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 BACKGROUND - The lesson for this day includes two units; the
first unit is found in vv. 52-56 which begins the travelogue with an episode of rejection.
The second unit (vv. 57-62) spells out specifically what the cost of discipleship might
look like in our personal Sitz im Leben. Seems like just after major events in life
we experience set backs. Certainly this has been the case in Jesus’ ministry. He goes
from baptism right into testing and then rejection at Nazareth; he leaves the Mountain of
Transfiguration only to run into rejection again, this time by people in the region of
Samaria.
REJECTION - Why the rejection? Certainly ethnicity plays a role. Jews and Samaritans
had for generations been stuck in a hate feud. But Luke may see in their inhospitality to
Jesus a theological level of rejection-they’re unwillingness to follow Jesus on his
way to suffering and death. What is interesting is that Jesus wants to go to the
Samaritans! That’s worth noting. Jesus has planned to take his ministry to these
outsiders, these despised, half-Jewish heretics! But Jesus has distinguished himself on
many other occasions as one who breaks boundaries whether Jews or Gentiles or social or
political outsiders. Luke will not let us forget the Samaritans, for they will again show
up in Acts 1:8 where Jesus says "you will be my witnesses beginning first at
Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
JAMES’ AND JOHN’S BEHAVIOR - Concerning James’ and John’s reaction,
Craddock wryly remarks, "Is it not interesting how the mind can grasp and hold those
Scriptures which seem to bless our worst behavior and yet cannot retain past the sanctuary
door those texts which summon to love, forgiveness, and mercy? [1]
 No
one likes to be rejected-especially when they have offered words that they believe very
deeply about. Can you recall a time, an occurrence when something you said or did was
completely rejected? Did you feel like James and John felt, given their unusual request on
the heels of their rejection? How did you resolve your anger at being rejected?
 View the
archives for sermons that DPS already has on this passage. .
Dallas Willard has a thoughtful piece called, "The Cost of Non-discipleship."
[2]
That’s the direction I would take to begin a homily on the passage. The two
paragraphs describe the rejection of Jesus and discipleship; simply show the rejections
and try to equate them with some of the excuses we have today for not taking our
discipleship as seriously as we should.
But have you considered the cost of non-discipleship-for it is costly!
"Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith
that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good,
hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do wheat
is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of
life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10)." [3]
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[1] Fred Craddock, Interpretation Series: Luke (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990),
page 143.
[2] Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith, Devotional Classics (HarperSanFrancisco,
1993), pp 14-17.
[3] Ibid, page 16 (excerpted from The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas
Willard).
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