The Samaritans do not Receive Christ.

(Luke 9:51-56).

While the Lord was known in Samaria, the hostility between the Jews and Samaritans was such that He didn’t rely on a kind reception. Consequently, he sent some of His disciples in advance, so as to predispose the Samaritans. It is unknown which settlement the Lord’s messengers visited. However, it can be surmised that it was probably located in the north of Samaria — closer to Galilee — a days travel from there, where presumably they would stay overnight. “Because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem,” the Samaritans apparently did not receive Him because of the deep hatred they held for the Jews. James and John, who were named by the Lord “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17) — because of their spiritual strength and energy, and for their rash and strong impulses — provoked their zeal because of the insult to their Teacher’s honor. Recollecting how the Prophet Elijah dealt with those that were sent to seize him — he destroyed them with fire from the heavens (2 Kings 1:9-12) — they asked their Teacher if He wants them, by their word, to bring down fire from heaven and destroy these Samaritans? Through God’s will, they had already performed many miracles while giving sermons throughout Judea, and consequently, didn’t feel incapable of performing this miracle should this be agreeable to their omnipotent Teacher. To this, the Lord told them that they didn’t realize of what spirit they were: the spirit of the New Testament was different to the spirit of the laws of the Old Testament — there, it was a spirit of severity and punishment, whereas here, it is a spirit of love and clemency, because the aim of the Son of Man’s coming was not to destroy, but to save (Mat 18:11). Apart from that, the Lord apparently wanted to point out that in this given instance, the feeling within the Apostles was not so much love toward Him, as their ill-feeling toward the Samaritans — and this feeling of animosity, in servers of the New Testament, toward other people, must be discarded. In receiving such a reception, the Lord apparently returned to Galilee and went to Judea along a different route, that which was usually followed by Jews through the district of Perea — beyond Jordan. From the subsequent narrations by Saint Luke, it is evident that the Lord was also in Galilee and Perea, and only went to Judea significantly later.