So much in this text was directed about the first village. The second village is only mentioned in a short sentence. These words teach us about lost opportunity. It reminds us how easy it is to waste our lives.
Jesus determined that it was time for him to go to Jerusalem. He sent James and John ahead of the rest of the group for them to make ready for his arrival. However, the citizens of that village were aware of Christ’s intentions and asked him to move on. The two men knew the incident of Elijah calling down fire from heaven and asked permission to do the same on this first village. Jesus rebuked them and said they didn’t know what they were talking about for how serious their intention was.
How regrettable it was for this first village! They could have hosted the Son of God among them. Surely, there were those in the village who needed healing. More than that, many of them needed salvation. All of them needed a blessing that can only come from God. What they were thinking when they turned away Christ can now be viewed as foolish.
They are like the person that has been given the opportunity to become a believer and permanently postpones it. They damned themselves to hell. They took their own way according to their own thinking, their own purpose above that of Jesus. Whatever they did after Jesus left meant that the rest of their lives would be wasted. No matter what they thought, that was wonderful in their future was a regrettable choice. Whoever reads this blog and does not accept Christ as Savior is doing the same thing as these villagers.
Without Christ, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, without the blessing of the Heavenly Father, life is being wasted. Like these villagers, so many people convince themselves that what they are doing is for the best when, in fact, it is the worst thing anyone could do. A misdirected life will never produce a quality of living. This also brings up the question of what constitutes a good life. To throw away our lives is no alternative. It shows how little some people value their position in the world community and facing eternity either with God or in hell.
The second village hosted Jesus simply because they chose to welcome him into their homes. They refused to lose out with God. How comforting it is when Jesus said, “the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” When we welcome him, we can take heart that we have the One who had that singular purpose for our lives to be saved.
Christian Writer 