful thing in the world.
These Samaritans didn't reject the Lord Jesus because He claimed to be God, they didn't reject Him because He claimed to save by grace and they wanted law. They didn't reject Him because they didn't like the religious doctrines He taught, they rejected Him because He was Jewish and He was going to the temple. Yet, there's always mercy extended to those who are ignorant of the truth.
At the end of v.56 we read, "Then he and his disciples went to another village." But, a few years later, a man named Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to these people. According to Acts 8:6-8, "The multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip."
The God of the second chance showed up again. This just wasn't their time yet to hear and believe the gospel. Christ hadn't yet died and risen. How ironic that the people James and John wanted to incinerate were rescued. Such is the nature of the heart of the God we serve. It is this characteristic of grace and mercy that motivates His followers most. Years later, the Apostle would write, "In view of God's mercies, submit your bodies as a living sacrifice." This is our story and it is our calling, today!
