Year Two, June 2

Love Is Patient and Kind1

Luke 9:51-62

51When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

He looked beyond his death to his ascension,2 and “for the joy that was set before him”3 he was determined to go through with the appointed suffering. Oh, that we were just as determined to carry out all of the Lord’s will for us!

52And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. (They were prejudiced against the Jewish religion. The Samaritans often attacked Galileans who passed through their country to go up to the feasts at Jerusalem.) 54And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them [as Elijah did]?”4 (They thought their anger was holy and justified. Perhaps it was, but the wrath of God is not the most important thing about the gospel. Love reigns in Christ’s kingdom.) 55But he turned and rebuked them [and he said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man came not to destroy people’s lives but to save them.”]5 56And they went on to another village.

57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And 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.”

This person hoped to share the glories of the great prophet and the honors of the Messiah. Jesus honestly told him that traveling with him would be difficult. This was not acceptable to this new follower. He had chosen Christ in ignorance, but Christ had not chosen him and therefore away he went.

59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Christ himself called this man and therefore, though he raised objections, grace overcame them. The love for family was strong in him, but grace gained the victory. We must make everything else less important than serving the Lord. Ministers should leave worldly business to others and give themselves to the preaching of the gospel.) 61Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (He who is called to the ministry should go through with it. As long as lungs6 and life hold out, no preacher may walk away from his calling. If God has called him he must not, he cannot, leave his sacred work.)

We are surprised to learn that it was James and John who thought of destroying the unfriendly Samaritans. Had it been Peter we should not have wondered, but how could the loving John act like this? Is not this another example of the fact that most good people, at some time or other, fail in the very grace for which they are most exceptional? How differently did the beloved disciple act and write in the days that followed! To show the difference let us read:
  

1 John 4:10-14

10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation7 for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (He was an eyewitness that Jesus did not come to destroy people’s lives. He had witnessed this firsthand and could testify to it with authority.)

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¹ 1 Corinthians 13:4

² Ascension - The term given to Christ’s rising to heaven on the 40th day after his resurrection.

³ Hebrews 12:2

⁴ The ESV includes this portion as a footnote beginning, “Some manuscripts add,” etc.

⁵ The ESV includes this portion as a footnote beginning, “Some manuscripts add,” etc.

⁶ as long as lungs hold out - There were no public address systems in the 19th century. A strong voice was virtually a prerequisite for a preacher.

⁷ propitiation - The act of satisfying someone’s demands and changing that someone from an enemy into a friend. When Jesus Christ died on the cross he satisfied the demand of God the Father that a sacrifice for sin must be made to him. The wrath or anger of God was used up on Christ so that God’s justice was satisfied and we who were once the enemies of God became his friends.