People who hate other cultures, and the Dutch

This week's verses are Luke 9:51-56:

 Now when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set out resolutely to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead of him. As they went along, they entered a Samaritan village to make things ready in advance for him, but the villagers refused to welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. Now when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

In these verses, Jesus teaches us how to deal with rejection. Do we hold resentment and vow revenge? Or do we simply shake ourselves off and take our blessing elsewhere?

The Samaritans and the Jews had longstanding issues with each other. The Samaritans wanted to worship God in their own territory but the Jews refused to recognize any worship that didn't happen in Jerusalem. The Jews therefore looked down on them as subhuman, and the Samaritans didn't seem to think any better of the Jews. So in a sense, when they found out that Jesus was only planning to stop there on the way to Jerusalem, the Samaritans went full-racist on him and rejected him.

The attitude of the disciples was like our attitude often is when we are rejected. We withhold relationship, withhold our patronage of a business, withhold our good will, or worse, we actively spread malicious gossip, or work to destroy those who reject us. We don't have to call down fire to bring death, destruction, and judgment on someone else. We all have reacted to hurt by lashing out in vengeance; whether that vengeance is active or passive depends on the personality.

Even though they were Samaritans, Jesus would have had a reasonable expectation that these people would help him. Hospitality was, and is, a cornerstone of Semitic cultures. It wouldn't have been wrong culturally for him to take offense at their breach of protocol. But he didn't take offense. He didn't curse them. He didn't plot revenge. He simply let the Samaritan village reject him and went along to the next place where he would get the welcome he deserved.

The only people Jesus scolded were his disciples for wanting to punish the Samaritans. He just let the Samaritans be. It's interesting that the racism of the Samaritans was less of an issue to Jesus than the disciples' desire to want to punish the racists. Punishing them would only worsen the divide. You can't shame and torment someone into loving you. Ask anyone who has been stalked.

When people reject us, they often reject Jesus too. When we're slighted by people, for whatever reason, we should handle it like Jesus handled it. We should absorb the insult, the humiliation, the cost, and continue down the path without them. If we hold onto resentment, and appeal to heaven to give them the punishment we feel they deserve, we become the people Jesus rebuked.

So, be willing to face the pain of rejection. Be willing to tolerate people being unkind to you because of who you are, or what they feel you represent. Be willing to absorb injustice in the name of grace, so that you can demonstrate the love Jesus showed to us.