Galax Presbyterian Church

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION - LUKE 9:51-55

"When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem."

To "set one's face" meant to be determined to accomplish the mission, no matter the cost. Jesus was going to Jerusalem to plant the seeds for God's New Creation. He was going to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. He was going to complete his God-given mission to save the world. He was walking towards his own death, and he knew it.

Immediately, Jesus sent disciples ahead into a village in Samaria to make ready for his coming. They refused to receive him, and so James and John wanted to bid God to send down fire and brimstone from heaven to destroy them.

"Jesus turned and rebuked them." The kingdom of God cannot be brought in through violence of any kind. The verb translated "rebuke" is the same verb used to describe exorcising a demon. Using violence to accomplish God's purposes is a thought that comes straight from hell. To destroy those whom you have come to save is demonic.

On the road to Jerusalem, Jesus taught his disciples the proper method for bringing in God's rule on earth: love, the kind of love that reflects God's love. It is a love that reaches out to everyone, especially those in need, those who have little or no power in the society in which they live. It reaches out to people like the disciples and people who are enemies of the disciples, like those who lived in that Samaritan village. It reaches out to the righteous and the unrighteous, to saints and sinners alike. It reaches out to those who ignore it, and to those who are indifferent to it; even those who cruelly persecute it: "Father, forgive them..."

"The world" hates this kind of love and crucifies it. But Jesus is determined to show God's love to the world, even if he must suffer in order to do so. He has "set his face" to accomplish the task that his heavenly Father has given him.

Jesus commanded all of us who would follow him, who would also plant seeds for the coming New Creation, to "Go and do likewise." Each and every loving deed we do each day is one of those seeds, the harvest of which God will bring in.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK

"Suffering is nothing by itself. But suffering shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift, the most beautiful gift, a token of love."

Mother Teresa

BIRTHDAYS