Our tendency to respond to rejection with force or hostility is strong. Just look at how many Twitter wars and Facebook fights even well-meaning Christians get into. And last week, the disciples would have fire-bombed the Samaritan town that had rejected them!
Jesus’s example of moving on isn’t such a bad idea for any disciple. But Jesus is a different kind of messiah—a lamb, not a wolf. We should expect he wants more than for us to just “shake it off.”
Our mission is not to change people’s minds but to be Christ’s presence of peace, visible signs of God’s reign in a world too quick to react like wolves. Click To TweetIn our mission as disciples, Jesus instructs us to say two things every time to everyone, regardless of how we think they will respond and whether or not they welcome us and the Gospel we bear. First we say, “Peace to this household.” Even before we know whom we are speaking to or what their reaction will be, we bless them with peace by our words and our deeds. The Gospel will never be heard by force but by peace. Second, whether or not we are welcomed, we proclaim through our words, attitudes, and actions that “the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The invitation to God’s reign is given without judgment, freely to all. Our mission is not to change people’s minds but to be Christ’s presence of peace, visible signs of God’s reign in a world too quick to react like wolves.
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