070701 Luke 9 51 62 God of Grace and God of Glory

This is not really a negative story about the Samaritans. Remember that Jesus loves the Samaritans, because they represent the ones whom self-righteous people like the Jews of that day rejected. The Good Samaritan loves his neighbor better (Luke 10:25-37). The Samaritan leper thanks Jesus more for healing than 9 others (17:16). The Samaritan woman at the well preaches better about His Messiah-ship (John 4). Samaria is included in the great commission (Acts 1:8).
The Samaritans rejected Jesus, "because his face was set toward Jerusalem" (v. 53). And there was bad blood between the Jews and Samaritans ever since Assyrians took most Jews into captivity and re-populated Samaria with foreigners and half-bread Jews. They worshiped other gods off and on (2 Kings 17:24-29). They built a rival temple on Mount Gerazim and tried to prevent Zerubbabel from rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 4:1-10), because Zerubbabel (the Babylonian Jewish leader) had rejected their help.
Samaritan people lived between the Jewish territory of Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. Jews passing through were not welcome and the feeling was mutual.
James and John wanted to act like Elijah who commanded fire from heaven that consumed two regiments of Samaritan soldiers a few centuries before (2 Kings 1). They must have been thinking, “Isn’t God’s wrath just as appropriate here – even more so – because this is no mere prophet or man of God – but the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Jesus turned and rebuked James and John (v. 55) with the same command (epetimesen) that He used against demons (4:35, 41; 9:42), fevers (4:39), and storms (8:24). Jesus shows God’s grace and not just divine physical power. This is a foretaste of His forgiveness on the cross – teaching by example how to love our enemies (6:27-36) and not to judge others (6:37-42). Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!
Shaking dust from your feet is a testimony against rejecters (9:5; see also 10:10-12) -- but don’t respond with violence or vengeance. God will judge those who reject Jesus (10:10-14; 13:1-9), and we should leave such judgment in God's hands.
After His arrest, his own followers left Him and denied Him. Our Lord was mocked, beaten, humiliated, and finally crucified. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).
Christ understands the pain of rejection, and yet, despite being rejected by so many, He was beloved and fully accepted by God as His Son in whom the Father is well pleased. When we feel rejected by people, we can remember that Christ understands and reaches out to us, reminding us that in God we too are accepted and loved – because Jesus tells the Father about you “this is my child, in whom I am well pleased.” God's great love will never let us go. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Here are some examples of how the Holy Spirit works.
Wilma Kindle is interracially married to a man of another race. They have one daughter. They have experienced much rejection by others. And their immediate family would have been destroyed if they had ignored Christ in their lives and focused only on the negative role as “hopeless outcasts.” The Spirit tells Wilma and me that when Jesus was teaching in his hometown, those who knew him could not see beyond the human Jesus. They knew Him only as the carpenter’s son and the son of Mary.
We are like the racially mixed Samaritans in Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus is begotten in a mixed marriage with our human race and God’s divine race in the Trinity, we receive His baptism of water and the Spirit and become adopted into the household of God. Through Christ, God does not reject His creatures, even if we have rejected Him in the past. God reconciles Himself with humanity through and in the intermarriage that begot Jesus of Nazareth. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever believed on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
I used to explain to people in Germany that Americans don’t claim just one culture for our national identity. But it was more difficult to practice that when Annemarie and I would celebrate the 4th of July there. The lesson I learned there is that we have a cultural and even racial identity as Americans when we travel abroad more than when we stay home. But God didn’t stay home and keep heaven to Himself. Christ, “thinking it not robbery to be equal with God made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (2 Philippians 6-8). As a nation, we tend to go into patterns of isolation when even our allies reject us in spite of our good intentions and attempts to keep the world safe and peaceful. Misguided patriotism is like James and John trying to call down fire on those who reject us. Loyalty to Jesus shows forgiveness, reconciliation and grace.
Our public opinion polls show that we are more divided on whether to take the Elijah route, take a middle compromised position and forestall making a decision, or accept the consequences of our actions and decisions and make things better as agents and children of a God of Grace AND God of Glory. As Christians we cannot return evil for evil anymore than Jesus did. Why are we having “second thoughts” about following through with fighting against the evils of this world in the most Christ-like ways? Can a skydiver have “second thoughts” about jumping while falling to earth?
Jesus packed my parachute of salvation, when He took my sins to the cross. But it seems like I want to behave like I’ve got another Lord instead of Jesus when I trust in calling down fire from heaven on my enemies. My actions speak louder than words. The presumption of my “intent” says that I intend to do whatever I allow to happen in spite of my logical and politically correct or incorrect defenses and excuses. I am not allowed to use the good or bad that this country is credited with doing as what binds me to Jesus. Please pray with me this personal sinners prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for taking me in to be Your adopted stepchild in Your family and church. Thank You for bringing me into this great nation with so many wonderful Christ-like people and Christian witnesses to the world. Please grant us courage for the living of these days. Help me to love all those whom I have anything to do with like the Good Samaritan. Help me to be thankful like the thankful leper whom Jesus healed. Help me to forgive instead of reject, to include instead of separate into haves and have-nots. Heal Your world and people as we repent of our sins and wicked ways. Help me to share true and wholesome acceptance and love with others. Comfort us all from the pain of rejection that leads to cycles of rage and anger. Protect children from abuse and evil that makes them into terrorists and criminals because of their great need to overcome the pain of rejection and the need to belong.
Your acceptance in Christ is not based on my actions. Your love and forgiveness comes even when I don’t deserve it. I can’t earn it. Thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit that sets me free to love and accept others in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.