Commentary - Luke 9:51-56

Bird's-eye view

This passage marks a pivotal turning point in Luke's gospel. The Galilean ministry is concluding, and Jesus now begins His final, fateful journey to Jerusalem. The language is solemn and resolute: His time to be "taken up" is at hand, and He "set His face" toward the cross. This is not a casual trip; it is a divine appointment with destiny. As He travels, He encounters the predictable hostility of the Samaritans, a people group with a long and bitter history of animosity toward the Jews. This rejection then serves as a catalyst, revealing the profound spiritual immaturity of His own disciples. James and John, the "Sons of Thunder," see the slight and immediately want to call down celestial fire, just like Elijah did. Their zeal is hot, but it is a carnal, Old Covenant kind of zeal. Jesus' sharp rebuke corrects their fundamental misunderstanding of His mission. He did not come to incinerate His enemies, but to save them. The spirit of the New Covenant is one of mercy and salvation, not fiery judgment. This incident, therefore, serves as a crucial lesson in the nature of the Kingdom: its King is marching to His death to save the very kind of people who reject Him, and His followers must learn to operate by this same spirit of grace, not vengeance.

The entire episode is a microcosm of the gospel. The King is rejected by those He came to save. His own followers, full of misguided passion, misunderstand the nature of His power and purpose. And the King Himself patiently corrects them, clarifying that His mission is not destruction but redemption. It is a paradigm-shifting moment, moving the disciples away from a theology of immediate, violent retribution toward a theology of suffering, patience, and grace.

Outline

Context In Luke

This section begins the great central portion of Luke's Gospel, often called the "Travel Narrative" (Luke 9:51-19:27). Up to this point, Jesus' ministry has been largely centered in Galilee. Now, He begins the long, final ascent to Jerusalem, where His passion and glorification will take place. This journey is not just geographical; it is theological. The shadow of the cross now falls over every event and teaching. This passage immediately follows Peter's confession of Christ and the first prediction of the passion and resurrection (Luke 9:18-22), as well as the transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36). The glory of Christ has been revealed to the inner circle, and the necessity of His suffering has been declared. Now, the reality of that suffering journey begins, and the first obstacle is rejection. This rejection provides the context for Jesus to instruct His disciples on the true nature of His kingdom and the spirit that must animate its citizens. It sets the tone for the remainder of the journey, which will be marked by conflict with opponents and intensive training for His followers.

Key Issues

The Face Set Like Flint

There comes a point in every great story where the hero makes a deliberate, settled choice from which there is no turning back. This is that moment for the Lord Jesus. The time for His "being taken up" was at hand. This Greek word, analepsis, is rich with meaning. It refers to His entire glorification: His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. It is all one great event, one great lifting up. Knowing this, Jesus "set His face to go to Jerusalem." This is the language of Isaiah 50:7, where the suffering servant says, "I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed."

This is not grim resignation. This is steadfast, resolute, determined obedience. Jesus is not being dragged to the cross; He is marching to it. He is the protagonist of this story, the king on His way to the decisive battle. He knows exactly what awaits Him in Jerusalem: betrayal, mockery, scourging, and crucifixion. And yet, He sets His face. He commits Himself to the Father's will without reservation. All the powers of hell and the rebellion of man will not deter Him. This is the courage of the Lion of Judah, who goes as a Lamb to the slaughter. Every step He takes from this point forward is a step toward the redemption of the world, a step taken with flint-like resolve.

Verse by Verse Commentary

51 Now it happened that when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled, He set His face to go to Jerusalem;

The narrative shifts into a high and solemn key. The "days...were soon to be fulfilled." History is not a random series of events; it is a story moving toward a climax appointed by God. The central event of all history, the glorification of the Son, is now on the horizon. The phrase "taken up" encompasses the entire passion and exaltation of Christ. It is His exodus, His departure, His victory. In response to this divine timetable, Jesus acts with sovereign purpose. "He set His face." The verb here implies a hardening, a stiffening of resolve. He is not stumbling into Jerusalem by accident. He is heading there with the fixed intention of accomplishing our salvation. This is the hinge point of the gospel. The King is now on His royal progress to His coronation, and His throne is a cross.

