Our Gospel text for this weekend teaches “tolerance” like perhaps no other Biblical passage.
It is a story about those famous sons of Zebedee, James and John, aka, “the sons of thunder.” They were known for their “quick and hot tempers.” They would be “the intolerant ones…” They would also be the “chided ones…”
Jesus on the other hand would be “the tolerant one.” He will “not allow or put up with” any of their shenanigans.
While “they” this dynamic duo – wants to call down fire “from above” to “consume and vaporize” an entire Samaritan’s village…
Jesus will have none of this kind of rhetoric, none of this kind of talk… This kind of language is never permissible. It is NOT OK. It is NOT acceptable!
Jesus quickly rebukes them for their “insensitivity.” That is NOT his way. That is NOT the way of God. The dynamic duo needs to be reeled in…and put on a shorter leash. And Jesus does, just that!
Intolerance “will NOT be tolerated!”
The way of the kingdom is “fair and objective.” There is NO ROOM for “bias and prejudice.” You do NOT put “a whole group” of people into one category.
The way of the kingdom is patience and long-suffering. The kingdom is to be characterized by “sympathy and understanding.”
The way of Jesus is the way of “leniency” and “indulgence.” Jesus’ preference is for “permissiveness and laxness”…especially toward “the other.” You give each other a break! Have you walked in their sandals?
This from the onset …raises the question “how tolerant are you as a person?”
What “WILL you” tolerate?
Are there “exceptions” to your tolerance? What about when your “buttons are pushed,” over and over and over again?
So, I did what I always do and I checked out the meaning of the word “tolerance.” I wanted to be certain – I had to have it right.
It is to have “a permissive attitude toward those opinions, beliefs, and practices, and racial and ethnic origins that differ from one’s own.” To tolerate…
It must be a pretty “old word” because a lot of its synonyms sounded almost “other worldly”… words like…forbearance…When is the last time you heard someone talk about “forbearance…?” Or “sufferance,” for that matter…?
“Liberality”… an open mindedness…a lack of bias or prejudice…a kind of “broadmindedness…”
So Jesus sent those two, James and John on ahead of him as he prepared to enter a village in Samaria. The problem was they were IN Samaria.
Samaria was problematic for a Jew. It was believed to be an “unclean land” of “unclean people.”
There was 800 years of enmity and hatred between Jews and Samaritans. Talk about long-standing grudges, feuds…and hatred. Even the “land” of Samaria was considered to make one “ritually unclean.” Samaritans were referred to as being “dogs.” Samaria was simply NOT a hospitable area for Jesus and for his entourage.
Samaritans were “religiously and ethnically” distinct from the Jews. They had a different “sacred book.” Samaritans only accepted “the Torah” as being holy. Mt. Gerizim was their sacred city, not Jerusalem. Tensions between the two peoples were intense and severe. At one point, the Jews of Judea and Galilee even burned down the Samaritan sacred temple on Mt. Gerizim.
There was to be no tolerance between these peoples.
So when James and John arrive they are NOT received hospitably. They are NOT welcomed. They are NOT greeted as expected. And therefore, their desire to call down fire and to destroy all of them. A lesson on Tolerance. A lesson on the “other.” So, I am wondering what happened to the church? How did we go from tolerance to intolerance? How did “we” allow this to happen? I am sure “intolerance” can still be found in the church today…in many places…Bigoted clergy…Prejudicial clergy…Preaching hatred and intolerance. Preaching disdain and dislike…Where is their “forbearance?” Where is the outcry? And of course, you do realize that “we” are the church. All of us – HERE. “We” are to be the “tolerant ones.” The church is US. The church is “YOU.” The church is “ME.”
Intolerance must never have a place here. And it is up to all of us, to see that it never finds a home here in this place.