Samaritan inhospitality

Our Sunday Gospel today is about Samaritan inhospitality. There is no question that there’s no love lost between the Jews and Samaritans. I’m sure that most of our readers remember the story of the Good Samaritan, which we’ve already talked about here many times before. It was a story by our Lord Jesus Christ that made the Jews, including priests look bad, wherein Jesus praised the Good Samaritan for his charitable act to a person that he didn’t even know. So today’s gospel reading can be found in Luke 9:51-62.

“51 When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, [Jesus] resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, 52 and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, 53 but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.

54 When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” 55 Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they journeyed to another village. 57 As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”

59 And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord] let me go first and bury my father.” 60 But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” 62 [To him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

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The first part of today’s gospel is quite revealing. As they made their journey towards Jerusalem, along the way they entered a Samaritan village but they were not welcomed there because the Samaritans knew that they were all headed for Jerusalem. Of course this meant that the Samaritans knew that they were Jews and therefore, they were not welcomed.

Angry at this ugly bad reception, the disciples James and John then asked the Lord, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” These two disciples would not be saying such things unless they had some kind of authority to call for fire and brimstone to destroy those inhospitable Samaritans, just like the way Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. But instead, the Lord rebuked them and they left for another village.

If you’re curious as to why both James and John wanted some kind of divine chastisement against the Samaritans, it was because both of them were present at the Transfiguration of our Lord, when the Blessed Trinity manifested themselves with the voice of God the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him” and the Shekinah Glory cloud overshadowing them and of course, our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured. Peter, James and John were given a glimpse of heaven and they finally realized that indeed, Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

This story clearly shows the great divide between the Jews and the Samaritans. But as we read further on in the Bible, we will know that at the end of the day, the Samaritans, who are also known as the Gentiles, were the first to embrace Christianity, while the Jews, even until this day, are still waiting for the Messiah to come. But early Christian Jews eventually took refuge in many Samaritan villages, as they have all become Christians.

In the second part of this Gospel story, the disciples already knew that their Master was headed towards Jerusalem where he will be handed over to the Chief Priests and be put to death. But that no longer bothered them, so they told him that they would follow him wherever he would go. But our Lord Jesus replied in a manner that even foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head. He was telling them the nature of his mission, where you cannot stay in a permanent home when they want to follow Christ.

But when our Lord said to another disciple to follow him, this man told the Lord, “let me go first and bury my father.” But our Lord Jesus replied, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Now was the Lord being rude to a man who wanted to bury his father? Actually the Lord was telling this disciple not to run away from his spiritual calling. It was like saving let the spiritually dead do the daily tasks of living.

Basically, our Lord Jesus was telling his disciples what it takes to follow the footsteps of Christ. As the Lord Jesus said in Luke 12: 34 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Indeed, if we have found our love for our Lord Jesus Christ, then nothing else matters anymore. As John the Baptist said about Jesus, “He must increase, while I must decrease.”

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