How to Deal with the Samaritans

In Luke's gospel, there is a story of Jesus and the disciples entering a Samaritan village.  The Samaritans are not receptive to the message and Jesus and the disciples are not welcomed.  The disciples want God to send fire down from the sky to consume the village, but they are rebuked by Jesus.

Israel had been in ethnic and religious tension with Samaria for hundreds of years.  Israel condemned Samaria for intermarriage with those who were not Jewish and for not complying with the Mosaic law.  TO say that Israel and Samaria did not like each other would be a vast understatement.  It is no wonder, then, that the Samaritan village was not immediately receptive to the disciples' message given all the baggage of this ethnic and religious tension.

There is ethnic and religious tension in the world today.  There always has been.  Our instinct is vengeance and annihilation of our enemies.  These instincts are born out of fear, not righteousness or holiness.  God wants salvation for Israel and Samaria and reconciliation in those dividing walls of hostility in this world that tear us apart.

We have no control over what Samaritans choose to do or not do.  We do have control over our own actions.  We can choose not to respond with fear, but with courage and a heart that seeks the salvation and redemption of all people.  In doing so, we are acting as God's agents.