Luke 9:51-62 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus
51 When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him; 53 but the people would not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?”[a] 55 But he turned and rebuked them.[b] 56 And they went on to another village.
Would-Be Followers of Jesus
57 As they were going along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 But he said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
“Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?”
Whoa! Note to self: Don’t snub James and John! They don’t take it well!
And that is exactly what this passage records: Jesus and the disciples had just been snubbed and rejected by this unnamed village of Samaritans.
Or at least that’s what the disciples James and John apparently think. It’s just as likely that they got that chilly reception from the Samaritans, because Jesus barely noticed the Samaritans himself – his “face was set toward Jerusalem,” which is to say that Jesus was marching to his destiny with a single-mindedness of purpose that simply didn’t allow for such niceties as staying overnight even with congenial foreigners – as some Samaritans had been to them before. So, maybe instead of snubbing Jesus and his disciples, the Samaritans perhaps saw Jesus’ determination and simply decided that offering them hospitality would not have been accepted anyway, and they just stood back and waved to them as they passed by.
But as off-base as the reaction of James and John seems to be to us, there was a reason why they reacted that way – there had been a long history of bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans; and – surprise, surprise! – this bad blood had its origin in religious differences.
The Samaritans, as Wikipedia tells us, “are adherents of Samaritanism, a religion closely related to Judaism. Samaritans believe that their worship, which is based on the Samaritan Pentateuch,[4] is the true religion of the ancient Israelites from before the Babylonian captivity, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they see as a related but altered and amended religion, brought back by those returning from the Babylonian captivity… The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Israel. The major issue between Rabbinical Jews (Jews who follow post-exile rabbinical interpretations of Judaism, who are the vast majority of Jews today) and Samaritans has always been the location of the chosen place to worship God; Jerusalem according to the Jewish faith or Mount Gerizim according to the Samaritan faith.”[1]
After the Babylonian Captivity, the stage was set for centuries of disagreement, a kind of religious “Hatfields and McCoys” feud that sometimes broke out in skirmishes – William Barclay tells us that “[t]he Samaritans in fact did everything they could to hinder and even to injure any bands of pilgrims who attempted to pass through their territory.”[2] But for the most part, the relationship (to use the term loosely) remained a stalemate between cousins who most definitely did not like each other.
All this is by way of giving you a bit of background as to why James and John said what they said; they were just acting out of those centuries of discord and disagreement.
But the first important thing to note here is the reaction of Jesus. He says, “No.” Actually, he probably said a lot more than just “no,” because the text tells us that “he turned and rebuked them,” which is an older way of saying, “he chewed them out but good.” Nobody was going to get a shower of hellfire and brimstone today.
The second thing that’s important to note here is that Jesus deliberately chose to enter into Samaritan territory in the first place. Why would he do that? Why would he set foot in a country where he could almost count on being hindered or even injured by the natives? Was he having a “macho moment”? Did he simply take a wrong turn? We’re told that going through Samaria was a more direct way to get to Jerusalem, and we just read that Jesus had “set his face” toward Jerusalem; and so maybe he just wanted to get there as fast as possible. That’s certainly plausible.
Or maybe he had something else, something much more wonderful, in mind. And this is where the history lesson we just had becomes relevant for us this morning.
Jesus always turns the “normal world” on its head. And he always does so to show us both the vast difference between God’s way and the world’s way as well as to invite us to follow God’s way. Here, when he, as a Jewish rabbi, a man thoroughly trained in the traditions of his people, might have been expected to say to James and John – “You better believe we’re going to rain fire down on these people,” he says and does the exact opposite – he shows grace. He teaches tolerance.
Tolerance. We’ve heard that word before, many, many times. But just what is “tolerance,” anyway?
Tolerance is much more than simply “putting up” with something that bothers you. That’s not really tolerance so much as it is endurance. We can only endure something so long before we snap, throw in the towel, and give in to anger, or sadness, or whatever. Any of us who’ve ever had a job we hated know that, sooner or later, like the Albert Finney character in the TV miniseries “Network” of some years ago, we get up from our desks, throw open the window and holler – “I’m not going to take it anymore!” and walk out the door. I actually did that once – the situation at a place where I was working became so toxic and unendurable that I walked out the door and never looked back. This is not something I recommend; but there are times when such an action is the only reasonable one to take for the sake of your self-esteem and mental health.
Endurance has a limit. Tolerance does not. Endurance has more to do with a situation and with emotions. Tolerance is more of an attitude, a lifestyle choice.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines “tolerance” as follows: “Willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them.” That’s the tolerance Jesus exhibited to the Samaritans – there’s no expiration date on it. He also shows them this tolerance despite the fact that they don’t even want it!
