[Map courtesy of Wikipedia]It’s a fact of life that it is easier to bear rejection by people whom you consider elite than by those you might think beneath you. Throughout Jesus’ ministry he experienced the unfair criticism and mockery of the ruling classes of the Jews, and by the leading “scholars” of his day, the “scribes”.
Every rebuff was met by Jesus’ calm replies, based upon the Scriptures and the solid simple wisdom of his parables (stories). Rarely is there any sign of Jesus becoming ruffled, much less angry. Yet when he sent the Twelve out to the spread the good news of the arrival of the Kingdom of God in the person of Jesus, he explicitly told them that, if any willage refused to give them a favorable hearing, when they left that village, they were to shake off even the dust of its streets from their sandals. This was a sign to that village that the disciples were no longer responsible for their judgment by God. The disciples had discharged their responsibility to give that village the good news and God’s invitation to believe and share in the Kingdom. If it chose to refuse, it had only itself to blame.
There were occasions when Jesus scolded entire villages for their failure to respond to God’s word. In Luke 10:13 we read:
“Doom, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had been given half the chances given you, they'd have been on their knees long ago, repenting and crying for mercy. Tyre and Sidon will have it easy on Judgment Day compared to you.”This was standard practice of Old Testament prophets and nothing new or different.
But in today’s passage we have something different. Samaria was an area where the people did not adhere to standard Judaism. Samaritans did not accept the entire Old Testament as authoritative Scripture—only the Law of Moses, what we call the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy). The rest of our Old Testament was to them wise and edifying, but not as authoritative and binding upon belief and conduct as the Law. The Samaritans did not worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. They had their own temple. They did not observe the festivals such as Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, etc. in the standard way. They had their own priesthood which was not genealogically descended from Aaron as that of the Jerusalem temple. All observant Jews of that day looked down on Samaritans as irreligious and immoral, in some ways worse than pagans because they mixed truth with error.
Early in Jesus’ public ministry, not long after he was baptized by John, we read in the Gospel of John (ch. 4) that he passed through Samaria on his way and stopped at a well, where he had a private talk with a Samaritan woman, a woman who had lived with several men, at least one of whom was not her husband. Jesus treated her with great politeness and kindness. But he did not gloss over the fact that she was violating God’s laws regarding marriage and sex, and that as a sinner she needed the forgiveness of God. She was touched by his love for her and also by his wisdom and understanding of God’s word. The result was that she believed that he was the Messiah, the Savior promised in the Old Testament (i.e., the Pentateuch for her).
But on this occasion that Luke tells us about, as Jesus passed through the villages of Samaria, he was rejected by many. Two of his disciples, James and John, who were brothers, the sons of a man named Zebedee, and blood relatives of Jesus, were very offended. Elsewhere we are told that these brothers had the nickname “sons of thunder”. Here we see why: they asked Jesus if he wanted them to use the supernatural powers he had given them for healing and exorcisms in order to call down lightning bolts and the thunder of God’s wrath upon these Samaritan villagers! Our grandparents would have called these brothers “firebrands”, hot-headed boys who might do something foolish. They believed they were only seeking to defend Jesus’ honor. It was one thing for the Scribes and Pharisees, the elite of Jerusalem, to snub him. But these Samaritans! Who did they think they were?
Yet Jesus refused. Luke simply writes that “he turned [to them] and rebuked them. And they went on to another village”. Jesus was following his own teachings. “If someone strikes you on the cheek,” he once told them, “just turn the other cheek and let him hit you again” (Matthew 5:39). The time will come some day when the decisions of men and women in this life will be judged by God. But that time is not now. Nor is it for us, God’s servants, to do the judging for him. Instead, by going on to the next village Jesus showed himself to be the patient and persistent Savior, always seeking another chance to save the few who are willing to allow him. St. Paul once wrote to his young partner in ministry Timothy:
“And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them a change of mind, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26)This is one of the most important lessons Jesus had to convey on the nature of discipleship. It is one that we must all learn and re-learn.
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