Meditations on Luke's Gospel : 63 : The Big Picture

   

 

Lk 9:51-53   As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.   

     

    

There are obviously, as we work through Luke, various odd words that are unique to him but our next larger passage shows us purpose and direction that Luke picked up on. These verses appear nowhere else and they indicate Luke's awareness of the bigger picture, of the significance of what is happening. Of course Luke wrote many years after Jesus had left the earth and in the course of his own life experiences, becoming a Christian and travelling with Paul, he begins to see the bigger picture of what was going on. Thus when he starts collecting together the resources for his own Gospel, he picks up on one or two key issues that the others omitted. John did this even more when he wrote a good number of years later still.

Luke, seeing the big picture sees the events not merely as unrelated events but events that would culminate in Jesus' departure from this earth: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven.” This would yet be some months ahead, and a lot is still to happen, but the three years of ministry is rapidly coming to a conclusion. Jesus didn't come to earth to bring years and years of blessing. He had a set period, obviously determined in heaven, at the end of which his life would be taken as a sacrifice for sins, but it wasn't an accident, it wasn't something forced on him, out of his control. It was part of God's clear plan and purpose for His Son. Also note the positive and not negative way that Luke puts this. He doesn't focus even on the Cross at this point; he focuses on the end play when Jesus ascended into heaven. This wasn't to be an act of man; this was an act of heaven taking back the Son of God to retake his glory. This is a gloriously triumphant return with the Son returning to his former glory (see Jn 17:5), in his time and in his way. The Cross was a terrible act of sinful men working through the glorious plan of God – but it was men imposing this on Jesus, even though he purposefully submitted himself to them. The ascension was purely an act of God glorifying His Son.

It is because Jesus was fully aware of all this, aware of what would have to happen that we find he, “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” The next intermediate phase requires him to be in Jerusalem to provoke the authorities by his goodness, his power and his teaching, to rise up against him and take him and put him to death. We reiterate that this was not accident of history: “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23 ). There, on the day of Pentecost, Peter received that revelation as he preached under the power of the Spirit. What was going to happen would be a two sided thing. On one side there was God working out His plan for His Son to be offered for sin, while on the other side there was the Sin of mankind that was going to rise up and do it. Jesus was completely aware of that, and aware that the time had come, aware that the years of ministry were soon to come to an end, and so he sets off on the final journey to Jerusalem.

Yet it is not the end yet and there are opportunities to be taken on his way down to Jerusalem, so he sends some of his disciples ahead, as obviously became his practice, to act as forerunners to tell that he was coming: “And he sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him.” No doubt part of his reasoning for this was to arrange lodging for the apostolic band; lodging for a large number as this might need some serious arranging.

But then we find something quite terrible: “but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.” No doubt the forerunners explained that they were on their way down to Jerusalem , and once they did this they got a hostile reception. Why? For a long while the Jews of the south (especially) and the Samaritans had been at odds. The Samaritans were not pure-blood as far as the Jews of the south were concerned, not real Jews, and this accusation brought a defensive hostility from the Samaritans.

Consider the awfulness of what is happening here: surely the word would have come south from Galilee about what had been happening up there for the last three years? Surely Jesus' reputation for being a miracle worker would have gone ahead of him, and you would think that now he visits the Samaritans they would welcome the opportunity to be blessed by his ministry? But no, instead the folly of their historical prejudices means that they reject the opportunity and so Jesus passes through without any of the glory and wonder that had been accompanying his incredible healing ministry. These people remain untouched! How tragic! All because of pride and prejudice!

There seem to be two main challenges, I find, that come out of these verses. Number one is, am I aware of a sense of God's plan and purpose that includes MY Life? When Paul wrote, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10) that speaks of God having specific plans for the best way for my life to be worked out? Am I seeking Him to do all I can to be fulfilled in His plan?

The second challenge is, do I allow my own silly pride or prejudices to stop me receiving all of God's blessing that He has for me through Jesus? Are there bits of the New Testament that I don't like because either I don't understand it or I fear the outcome, and thus miss out on the whole package of God's blessing for my life? These are two serious challenges and they have the power to seriously influence the quality of my Christian life!