Since this passage is selected...
Since this passage is selected as a Pentecost reading, the emphasis in exposition can rightly point to the Samaritan theme of Luke's Gospel. (See J. Massyngbaerde Ford, My Enemy is My Guest. Orbis 1984. Chapter 6) There is a memory here of Elijah (2 Kings 1:9-12). The refusal of the would-be disciples is also in contradiction to Elijah. (1 Kings 19:19-21) Jesus does not come to destroy. Destruction is not the way of God's man. His task was an urgency which tolerates no delay. This text has much to say to a world still locked into the terrorist pattern of vengeance and retribution.