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Luke 9:51-62

A Village Says No

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Luke 9:51-62
A Village Says No

By Dr. Carol J Miller

This story happened when things were really getting dangerous for Jesus. Some of the religious leaders did not like Jesus because they were jealous. Jesus was kind to the people. He told them things about God that made the people feel very close to God; they felt that God loved them. The religious leaders often told the people that God was mad at them because the people didn’t keep all the rules that the leaders kept. They made the people feel that God didn’t love them at all. The people wanted to hear what Jesus had to say about God. They did not want to hear the leaders.

The religious leaders were so jealous of Jesus that they made a plan to kill him if they could get him to come to Jerusalem. Jesus knew what they wanted to do; but he was not going to run away. Jesus and the disciples began walking to Jerusalem; just what his enemies wanted him to do.

It was a long walk––people walked everywhere in those days. Jesus and the disciples needed to stay overnight in a town along the way. But when they got to the town, the people would not let them stay. They told Jesus to leave. They said they knew he was going to Jerusalem. Can anyone guess why they wouldn’t let Jesus stay with them? [Accept all answers.] They were most likely afraid that the religious leaders would find out that they had helped Jesus. So the leaders might get angry with the people in the village. The people were afraid of what might happen to them if Jesus’ enemies thought they were friends of Jesus.

The disciples were angry at the people of the village for not letting them stay. They wanted Jesus to use his special power to punish that village. But Jesus said “No”. They just kept on walking toward Jerusalem with people along the way watching them. They knew something scary was going to happen.

Jesus was brave. He would not stop. When he got to Jerusalem he was going to show everyone that the real power was not the power of his enemies to kill. The real power belonged to God––the God of life.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2013, Richard Niell Donovan