Jesus' Expectations

2Kings2: 1-2, 6-14

Luke 9:  51-62

What do you want from your church? What do you expect from your fellow church members and your pastor? What do you expect from your community?

We all have expectations and desires for the way we want things to go here. Some we can make happen, and others may never happen. Today in Luke we read about the cost of following Jesus, and how sometimes Jesus shows us that our expectations are not his expectations. We read about how a whole community rejected Jesus not because of what he taught, not because of how he looked, not because of who others had proclaimed him to be, but because his face was turned toward Jerusalem and they were against all the people that lived there. The Samaritans and the Jews were not always friendly with each other. They had major divides in their religious beliefs that kept them from seeing each other as people; people with something to offer.

Jesus and his disciples approach this community and at first they walked in to a friendly crowd. Then someone asked them where they had been and where they were headed next. As soon as the words, “We’re on our way to Jerusalem” came out of the men’s mouths, the people shut down. They turned and walked away. Nothing mattered except that this man and his disciples were headed to a completely different place than the Samaritans thought they should be headed.

There is a lesson to be learned here. Who do we turn away from because of where we think they are headed? Who do we treat with less respect than they deserve because of what we believe about them? How are we failing to be Jesus Christ to those that walk a different path than us?

The disciples were angry at the immediate rejection of Jesus by the people. They looked to each other and they began to grumble like people do. Then they began to gather in groups of two or three to share their complaints about these awful, rude Samaritans. Finally, all of them were feeling hurt and betrayed and upset so they turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy them?”

That’s some serious hurt the disciples are feeling. In the three years they have been with Jesus they have learned tolerance and love from him when everyone else wants to stone sinners and throw Jesus off cliffs for daring to teach with authority. They have learned how patient Jesus is with those who do not understand his message, they have heard his wisdom over and over again. Yet, when faced with these rude people who have hurt their pride, everything inside of the disciples rebels against what Jesus has taught them for three years. They want retribution. They want vengeance. They want to hurt these people as much as they have been hurt!

Sound familiar? People who have not grown up or worked in a church have no idea how things go behind the scenes. The truth is there is a lot more dysfunction IN the church than there is outside of it. Perhaps because we don’t want to offend people and so we quietly complain about what Ms. Susie is teaching in her classroom or about Old Al who always snores in the back pew. We talk about how Clarise is mad at the pastor for something, but won’t tell the pastor because she doesn’t want to make waves, but she’ll tell everyone else that will listen so that eventually – the pastor WILL find out. We gossip about how Albert and June have joined this committee or that committee, but never show up. We complain about how we can’t get volunteers and about who hasn’t come to church lately and why that might be.

Then the quiet murmurs and gossip become something much bigger; it goes from two or three complaining to the whole church. The grumblings become louder, the complaints more forceful and it all becomes the cause of hurt and frustration as people act out against each other. They turn away from each other because they think they know where that person is coming from and they don’t need to hear anymore. We stop listening. We stop caring. We stop being Christians and instead become petty, hurt people. The disciples allowed their hurt for the way they and Jesus were treated to make them petty, mean people.

They truly wanted those villagers to suffer. Raining down fire is serious business! It will hurt the people’s homes; it will kill livestock and destroy the peace in the community, and may even kill the people themselves. The disciples didn’t care about the havoc they would create if Jesus said yes to their suggestion. All they could see in that moment of hurt and anger was that they had been treated disrespectfully and they were NOT going to stand for it! This was the last straw! No longer will these people treat them with ignorance because they would demand respect by terrorizing them.

It’s easy to feel superior as we read this story and think we would never be so hasty to hurt someone because of the way they treated us, but I want you to take a moment and think. Look back at this last week, at this last month, at your whole life. Have you never hit out because you’ve been hit? Have you never said awful words about someone, true or not, because of how they have hurt you? Have you never done anything that has caused another pain because you decided they deserved to be hurt?

We pass judgment on others constantly. We pretend that because we come to church we are more enlightened and more caring. It’s not always truth though. The truth is that we are just as human as those disciples and sometimes things get to be too much and we strike back. We retaliate and we escalate the problem further with our actions.

Jesus reminds us that this is not the way we are to behave and it is not the way the church is to behave. He rebukes the disciples for their thoughts and angry words and then simply walks to the next village where they would be received warmly. That village lost out that day, not Jesus or the twelve! Jesus would have come to them and taught them the word of God. He would have healed their illnesses and removed their infirmities. He would have cast out demons and blessed their homes. But because all they could see is that he was headed to a place they hated, they turned away from all the goodness and blessing he offered them.

Jesus teaches us that we are often too hasty with our judgments and because we judge so harshly we miss out on so much while causing more problems for ourselves. We do it in our private lives and we do it here at church. We judge and condemn, and then we exact retribution. Jesus shows us that if we would forgive those that have hurt us and simply walk away from them, that we not only are the better people for it, but the one that hurt us are left without a foot to stand on.

As soon as we hit back, we give the person who hurt us justification for their actions. We give them leverage and the ability to keep hurting us. If we ignore them, if we forgive them, if we talk about it with them – we take the power away from them, and put it back into our own hands. We are in charge of our destiny. We are in charge of how we behave. There will come a day when we all stand before the Lord and we will look back at our life. Jesus will turn to you and ask, “Why did you do this?” and how, HOW will you justify the way you acted and reacted to those around you?

Think about when your children and grandchildren stood before you when they had fought with their brother or sister, or done something wrong, and you asked them “Why?”. I want you to think about their responses. The sullen look, the pout on their face as they mutter, “Well, SHE started it!” or “I didn’t mean to do it!” is that what you will say to Jesus? Is that how you will justify treating others with disrespect and making them hurt? Or will you stand there silent and humiliated because you knew better but couldn’t control yourself despite the many years you sat in these pews listening about love and forgiveness? Are you so different from the disciples who stood beside Jesus day after day, and couldn’t see past their indignation to remember the lessons he had taught?

I understand how hurt becomes anger and anger becomes bitterness. I understand how hard it is to walk away from those that have hurt you. I’m not always good at it myself, but Jesus unequivocally tells us that is what he wants us to do. Walk away and let Jesus do the judging. That person will also stand before Jesus and have to justify how they hurt YOU. Remember that and take comfort that you do not need your retribution today, that Jesus is the great equalizer. He makes us all equal and therefore that person’s day will come to be judged and they will be sentenced. Do not hurt others just because you have been hurt. Do not reign fire down upon those who would turn you away because of who and what you are.

Do not be like them. Be like Jesus.

Amen.