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Humble Hero
to offer Himself for our sins was soon to strike. He would not fail
nor hesitate. His enemies had long plotted to take His life; now He
would lay it down.
And He “sent messengers before His face. And as they went,
they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.” But
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the people refused to receive Him, because He was on His way
to Jerusalem. Little did they realize that they were turning away
from their doors the best gift of heaven. The Samaritans lost all this
because of their prejudice and bigotry.
James and John, Christ’s messengers, were greatly annoyed at
the insult; they were filled with indignation because the Samaritans
had treated Him so rudely. They reported to Christ that the people
had even refused to give Him a night’s lodging. Seeing Mount
Carmel in the distance, where Elijah had killed the false prophets,
they said, “Do You want us to command fire to come down from
heaven and consume them?” They were surprised at Jesus’ rebuke:
“You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of
Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And He
went to another village.
It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel people to receive Him.
He wants only voluntary service, the willing surrender of the heart
moved by love. There can be no more conclusive evidence that
we possess the spirit of Satan than the desire to hurt and destroy
those who do not appreciate our work, who act contrary to our
ideas. Nothing can be more offensive to God than, through religious
bigotry, bringing suffering on those who are the purchase of the
Savior’s blood.
Christ spent a significant part of the closing months of His min-
istry in Perea, the province beyond the Jordan from Judea. See
Mark
10:1
. Here the people crowded around Him, and He repeated much
of His former teaching.
As He had sent out the Twelve, so He “appointed seventy others
and sent them on ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place
where he himself intended to go.” NRSV. For some time these disci-
ples had been in training for their work. They had had the privilege
of close association with Him and direct personal instruction.
Jesus did not give the same command to the Seventy that He had
given to the Twelve—not to enter into any city of the Gentiles or the