No Union

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

NO UNION

Luke 9:51-56

51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village.

NIV

We have to notice that Luke does not include it was time to go to the cross, die and be buried, and then be resurrected before being taken up, or ascended back to heaven. Luke simply puts it that the time was approaching for his ascension. Although the cross is significant, and the resurrection is just as important, it is the ascension of Jesus that puts him at the right hand of the Father where he is continually making intercession for us. Every portion of the event that will take place has everything to do with our lives. Yet there is another truth we see within this narrative that is interesting to ponder on. First, we know about who the Samaritans represent. From John’s gospel we have the account of Jesus at the well having this conversation with a Samaritan woman who confesses the Jews have nothing to do with them. There is a hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. From 2 Kings 17, we see the Samaritans set up their own high places, and even to this day, at least at the time of Jesus, they persisted in their former practices. They neither worshipped the Lord nor adhered to the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom God named Israel. So we have this comparison between the believers, the Jews, in God and the world, and the Samaritans, who do not believe. When the messengers that Jesus sent to a Samaritan town to get things ready for him the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem.

Here is where the rubber hits the road for us. There is a comparison between us who believe in Jesus and the world that does not. Now, we are headed for heaven, and if we actually lived as we were, and spoke of our journey to get there, which has been through the cross and the resurrection, and were always speaking about the kingdom of God, we may find the world does not welcome us. However, if we blend in enough, not wanting to shake the boat, so to speak, then the world has no problem with us and in fact, may embrace us. Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo would not blend in and fall down to worship the image of gold and they ended up in the fire. Of course, God delivered them and they did not even smell of smoke. Although the messengers wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans, it is the other way today: the world will send fire upon us if we do not blend in and take our stand against them. Yet, we are clothed in God’s armor, and we will not be harmed by the actions of the world, yet they might hate us because we believe. There can be no union between the believer and the world.