He Set His Face
51 It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem 52 and sent messengers before his face. They went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him. 53 They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky and destroy them, just as Elijah did?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. 56 For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
The journey to Jerusalem begins — and the first village on the road refuses him, which gives two disciples an idea.
It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem
This is the hinge of the book. Nearly ten chapters hang from this verse, and most of the material found in no other Gospel sits inside them. Everything from here is on a road.
Two phrases carry it. When the days were near that he should be taken up — a single expression covering the whole of what is coming, the cross and what follows it, named by its end rather than by its means. And he intently set his face, which is a Hebrew idiom for fixed resolve, used by the prophets of a determination that will not be turned Isaiah 50:7. This is not drift toward a fate. It is a decision, taken in a particular week, to walk toward the city that kills prophets.
and sent messengers before his face. They went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him.
The first thing he does on the road is send ahead into Samaria. Galileans traveling south commonly crossed the Jordan to avoid it; he goes through, and sends men to arrange hospitality.
They didn’t receive him, because he was traveling with his face set toward Jerusalem.
The reason is specific and old. Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim and held that Jerusalem's temple was a usurpation, so a pilgrim heading there was making a claim about their religion by the direction of his travel. The refusal is not personal; it is the quarrel of centuries, applied to a man asking for a bed.
When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky and destroy them, just as Elijah did?”
James and John have a precedent, and it is a real one — Elijah did call fire on messengers sent by a northern king 2 Kings 1:10–12. They are not inventing. They have found a Scripture that fits, and they are asking permission to apply it. The two who ask are the two who have just come down from a mountain where they saw Elijah in person, which is presumably where the idea came from.
55 But he turned and rebuked them, “You don’t know of what kind of spirit you are. 56 For the Son of Man didn’t come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” They went to another village.
The rebuke goes to the men rather than to the exegesis, and it is the sharpest kind: they do not know what is moving them. A correct citation was doing the work of an appetite.
They went to another village. That is the whole response to the rejection — they walk on. And this Gospel is the one that will make a Samaritan the hero of its best-known parable Luke 10:33 and a Samaritan the only leper who came back Luke 17:16, both of them inside the journey that begins here.
settled What this mark means