52-53 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.

As a practical matter, a large group traveling needs lodging. Jesus sends messengers ahead to a Samaritan village. The Samaritans were a mixed people group, descended from Israelites who intermarried with Gentiles after the Assyrian conquest. They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and their own version of the Pentateuch. The animosity between Jews and Samaritans was ancient, deep, and bitter. The reason for their rejection of Jesus is stated plainly: "because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem." For the Samaritans, Jerusalem and its temple represented a rival, apostate form of worship. Jesus' destination was an affirmation of the centrality of Jerusalem in God's plan, which was a direct insult to their own religious claims. They did not reject Him because He was a miracle worker or a teacher; they rejected Him because He was a Jew on His way to the Jewish holy city. It was a rejection born of deep-seated ethnic and theological pride.

54 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?”

Enter the Sons of Thunder. James and John witness this blatant disrespect to their Master, and their response is immediate and explosive. They have a biblical precedent in mind. In 2 Kings 1, the prophet Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the soldiers of the wicked King Ahaziah. James and John see the parallel: God's representative is being dishonored by wicked people. Their solution? Let's do what Elijah did. Let's have a barbecue. Their zeal for the Lord's honor is, in a certain sense, commendable. They are not lukewarm. They love Jesus and are outraged by the insult. But their zeal is untempered by knowledge. It is a carnal, fleshly zeal that misunderstands the nature of the new era that Jesus is inaugurating.

55-56 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind 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 on to another village.

Jesus' response is a sharp, corrective rebuke. The bracketed text, while not in all the earliest manuscripts, certainly captures the essence of the rebuke. "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of." They thought they were operating in the spirit of Elijah, the great prophet of God. But Jesus tells them they are mistaken. The spirit of the Old Covenant, with its immediate and often violent temporal judgments, is not the spirit that is to characterize His followers. The spirit they were channeling was one of personal vengeance and triumphalism, not the Holy Spirit. Jesus then provides the mission statement for His entire ministry and the paradigm for the New Covenant: "the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." This is the gospel in miniature. The power that could call down fire is instead directed toward the cross. The ultimate judgment is coming, but the present age is the age of grace, the time for salvation. Jesus' response to rejection is not incineration, but to simply go "on to another village." He is on a mission to save, and He will not be distracted by a desire to destroy those who oppose Him.

Application

This passage puts its finger on one of the most persistent temptations for zealous believers: the desire to see God's enemies get what they deserve right now. We see the world rejecting our King, blaspheming His name, and persecuting His people, and our natural, fleshly response is to say, "Lord, let's call down some fire." We want to see the wicked smitten. We want vindication. We want to be on the side that brings the hammer down.

But Jesus rebukes this spirit. He teaches us that the defining characteristic of His kingdom in this age is mercy. He set His face toward Jerusalem not to conquer it with legions of angels, but to be crucified by its leaders. His response to rejection was not to destroy, but to die for the rejecters. This is the pattern for us. Our mission is not to destroy lives, but to see them saved. This does not mean we abandon the biblical practice of imprecatory prayer, where we ask God in His time and in His way to deal with His enemies. But it does mean that our personal posture, our spirit, must be one that seeks the salvation of our enemies, not their immediate destruction.

Are we more like James and John, or more like Jesus? When our faith is mocked, when our Lord is dishonored, is our first instinct to call for fire, or to pray for repentance? When a "Samaritan village", a hostile neighbor, a secular institution, a godless culture, rejects the gospel, do we write them off and wish for their ruin, or do we, like our Master, patiently move on to the next village, holding out the offer of life? The spirit of Christ is the spirit that endures rejection for the sake of redemption. He had the power to consume them all, but He chose the cross instead. That is our spirit, the spirit of those who have been saved from the fire, not the spirit of those who wish to call it down.