Luke 10:10-14 - Woe to you

10:10-12

The eating and the healing were what was to happen when they were welcomed, but what if they were not welcomed? We should note that throughout the Bible there is a recognition that sometimes the word of God is welcomed and sometimes it is rejected. We sometimes seem to have the rather strange notion that it should always be welcomed, and if it isn’t welcomed then it is always our fault. If we faithfully present the word of God then sometimes it will be rejected. An equally strange notion is that the word of God will always be rejected. In all circumstances there will be some who welcome the Lord. If a town did reject them they were to wipe the dust of their feet as a sign of judgement. Again, note how this goes against the notions common in the church today. “If the message is not being accepted we need to make it more acceptable”, and we should not mention hell or judgement. Well these sort of ideas are directly against what Jesus taught. Believing in the gospel is a command not an option, and there are the most severe consequences for rejecting the gospel. Rejecting the gospel is like a sick and dying man rejecting the medicine that can heal him. Of course he is free to reject the medicine, but if he does he will die a horrible death. It is much the same with the gospel.

10:13,14

Remember that Jesus is giving the disciples a “pep-talk” before they go out on mission and all the talk seems to be about people rejecting them! These warnings are a severe judgement upon the pride of Israel. In John’s gospel he says that no book would be large enough to contain all the miracles that Jesus did, and here we have a hint of that. There is no information in the gospels of what Jesus did in Chorazin, and very little on Bethsaida, yet apparently He did great miracles in these places. Tyre and Sidon had been part of the Phoenician empire and had been singled out for judgement in Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 26-28. Yet Jesus says that if she had seen the miracles that He did she would have repented. Israel did not repent. This is a severe warning against pride, and all of us need to take it to heart.