ルカによる福音書9:51-56 Luke 9:51-56,
しかし、サマリア人はイエスを歓迎しなかった。イエスがエルサレムに向かって進んでおられたからである。 （ルカ9:53）
イエス・キリストは、エルサレムに向かう途中で、サマリア人の村に滞在するために数人の弟子たちを遣わしました。食事を提供してくれる家を見つけるためだったのでしょう。ところが、その村では誰もキリストに食事を提供しようとしなかったようです。その理由は、イエス・キリストがユダヤ人にとっての聖地であるエルサレムに向かって旅をしていたからでした。このように迫害された理由は、単純にサマリア人のユダヤ人に対する民族的な憎悪が原因であったと考えられます。キリストの人格が問題とされたというよりは、キリストがユダヤ人であり、エルサレムに向かっていたということが、サマリアのゲリジム山こそ聖地であると信じるサマリア人の気に食わなかったということであります。
ところが、聖書の中には、このように意地悪なサマリア人の話ばかりが記されているのではありません。ルカによる福音書の10章25節以下には、ユダヤ人の傷ついた旅人を優しく介抱して助けてあげる「善いサマリア人」が登場します。この「善いサマリア人」は、隣人愛のお手本として聖書の中でもよく知られている話の一つです。また、ルカによる福音書の17章11節以下には、10人の人が病気をキリストに癒してもらったところ、 戻ってきて感謝の気持ちをキリストに表したのはその中の一人だけで、その人はサマリア人であったという話が記されています。その話でも、このサマリア人はユダヤ人以上に信仰深い人として描かれています。ですから、聖書にサマリア人はみな意地悪な人たちであると記されているわけではありません。さらに、イエス・キリストの十字架と復活と昇天の後の伝道の進展を記録した使徒言行録を読んでいますと、エルサレムで大規模な迫害が起こったために迫害を逃れてサマリアに行ったクリスチャンたちがサマリアで伝道する話が記されています。その物語は使徒言行録の8章に記されています。その箇所を読むと、サマリアの人々がキリストの弟子たちを大変好意的に迎えたということが記されています。ですから、サマリア人もまたキリストの救いから除外されていた人々ではなかったということがわかります。
イエス・キリストは、サマリア人をも罪から救うためにエルサレムへと向かっておられました。イエス・キリストの十字架は地上のすべての民族のためでありました。したがって、サマリア人は、自分たちをも十字架により罪から救う目的でエルサレムに向かっておられるイエス・キリストを迫害したことになるのであります。 （9月3日の説教より）
One of the things that often surprises us when we read the Old Testament is the intense feeling of vengeance expressed there. For example, in Psalm 137, the Israelites, whose nation had been destroyed and forcibly taken to the enemy Babylonian empire, expressed their anger and grief in a foreign land. The psalm begins with the words “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept,” and concludes with the following wish for vengeance.
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock! (Ps 137:8-9)
In the Bible, cities and nations are often compared to women, as in “daughter of Babylon.” Therefore, the expression “he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock” should be understood as a symbolic, rather than literal, expression of vengeance. However, even though it is a symbolic expression, one cannot help but be struck by the intensity of the feelings contained in it.
We also cannot help but be strongly surprised by the events of God’s wrath recorded in the Old Testament. If we read the first chapter of the 2 Kings, we find that it describes God’s wrathful judgement against King Ahaziah, who believed in an idol god. King Ahaziah was king of the northern Kingdom of Israel for a short period of one year, from 852 to 851 BC. In 2 Kings chapter 1 we read the followings. King Ahaziah was condemned to death by the prophet Elijah for the sin of believing in an idol god. After hearing Elijah’s words through a messenger, King Ahaziah sends fifty soldiers to Elijah to call him in person and question him. When the captain of the army called out to the prophet Elijah, who was sitting on the top of the mountain, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’” Elijah replied, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then, indeed, fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men. Hearing this, King Ahaziah sent fifty men again, but they too were burnt to death by fire from heaven. The captain of the fifty men sent a third time then knelt down to Elijah and asked, “O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight.” Then Elijah came down from the mountain and went to King Ahaziah and pronounced God’s judgement that King Ahaziah would die. And King Ahaziah did indeed die shortly afterwards. Thus, the Old Testament records the events of God’s wrathful judgement.
So how are the Old Testament teachings of vengeance and God’s wrath taught in the New Testament? Are they the same as in the Old Testament? Or are they changed more profoundly than in the Old Testament? Thinking about this carefully can give us important insights into the way we live our lives. In today’s Bible passages, Jesus Christ begins his journey towards Jerusalem to die on the cross. However, Christ’s crucifixion was followed by the events of his resurrection and ascension. So, as Luke notes in verse 51, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
Between Galilee and Jerusalem was a region called Samaria. The people living in this region were called Samaritans and had an antagonistic relationship with the Jews living in Jerusalem. The causes are generally explained as follows. The Kingdom of Israel, which flourished under the rule of King David and King Solomon, was divided into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah after the death of King Solomon. The capital of the northern Kingdom was Samaria and the capital of the southern Kingdom was Jerusalem. Later, the northern Kingdom gradually declined in power due to repeated power struggles and was finally destroyed by the Assyrian Empire, which invaded from the north in 722 BC. The king of the Assyrian Empire, Sargon II, forced the leaders of the northern Kingdom of Israel to move to Mesopotamia and different ethnic groups within the Assyrian Empire to settle in Samaria. And the people who were migrated to Samaria worshipped not only the Lord God, but also other idol gods (I Kings chapter 17). Thus, a people called Samaritans, separate from the Jews, was created.
The Jews in Jerusalem disliked the Samaritans as people who were not pure in blood and faith. The Samaritans, however, claimed that they were the rightful heirs of Moses. In New Testament times, the Samaritans took the Old Testament books from Genesis to Deuteronomy as their Bible. And it did not recognise the authority of the temple in Jerusalem, with Mount Gerizim in Samaria as its holy place. Thus, at the time of Jesus Christ, Samaritans and Jews were in conflict.
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ sent some of his disciples to a Samaritan village. It was probably in order to find a house that would provide them with food. However, it seems that no one in that village was willing to offer them a meal. The reason was that Jesus Christ was travelling towards Jerusalem, the holy city for the Jews, and verse 53 says: “But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.” The reason for this persecution could simply have been due to the ethnic hatred of the Samaritans towards the Jews. Rather than Christ’s character being an issue, the fact that He was a Jew and was heading towards Jerusalem was objectionable to the Samaritans, who believed that Mount Gerizim in Samaria was the holy place.
However, the Bible does not only contain stories of mean Samaritans in this way. In Luke 10:25-37, there is a “Good Samaritan” who tenderly cares for and helps a wounded Jewish traveller. This “Good Samaritan” is one of the best-known stories in the Bible as an example of neighbourly love. Also, in Luke 17:11-19, we are told the story of ten people who were healed by Christ of their illness, and only one of them returned and expressed his gratitude to Christ, and that person was the Samaritan. In that story, too, the Samaritan is portrayed as a man of more faith than the Jews. Therefore, not all Samaritans are described in the Bible as being mean people.
Furthermore, if you read the Acts of the Apostles, which records the progress of evangelisation after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, it tells the story of Christians who fled persecution and went to Samaria to evangelise there because of the massive persecution that took place in Jerusalem. In Acts chapter 8, it is recorded that the people of Samaria welcomed Christ’s disciples very favourably. So we can see that the Samaritans were not people who were excluded from Christ’s salvation. Jesus Christ was on his way to Jerusalem to save the Samaritans from sin as well. The cross of Jesus Christ was for all peoples on earth. Therefore, the Samaritans would have persecuted Jesus Christ, who was going to Jerusalem with the aim of saving them also from sin by the cross.
In response to this unreasonable persecution, Christ’s two disciples, James and John, were furious and vengeful. They must have known that the Old Testament prophet Elijah had sent down fire from heaven to burn the soldiers of King Ahaziah who had transgressed God’s ordinances. They said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” The disciples may have been thinking of literally raining fire down on them, or they may have been thinking of fiery and severe damnation, using this phrase in a symbolic sense. Either way, the reaction of the two disciples reflected the Old Testament idea of vengeance or the wrath of God. However, Christ responded to this in a way that the two disciples did not expect. That is, after rebuking the two disciples, as described in v. 55, Christ meekly went to another village, as described in v. 56.
