It
came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face. They went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him. They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?” But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
Luke 9:51-56
Luke 9 [50.] Jesus said to him, “Don’t forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us.”
Luke 9 [51.] It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face. They went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him. They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”
Luke 9 [55.] But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
They went to another village. As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.”
Luke 9 [58.] Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Meaning:
These verses are a turning point in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus’ ministry in Galilee is over, and from here until his arrival in Jerusalem Luke describes a long journey, often reminding his readers that Jesus is on the way to the city where he will die (Luke 13:22). The journey begins with a rejection and with a lesson about the spirit in which his followers must respond to it.
- “When the days were near that he should be taken up”
“Taken up” looks beyond the cross to Jesus’ ascension into heaven. Luke ends his Gospel and begins the book of Acts with that event, when the angels said, “This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky” (Acts 1:11). On the mountain Moses and Elijah had already spoken of “his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:30-31). Jesus knows what lies ahead: suffering, death, resurrection and exaltation.
- “He intently set his face to go to Jerusalem”
To set one’s face is to make a firm resolve. Jesus has twice told his disciples that he will be delivered into the hands of men (Luke 9:22; Luke 9:44). Now he walks deliberately toward it. Nobody forces him; he goes willingly, for the joy set before him, as Hebrews says: he “endured the cross, despising its shame” (Hebrews 12:2).
- “They didn’t receive him”
The shortest route from Galilee to Jerusalem ran through Samaria. Jews and Samaritans had been divided for centuries over race, worship and the right place of the temple; John notes, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John 4:9). Samaritans worshipped on their own mountain, Gerizim, and a Jewish teacher heading for the Jerusalem temple was not welcome. The refusal was not personal hatred of Jesus but old religious hostility.
- “Do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky”
James and John, whom Jesus had named “Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17), want to punish the village. They have just seen Elijah on the mountain, and they recall how he called down fire on the soldiers sent by King Ahaziah: “let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!” (2 Kings 1:10). Their loyalty to Jesus is real, but their zeal is mixed with pride and national prejudice. Only a few verses earlier John had tried to stop a man who did not follow with them (Luke 9:49).
- “He turned and rebuked them”
Jesus does not praise their zeal. He tells them they do not know “of what kind of spirit” they are. The longer wording in this PIB text, which some ancient manuscripts lack, states the reason plainly: “the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” It agrees with his words elsewhere: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and “God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him” (John 3:17). He had already taught, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27).
- “They went to another village”
Jesus simply moves on. There is no revenge and no lingering resentment. Luke later shows that the Samaritans were not beyond God’s grace: Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of a parable (Luke 10:33), and the only healed leper who returned to thank him “was a Samaritan” (Luke 17:16).
The Significance of Luke 9:51-56
- Resolve to do God’s will
Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem knowing the cost. His example encourages believers to follow God’s calling steadily, even when it leads through difficulty.
- Responding to rejection
Followers of Jesus will meet rejection. They are called to answer it with patience and blessing, not with anger or a desire to see others punished, leaving judgment to God and moving on in peace.
Cross-References:
2 Kings 1:10: "If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty!" The fire James and John remembered.
Luke 19:10: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." The purpose of Jesus’ coming.
John 4:9: "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." The old hostility behind the village’s refusal.
Luke 6:27: "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you." Jesus’ way with enemies.
Conclusion: In Luke 9:51-56 Jesus resolutely sets out for Jerusalem, knowing that the time of his suffering and of his being taken up is near. When a Samaritan village refuses him, James and John want to call down fire as Elijah did, but Jesus rebukes them, for the Son of Man came not to destroy lives but to save them, and they go on to another village. The passage shows Jesus’ determination to do his Father’s will and his mercy toward those who reject him.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible