A Sermon on Luke 9:51-56: "Location, Location, Location"
Luke 9:51-56
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for his arrival, but they did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 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?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.
🔥 An AI generated Short Sermon Summary: "Location, Location, Location"
This sermon reflects on the story of Jesus and his disciples passing through Samaritan territory, where they face rejection. The disciples want revenge, but Jesus rebukes them, reminding us that following him means choosing peace over retaliation.
It challenges us to think about the lines we draw between "us" and "them"—in faith, politics, and everyday life. We may not have the power to fix world conflicts, but we do have the power to bring mercy, cross boundaries, and reflect Jesus' love in our daily actions.
🚗 And AI generated Three Car-Ride Home Discussion Questions
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Have you ever drawn a "boundary line" in your life—someone you avoided or thought of as an outsider? How do you think Jesus would ask you to treat that person?
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Why do you think Jesus rebuked his own disciples instead of the Samaritans? What lesson do we need to learn from that?
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What does it mean to "bring heaven to earth" instead of calling down fire? What are some everyday ways we can do that this week—at school, at work, or in our community?
Location, Location, Location
by Rev. James McTyre
The Jews hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans hated the Jews. Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. Samaritans worshiped on Gerazim. Same God, different places. Location, location, location. Samaritans also had a different revelation, revelation, revelation. The two nations maintained strict separation, separation, separation. There was generation, after generation, after generation of aggravation, confrontation, and altercation. Both prayed for the other's extermination, extermination, extermination.
Oh you know I found the rhyming dictionary. We're just getting started. Celebration, celebration, celebration.
Anyway, BIG complication: Samaria was like Atlanta. For Jews to get anywhere they had to go THROUGH it or AROUND it: navigation, navigation, navigation.
Jesus and the disciples must have been taking a shortcut through the Samaritan nation. The population gave them no accommodation. The disciples proposed annihilation.
And Jesus said: No! Do that, and you'll get my condemnation.
In summation:
If Jesus and his disciples pass through Pensacola looking for habitation, let there be no hesitation, hesitation, hesitation.
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Location, location, location. THE first rule of real estate. It's also a rule of religion. Psalm 16 knows it, too. It says,
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places
Well, that's nice.
But what do boundary lines have to do with faith?
Evidently Jesus and the disciples have made a shortcut through Samaritan land on their way to Jerusalem. They've crossed the border, the boundary line that separates the two lands. The disciples must have been holding their noses through this nasty part of the trip. And the Samaritans were likely doing the same when the gang of 13 rode into town.
"What are THOSE people DOING in OUR neighborhood? After dark? Blow out the candles. Hurry. They'll think we aren't home. Don't answer the door."
The disciples must have been wishing: "If only we hadn't crossed the boundary into this stinkin' hole of a country. I can't wait 'til we're back in OUR Holy Land."
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Religions always draw boundary lines. The Presbyterians (USA) don't mix with the Presbyterians of America. The United Methodists won't mix with the Global Methodists. The Roman Catholics are separate from the Eastern Orthodox. Same God. Same Jesus. But we maintain boundary lines. It's not that we're right and they're wrong. Is it?
And don't get started on the arguments churches have over real estate. Location, location, location. Argumentation, argumentation, argumentation. Churches split and they want to keep their property. Lawsuits. Endless Presbytery meetings. Sometimes even physical violence. Who's right? Who's wrong? How do you know – without boundary lines?
What are YOUR boundary lines? Do you guard them religiously? I'll bet you do. Maybe not invoking the name of God. Or maybe so. We all have lines we will not cross.
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I don't know if it's good news or bad news, but the churches of our generation, the faithful people of Jesus of our generation, are definitely NOT the first believers in the One God to get into these aggravations and altercations.
The disciples cross a boundary and, receive a predictably hostile reception from the Samaritans. The disciples ask Jesus:
"Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"
We assume they're speaking metaphorically. Or, maybe not. Did the disciples really believe they had the power to call down fire from heaven to bring termination to the Samaritan nation?
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The scriptures today give me a lot of trepidation. Every now and then the Lectionary passages that we follow – and a lot of churches follow, too – every now and then, they seem as though they were chosen for this present day.
The Bible's like that. You open up this book that started being written two-and-a-half thousand years ago (give or take a century) and it seems like it was written with today in mind.
It wasn't. The people who wrote the Bible couldn't predict the future any better than we can. But sometimes the coincidences make you wonder.
Compare today's scriptures with what's on the news, the Breaking News. Maybe the Bible can help us understand what's happening in the world. But also, the world events might help us understand what's happening in the Bible.
When you think about the wars being fought or fixin to be fought this week – Ukraine, Gaza, Iran -- Los Angeles – at the heart of every conflict – on every side - is always… location, location, location. Land. Borders. State's rights, national sovereignty. Add in religion and there's even more escalation.
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I was writing this sermon with the TV on in the background. I could have been watching something wholesome, like "Bachelor in Paradise" or "Love Island." Something peaceful, like "Stephen A. Smith." Stephen A. really needs to ask his doctor if Xanax is right for him.
But no. I had the news on. I really try to avoid those channels. But it seemed important to keep up on events lately.
And every news channel was showing video of missiles raining down, their streaks lighting up the night sky. And more missiles rising up to intercept them. And cities below being flashed with terrible lightning.
And I settled on the verse where the disciples ask Jesus if he wants them to call down fire from heaven.
And I couldn't help but think. Two thousand years. 2000 years, and what's changed? We're still fighting over real estate. Over boundary lines. Over what's mine and what's yours, who's right and who's wrong, which God has the answers, and whether airstrikes from heaven are the right thing to do.
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But he turned and rebuked them.
When the disciples ask Jesus if he wants them to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans for being mean to them, the Bible says Jesus "rebuked" them.
For Jesus, a rebuke is a very special, very powerful thing.
A rebuke from Jesus is way more than just a "No." It's a – shall we say – very strongly worded no. A rebuke from Jesus leaves no room for ifs, ands, or buts. Let there be no doubt. Jesus is 100 percent against whatever's being rebuked.
In scripture, Jesus's rebukes are reserved for only a few select things. He only does it a few times. He rebukes Satan. He rebukes the murderous winds of chaos. He rebukes fatal illness. He rebukes demons. And that's it.
Oh, and, almost forgot. He rebukes disciples.
Isn't it strange that Jesus rebukes the worst evil AND rebukes the closest disciples?
Could it be that Jesus rebukes the disciples (and not the unwelcoming Samaritans?) because just a few pages earlier in your Bibles, he's just told them:
"Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you"??
When you have the power to call down fire from heaven to stop your enemies, to teach them a lesson, to preemptively stop them from bringing down fire on YOU…. When you have the power and DON'T use it?
Is that mercy? Or is that foolishness? Are there boundary lines that it's good to cross? Is Jesus right 100% of the time?
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I'm not smart enough. And I don't have the intelligence operatives to provide me reliable information about international conflicts. All I know is what I see on the news or read on the Internet. And I'm highly skeptical of both.
Unless you're getting daily security briefings, you probably don't have that knowledge, either. That doesn't stop either of us from having opinions. But as they say, opinions are like noses (or other body parts); everybody has one. I once knew a man who had two noses. This is true. Don't ask me about the location, location, location.
None of us have the power to call down fire from heaven. But we all can call heaven down with power. We can't influence international events. But with the power of Jesus Christ, we can bring mercy into our daily life. We can influence any number of personal events. Every day, we can choose to bring peace. Every day we can choose to bring goodness. We can bring not fire but heaven down to earth. We can bring heaven down upon even our enemies if we so choose. And – from time to time – we can, like Jesus, cross the boundaries, and rebuke the wrong. Especially we can rebuke the wrong that comes from within us.
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The scripture ends with the line,
Then they went on to another village.
The disciples were mistreated by the Samaritans. But they had also crossed a boundary into Samaritan territory. What did they expect?
They didn't call down fire. They didn't try to fix the Samaritans. Didn't try to teach them a lesson. After being rebuked, they moved on.
Did the Samaritans learn any lesson? Probably not. But the disciples learned THEIR lesson. From Jesus. And that day, this was enough. They learned their lesson. And then they went on.
Their little delegation moved past reciprocation, and let relocation bring de-escalation. Did they do some self-examination? Don't know. But Christ's rebuke and Christ's salvation found them, and can find us, in any location.