Two things must therefore be considered from this. The first is that Christ admonished his disciples not to try to move God by their own feelings of vengeance. Romans 12:19 says: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” This verse teaches that we must not take revenge ourselves against persecution. Note in particular that we are taught to “leave it to the wrath of God.” It is not “Let God be angry with them,” but “leave it to the wrath of God.” When one’s heart burns with vengeance, one tries to use God for one’s own vengeance. The two disciples in today’s passages probably had such thoughts. But it is God himself, not man, who decides whether vengeance is necessary or not. Certainly, there are prayers in the Old Testament that overtly wish for God’s vengeance against enemies. But it is also true that the Old Testament forbids cursing anyone in God’s name, as in the Ten Commandments there is the commandment “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God.” And note that the New Testament teaches us to “leave vengeance to the wrath of God” rather than trying to achieve it as we wish.
Secondly, by enduring persecution, Christ set an example of what it means for his disciples to abandon themselves, i.e., self-denial. These two disciples exposed the immaturity of their faith by uttering the thought of vengeance: “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” This was understandable, since at this point the disciples did not yet understand the meaning of Christ’s crucifixion. Similarly, Christians who have not fully developed the faith of the cross, when persecuted, cannot take it as an opportunity for self-denial, but rather act on it with a vengeance. As the Reformer Calvin wrote: “if driven from our homes, we have a more welcome reception into the family of God” (Institute of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 8, 7), we must accept persecution as an opportunity for self-denial. We want to acquire a mature way of faith that we can use to finally draw closer to Christ.
In Japan before and during the Second World War and in the so-called Meiji Era, it is not uncommon to hear stories of people who were severely persecuted for believing in Christ due to prejudice and hatred towards Christianity. In the case of Mr. NISHIMURA Kyuzo, an elder of Sapporo Kita-ichijo Church, whom I have mentioned many times in my sermons, there is a scene in Ms. MIURA Ayako’s novel in which, after being baptised, he is severely questioned by his grandfather, a Confucian scholar, who forces him to renounce Christianity. An even older story about Mr. YOKOI Tokio, who was baptised in Kumamoto, is another typical example of persecution due to prejudice. There are usually three main sources of Protestant Christianity in Japan. One is the Sapporo Band, who entered the faith by signing the “Covenant of Believers in Jesus” under the guidance of Dr. William Smith Clark, who taught at Sapporo Agricultural College. Band means group. Mr. UCHIMURA Kanzo and Mr. NITOBE Inazo are representative figures of the Sapporo Band. The second is the Yokohama Band, who were baptised in Yokohama under the leadership of missionary Rev. James Hamilton Ballagh. These are the people who formed the Yokohama Kaigan Church and became the roots of our denomination, the Church of Christ in Japan. The third was the Kumamoto Band, who, under the leadership of Captain Leroy Lansing Janes, a teacher at Kumamoto English School, gathered at a mountain in Kumamoto called Hanaoka-yama with 35 students and signed a document called “Dedication Prospectus,” which started them on the path of faith in Christ.
One of the members of this Kumamoto band was Mr. YOKOI Tokio. Tokio was the only son of YOKOI Shonan, a famous Confucian scholar of the late Edo period. A brilliant thinker, Mr. YOKOI Shonan was unfortunately assassinated to death for his progressive ideas. His bereaved family and students had high hopes for his only son Tokio. However, the family and his students were in an uproar when they heard that Tokio had joined Christianity, which was considered a pagan religion of the West. Tokio’s mother said, “Unless you stop Christianity, I have no interest in being alive in this world. I have no place in this world. I have no choice but to apologise by dying,” and urged her son to renounce Christianity, expressing her resolve to commit suicide. Afterwards, a discussion took place between the family and his students, and it was concluded that “each person should be free to choose their own faith, but please do not become a Yaso-bozu (derogatory term for Christian priest). Mr. YOKOI Tokio thus entered Kaisei School (later Tokyo Imperial University), but later studied at Doshisha and followed the path of a Christian evangelist. He served as pastor of the Imabari Church in Ehime and the Hongo Church in Tokyo. Unfortunately, in the latter part of his life his faith seems to have been weakened by the influence of liberal theology. He resigned the rector of Doshisha University and went into politics and economics. However, his battle for the faith immediately after his initiation was so intense that it cannot be imagined today.
The pioneers of Christianity in Japan were dedicated to following Christ in the midst of such intense persecution. This was only possible if they kept their eyes fixed straight on Christ. Even today, though not to the same extent as in former times, we can expect to experience no fewer difficulties when we believe in Christ and follow him. We too want to be followers of Christ who walked the path to the cross, not revenge.