You do not know what manner of spirit you are of

 

 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  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?"  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "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 they went to another village. 

 

 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then He said to another, "Follow Me."  but he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."  But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

 

- Luke 9:51–62 

 

Yesterday we read that, when Jesus, James, John, and Peter had come down from the mount of the Transfiguration on the following day, a great multitude met Him.  Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, "Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child.  And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him.  So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not."  Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?  Bring your son here."  And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him.  Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.  And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.  But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, He said to the disciples, "Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men."  But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.  Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.  And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, and said to them, "Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.  For he who is least among you all will be great."  Now John answered and said, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us."  But Jesus said to him, "Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side."

 

  Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  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?"  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "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 they went to another village.  As we have observed of others in the Gospels (such as, for example, the sisters Martha and Mary), these two brothers, James and John, are here true to type.  We recall that Jesus has named them Boanerges, meaning "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17).  In our previous reading (see above), it was the brother John who said, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us."  (Take notice of the plural "we" in that statement).  Jesus replied, "Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side."  Here, it is these brothers who ask if the disciples should command fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans who did not receive Christ into their village (for His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem).  Here Christ's reply to these brothers similarly tempers their "fiery" responses, and puts them in mind of what manner of spirit they are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them."

 

  Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then He said to another, "Follow Me."  but he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."  But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  My study Bible comments on the phrase I will follow You.  It notes here that there is a cost to discipleship.  Here, it says, Jesus reveals three of them.  First, the disciple relinquishes personal or earthly security.  That is, if the Lord has nowhere to lay His head, then neither will the disciple.  Secondly, there is nothing -- not even the honor due to parents -- which can be an obstacle to serving the Lord.  Finally, a disciple cannot delay in accomplishing the good that Christ demands.  

 

 We often minimize the demands of discipleship in our modern context.  We live in a world which, for the most part in the developed or developing countries, glorifies consumerism to a certain extent.  Or, barring overt glamorizing of money and all that it can do for us, popular culture and modern life of great advancements in technology and all manner of consumer goods becomes a template for the way in which we live our lives, and the ways we think about how life works.  All manner of things become some kind of object of consumption, even to the point of choosing what our religion teaches and how we follow it.  In other words, "sacrifice" as a concept becomes minimized and even to some extent a scandal.  On a certain level, this even becomes unconscious, for it is the stuff of the societies we live in and the modern telecommunications we consume and use.  Do we want a Christianity that enables us to pursue the great dreams of success taught by the modern world?  We can find a variety or flavor that offers this.  Would we like a Christianity that teaches us that we needn't learn any discipline on our appetites and passions?  We can find that too.  Do we want a Christianity that corrects no one, and says "no" to nothing?  It's easy to call ourselves tolerant while we refuse to notice how much these attitudes allow or even enable harm to others.  On the other hand, the modern world in popular culture is often reacting to overly harsh attitudes of the past as well.  In today's reading, we get a balance between both of these extremes.  On the one hand, Jesus corrects James and John Zebedee, who wonder if they should bring down fire upon the Samaritan villagers who refuse to receive Christ, for Christ has now set his face to go toward Jerusalem and the Cross.  We recall that when Jesus sent the apostles out on their first mission, He taught them to "shake the very dust" from their feet in rebuke against those places where they are not received (Luke 9:5).  Here the Zebedee brothers seem to be consumed with the idea that a worldly kingdom is about to be established by Jesus, complete with the power of holy fire such as shown by the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18:20-40), and we can imagine that the dispute about who among the disciples would be the greatest reflected this understanding (see yesterday's reading, above; see also Mark 10:35-45).  In today's reading, Jesus rebuffs such attitudes toward power among His disciples, saying to them, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of."  Following immediately upon this lesson, we are given examples of sacrifice necessary to be a disciple, which couples with Christ's teaching on the use of power.  Even such pressing circumstances which we deem ostensibly "good," such as the burial of a parent, fall to a secondary place when called to discipleship.  Here, Jesus tells the would-be disciple, "Let the dead bury their own dead," implying that those whom he has left behind are not interested in the kingdom of God Christ asks him to go preach instead.  Another reflects the same sentiments of home and family:  "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." But Jesus replies, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."   In a modern context, midst a breakdown of the family, we are often told that family values are the emphasis of Christianity.  But this can also obscure the fact of discipleship and the sacrifices it requires, even its priorities as explained here by Christ.  Sacrifice entails not only dispelling our conventional social ideas about power (which includes the power of consumption) but also social obligation and the priority given to a call from Christ.  To carry one's cross, to be crucified with Christ in this sense, is to learn to discern where we're called away from the things we might think are "good" to the higher good of service, discipleship, and sacrifice that God asks of us.  Each one's cross will be different, just as each social construct belongs to its own period of time and place in terms of how we're asked to change our thinking, and what to give up at times even what we think of as "good" and "successful" for the vision that God has for us instead.  In our time and place, we have a powerful call to consumerism, to the latest technologies, to obedience to one social realm or another, even to cancel culture.  Let us temper all of our impulses with prayer and the call from Christ, as best as we can discern.  Let us embrace the sacrifice that leads us to our own higher good that we can't know nor realize without it.  For Christ calls us beyond where we are and what we know, into the places we don't know, in order to grow as His disciples.  For all these things are teaching us "what manner of spirit" we must be of.