Luke 9:49-56

Luke 9:49-56 “Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.” 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. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.

As Christians, we always must be concerned about sectarianism, the criticism of others who follow Christ in a different way. In today's passage we find a man driving out demons in Jesus' name even though he is not part of Jesus' immediate entourage. The disciples complain to Jesus about this man's actions. Doesn't he know that we are the true way, and if he knew that, wouldn't he be one of us? Jesus was not in their camp of complaining: “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.” As we will see in the next chapter, Jesus sought more people to go out into the harvest field, not fewer. He is not winnowing the workers; He is calling for more workers. As the apostle Paul understood, it is not whether people are for me or against me, it is whether they preach the gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the gospel will not come back void.

In the story of the Samaritan village not welcoming Jesus, we see Jesus cautioning the disciples about calling down fire of judgement on people who are not believers. Jesus was not in this camp either. As Christians, we must not only be careful how we deal with fellow Christians, but we also must be careful how we deal with unbelievers. They are to be loved more than judged, accepted more than rejected. If we spend most of our time criticizing unbelievers, we will have little time to love them. Jesus rebuked the disciples for their attitude. Rebuke is a strong word, revealing to me that He loved the Samaritans, even respected them as with the story of the good Samaritan. So Christ had little patience with the disciples' anger against the Samaritan, anger that would get in the way of the gospel message. We also must be wary of our anger towards sinners. Jesus loves them as much as He loves us; therefore, we too should love the sinner. In our churches, we probably hear too many sermons about sinners and not enough sermons on our responsibility to God and our fellow man.

In the two incidents above, Jesus expresses love towards others who are not part of his fold. In the first case, He tells the disciples not to criticize people who are trying to do an honest work for him. In the second story, He rebukes his disciples for their angry attitude towards those who would not welcome him to their village. In both situations, He reminds the disciples to do the work, live the lives, assigned to them without worrying about other people's assignments or lives. This is probably one of the most difficult tasks for many of us. We can sit around, talking about others for hours: what they are doing wrong and how they should do better. But we experience difficulty seeing our own hearts and confessing our own needs and faults before others. The Bible indicates that God is the judge, the final arbitrator. We are not to take that role; we are to focus on the only lives that we have complete control over: our own. Surely, we are the only part of the equation of life that we can change or make better. If we confess our frailties and fall under Christ's authority, He makes us catalysts of love in every situation. We can be the right word, the light, the salt that people need in a difficult and dark world.