But … simply by his presence in Samaria, Jesus indicated a new attitude of tolerance must be taken toward the Samaritans. Instead of taking the long way round and crossing the Jordan to avoid Samaritan territory (John 4:4-5), he went right into it, and more than that, he audaciously and scandalously spoke with a Samaritan woman, contrary to every Jewish custom there was (John 4:9), and finally, he even went so far as to say a time would come when worshiping in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerazim would not be important (John 4:21-24). Jesus made it abundantly clear that his followers were to be tolerant of others, no matter who they were. Most tellingly, when asked whom to regard as “our neighbor,” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan – he deliberately chose a Samaritan to be the “good guy” in the tale – precisely because Samaritans were despised.
For us, too, it’s a given that Jesus not only talked to, but ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners – the lowest of the low, those on the bottom-most rung of the ladder of life; we learned this in Sunday School; we’ve heard it in any number of sermons – so often, in fact, that we’ve become numb to it. It’s just part of our mental woodwork. The utter radicalness of this just goes right by us.
To recover some of that sense of radicalness, to understand why the disciples were often so shocked and the Pharisees and bigwigs of Jesus’ day so outraged, try this little exercise: Retell to yourself the story of the Good Samaritan, but instead of the word “Samaritan,” insert the name of someone or some group that you just can’t stand – and then let the shock wash over you, feel the sense of outrage well up from your guts when you realize that that person or that group is exactly who and what Jesus had in mind when he told that story about who our neighbors are – it’s them! Yes – THEM! And you will have one of those “aha!” moments where you grasp the Gospel and it grabs you. Then you will begin to understand just what Jesus means when he commands us to be tolerant – for us Christians, this isn’t a choice, but part of the package that also includes “loving our neighbors as ourselves,” loving our enemies, doing good “unto the least of these.”
So, to the disciples, Jesus says, “Sorry, boys, no fireworks are going to come down on any Samaritans on my watch.” To us, he says, “I command you to show tolerance to others, and especially to those you like the least or fear the most.”
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we are living in troublous times. My daughter and son-in-law in the U.K. are currently reeling from the shock of their country’s unexpected withdrawal from the European Union, and it’s not at all clear at this point what’s going to happen or how it will all work out. Early indications are that this move might create further divisions within the U.K. itself – Scotland is renewing its call for independence, the independence movement in Wales is gathering new steam, and the suggestion has been made that the longstanding border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should at long last be erased. The Balkanization of Great Britain may have just begun.
One of the major issues that caused this break was that of immigration. Millions of British citizens saw the waves of immigrants sweeping into Europe, and they said, “We don’t want ’em.” Brexit is the result. So here we see with crystal clarity what can happen when there’s a lack of tolerance, because that’s what it was, and on a massive scale. It’s like the person who burns down his house to solve a termite problem.
Tolerance is a virtue. More than that, tolerance is, as William Barclay puts it, a duty.
When I look back on the last two, maybe even three decades, back even to the mid-70s, I see a growing trend toward the polarization of our national life. Not just between adherents of this or that political party – that’s the least of it, really, because that kind of conflict is, more often than not, ginned up to make headlines and buy airtime; it’s artificial. No, what really disturbs me is witnessing the deepening divisions between everyday people like us, between communities, between groups of all sorts, to the point where simple conversation is not even possible, much less discussion or debate. Tolerance – the attitude that says “I may not agree with your point of view, but I am at least willing to hear it” – has given way to waving placards, and shouting through bullhorns, and allowing this or that pundit to inject talking points into our brains, which we then parrot mindlessly back to others. I can’t even remember the last time I heard the terms “common courtesy” or “civility” mentioned anywhere in the media.
Such is our modern world. More and more, we – from nations all the way down to individuals – seem to be turning inward. We’re increasingly becoming a world of locked doors, of fear and suspicion. Strangers among us – those whom our Lord calls upon us to consider our neighbors – are no longer potential friends, but potential threats.
Each time we push others away, each time we choose to isolate ourselves, we die a little inside. And, worse than that, our mission to be the eyes, ears, hands and feet of Christ in our generation, goes unfulfilled.
But we can’t let this stand. Never has there been a time when tolerance has been more crucial, when loving our neighbors as ourselves, and especially loving our enemies, as hard as that is, been more necessary than now. Never has there been more of a need for people like us to be agents of reconciliation, agents of tolerance, agents of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, than there is right now.
Make no mistake, Sisters and Brothers – the world truly does depend on us!
So today, let’s begin to try to do something that might seem impossible. Let us show our world of fears and suspicions that there is a better way, and show tolerance and love to those whom we consider the Samaritans of our day.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans
[2] Barclay, William, The Gospel of Luke, The New Daily Study Bible, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, pp. 153-154