Samaritan Opposition

⁵¹ As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven,^(A) Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.^{(B) 52} And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan^(C) village to get things ready for him; ⁵³ but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John^(D) saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them^[a]?”^{(E) 55} But Jesus turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶ Then he and his disciples went to another village.

The Cost of Following Jesus^(F)

⁵⁷ As they were walking along the road,^(G) a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man^(H) has no place to lay his head.”

⁵⁹ He said to another man, “Follow me.”^(I)

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”^(J)

⁶¹ Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”^(K)

⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”