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The More of Jesus:  More Merciful

Read (and Reflect)

When you read the gospels, the Old Testament is never far in the background. Sometimes the connection is clear. Matthew tells you that this happened so the words of the prophet might be fulfilled.  Mark says ‘as it is written,’ and then quotes a bit of Isaiah.

But most of the time the Old Testament is present as an allusion rather than a quote. Such is the case in our passage. Luke 9:51-56 is a story about an incident between Jesus, his disciples and some Samaritan villages.  It seems straightforward and self-contained.  Until you start to dig.  Read Luke 9:51-53 in the King James Version or the New Revised Standard Version. Those translations stick a little closer to the original Greek.  What image jumps out at you there?

Now compare those verses to Isaiah 50:5-7.  Do you see the allusion?  When Luke uses this image (or better: when the Holy Spirit leads Luke to use this image) he is pointing back to all this rich imagery from Isaiah, and the rich imagery from Isaiah is pointing forward to the suffering and shame Jesus will endure in Jerusalem.  The Bible a rich book!

There’s one other Old Testament allusion in this passage.  When James and John ask Jesus to bring down fire from heaven on the Samaritan villages, they are very clearly remembering their childhood Bible stories.  Specifically, they are thinking of 2 Kings 1:1-16, another story where God’s servant confronts opposition from Samaritan people.  Jesus’ response here is different than Elijah’s there.  Why is that? Jesus actually rebukes James and John in verse 55.  There are four other times in Luke where Jesus rebukes using this word, they are: 4:35, 4:39, 8:24, 9:42. Look them up. What do you notice about the rebuke in those passages and what do they suggest about Jesus’ frame of mind in our passage?

Happy studying.  Tune in Sunday morning for fuller answers to these and other questions.