The Rejection Tour

The Rejection Tour

Luke 9:51-62

No one likes rejection. This is especially true when your purpose is to be helpful. Rejection from your enemies is bad enough. at least you can rationalize that this is your enemy; therefore, it is a badge of honor rather than shame. Rejection can come in many forms. This rejection can be hostile and overt. But rejection can also come through your ideas being ignored as well. Jesus was no stranger to rejection. He came to earth with the intention of saving His people, and even His enemies (Romans 5: 8-10). Today we will examine a passage which deals with the rejection of Jesus and His message. Let us not look at the gospel of Luke, chapter 9, verses 41-52.

We see the passage starts with Jesus steadfastly setting His face toward Jerusalem. He was on a mission. This mission was revealed starting at Caesarea Philippi where Peter identified Jesus as the Christ (Messiah). Peter and the others would have understood the mission of Jesus to go to Jerusalem, be heralded as the Jewish Messiah, and then to overthrow the Romans and set up His rule over all the earth at Jerusalem. they would sit at Jesus right and left hand as his ministers. It was quite a shock to them to hear Jesus say that He was going up to Jerusalem to be rejected and crucified. Peter took Jesus aside and tried to correct Jesus’ delusional expectations. This is not what they signed up for. Jesus gives the most stinging rebuke of Pater by saying “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus’ “followers” are always tempted to substitute their own ideas for that of the cross. The cross is the ultimate sign of rejection. (Matthew 16:21-28)

The message of Jesus’ mission was reinforced at the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus and witnessed to the decease (exodus) Jesus was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. this was the beginning of the rejection tour. Up to this point, Jesus had been wildly popular, at least among the masses. We saw rejection last week when we looked at Jesus and the Gadarene demoniac. Jesus confronted one who was probably the most rejected person in the world other than Himself. The miracle should have brought the Gentile villages there to prostrate themselves at Jesus’ feet. But they rejected Him and asked Him to depart. the only one who was saved was the man who had been possessed of a legion of devils. This shows that rejection of Jesus and His message is not limited to the Jews, and more than acceptance of Jesus is limited to the Jews.

Jesus and the disciples now enter a Samaritan village. this was not the village of Sychar which Jesus had previously visited after the woman at the well in John 4 witnessed that Jesus knew all about her and told her everything she had done. the elders of the village came to hear Jesus Himself. they believed in Jesus. But this village in Samaria rejected Jesus. We know of the animosity and hatred the Jews and Samaritans had for each other. It is hard to overcome prejudice of this sort. So, the rejection of the Samaritans would by worldly thinking be quite normal. what was abnormal by the world’s standards is that Jesus came there to proclaim the Gospel. they had rejected Him, but He had not rejected them. Later on, we will read that Christianity would spread widely among the Samaritans.

The disciples were indignant that the Samaritans had rejected them. It as unusual that they, being Jews, were even in this village. If it were not for Jesus, they would not have been. Sometimes, when the Galilean Jews found it necessary because of the urgency of time to go to Jerusalem, they would pass through Samaria. they normally would go miles out of their way to avoid Samaria, even travelling through Gentile territory on the other side of the Jordan River. But if they passed through, they would do so quickly and not stop in the villages. There was no time compulsion which drove Jesus to go through Samaria. the cross was almost a year away. So, the disciples asked is they could pray down fire from heaven to consume them like Elijah had done. they did not see this as a Gospel tour. they did not see this as a rejection tour. Rather they saw it as a judgment tour.

Jesus had to reorient the disciples to the nature of the mission and why his face was steadfastly set toward Jerusalem. He rebuked them for not understanding the nature of Jesus’ mission. Jesus had not come there to destroy but to save. This was His mission to all men everywhere. There are textual variants which omit the latter part of the verse, but regardless, Jesus expressed this truth elsewhere as well. Jesus came to save and not to destroy. And this salvation led to rejection and the cross.