Name that Spirit

Call to Hear

Luke 9:51-56

52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.

53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.

54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”

55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.

56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.

In this passage we see Jesus on His way to fulfill His passion. And this is where Luke’s narrative starts to shift. Before this point in the gospel Jesus was in Galilee doing all sorts of miracles and teaching the kingdom of God. But it came to pass, when the time appointed by the Father had arrived (), when the time had come for Him to be received up, at just the right time, while we were still sinners (), Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.

To say that Jesus “set His face” toward Jerusalem basically means that He dug in His heels. It means that He harden His mind - He was determined that no matter what - as some of the old folks I grew up with used to say, come hell or high water He was going to Jerusalem. Think about Pharaoh, when Moses went to him to release the Children of Israel it says that his heart was hardened (fixed, strengthened, firm). And from that story we know that it didn’t matter what God did, Pharaoh was determined to not let Israel go! Or, what about in Nehemiah 6:1-3, when Nehemiah is rebuilding the wall and onlookers and enemies tried to get him to deviate from the mission, what did Nehemiah tell them? “I am doing a great work, so that I can not come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” Nehemiah followed through. He was committed to accomplishing what God had called him to. Here in Luke’s gospel it’s the same idea.

Luke says that the goal is for Jesus to be received up. What’s going to happen in Jerusalem? Why is it important for Jesus go to Jerusalem? Matthew tells us why. In Matthew tells us that “from that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem,” and here is the goal that was set for Jesus, Jesus was going to Jerusalem to “suffer many things from the elders and the chief priest and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” The goal for Jesus - His purpose in this life - was to suffer, die, and be raised from the dead, so that you and I could be forgiven for our sins, have eternal life, and so that we could join Him in His mission to save the world. In Jesus tells His disciples that He came for this purpose, “to give His life as a ransom for many,” that includes you and me and the entire world. The good thing about having goals for our lives is that goals help to give us direction, they help to steer us toward what we want as well as away from want we don’t want. When Jesus’ disciples wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans what did He say? He said, “look, that’s not why I’m here! I didn’t come to kill people. I came to save people.” Knowing what the goal was helped Jesus stay away from getting involved in things that wasn’t part of the mission. Things that didn’t help Him accomplish His goal.