So, in the book of Luke, there's a story that I've read a bunch of times, but struck me in a weird way reading it again recently. It's the one where Jesus's disciples, angered at a village, demand that it be burned with fire from heaven:As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village. (Luke 9:51-55)I had plenty of vague memories about this story, but there are a number of things that I had never noticed before. I had forgotten, for example, that this was a Samaritan village, which is interesting for a number of reasons. I had also apparently never noticed the specific way that James and John ask for fire to come down from heaven, namely:
"Lord, do you want US to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" (emphasis added)My reaction to this was approximately "WHAT?!"
So, on the one hand, these are clearly people with a lot of faith. They had seen Jesus do plenty of miracles. They knew their Old Testament, and they knew what kinds of crazy wonders Elijah and other men and women of God had performed in days of yore, including calling down fire on people. What's more, they fully believed that the same power was alive in them, and that if they so chose, they could perform the same miracles themselves. What sorts of miracles had they performed up to this point, that had them believe that they themselves could call down fire? That is some kind of faith, right there!
On the other hand, WHAT?!?!
There is so much presumption here. And yes, they are asking Jesus's permission and respecting his authority. But, come on. Had that ever gotten even the barest hint that this was something Jesus wanted them to do, or would do himself, or had ever done during his earthly ministry? To me, this feels like a case where James and John ("sons of thunder," appropriately enough) seem to have let their emotions run away with them. These guys are angry, and consequently they're not thinking straight.
What were they even angry about? Well, according to the passage...
... the people there did not welcome him.Oh ok. I could see why you would want the village to be burned horribly and everyone to die as a result of that. This was basically a village of serial killers.
Well, maybe I should try to be more fair about this. The Jews and Samaritans had famously hated each other for centuries upon centuries. James and John almost certainly walked into that village with a big load of hatred already stored up - their rejection at this particularly moment was probably the straw that broke the camels back. The Samaritans had apparently, sometime in the past, defiled the temple in Jerusalem, and had committed other various tribalistic crimes. For a long time they had been active idol worshipers (although that seems to have stopped more or less by the time of Jesus). They had, according to other sources, set up their own fake temple on a different mountain and had edited the Torah to justify themselves. As Jesus himself said during his conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, on the merits, the Jews were right and the Samaritans were wrong:
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)So here were the Samaritans, deliberately refusing to welcome or serve Jews on their pilgrimages to Jerusalem, basically as a way of insulting and humiliating their tribal enemies. And they were wrong. James and John probably felt they had every right to be angry and every justification to want these people punished.
I can't help but think, though, just looking at my own heart, that James and John weren't really offended that the Samaritans believed wrong things, or that the Samaritans had been inhospitable to travelers. I think what really got under their skin was the insult of the whole thing. Here they were, good Jews, travelling with the actual Messiah, deigning to bless a village of heathens with their presence on their way to Jerusalem, and got scorned and rejected for their trouble - all because the Samaritans were wrong and hatefully committed to being wrong. I'd probably be really angry, too.
But, of course, Jesus rebuked them. I would love to have heard the words Jesus used to do so. A few translations of the Bible do, in fact, have some extra verses here (although apparently not every ancient source contains them). Here, for example, is a footnote from the American Standard Version:
Some ancient authorities add "and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Some, but fewer, add also "For the Son of man came not to destroy men’s lives but to save them."These verses may not be super reliable from a textual perspective, but they certainly feel like something Jesus would've said (and did say, in other places).
The fact is that Jesus had far more right than the disciples to angry at his rejection. He was the actual son of God, who deserved to be worshiped, and instead he was being rejected and turned away. Anger makes a person want to punish the perpetrator - to hurt them, and then to justify itself with moral language. But Jesus had a different goal, and a longer viewpoint. He wanted those Samaritans to be brought back into the fold - he wanted to be reconciled to them. He loved them. And that meant just passing onto the next village, and not doing anything about the insult he had experienced. He just... let them get away with it. They were wrong, and they had acted maliciously and hurtfully, and Jesus just walked away.
But that's not how the story ends, either.
In the book of Acts, after Jesus has arisen and ascended to heaven, the apostle Philip goes to Samaria and preaches the gospel. To the surprise of the other apostles back in Jerusalem, the entire region basically converts. This same group of people, who before had hated anyone who was simply on their way to the wrong city, was now being baptized and bowing in worship of the rightful king. (See Acts 8)
Jesus held back his anger, showed mercy, and (in this case at least) eventually won the reconciliation he had long desired. In Him, Jews and Samaritans were back together. That's craziness. But through Jesus, insults and hatreds and bitterness can be cut through, and family and community restored. It's the power of what he did on the cross, and the spirit that he sent afterwards.
So the next time you feel spat on, insulted, and humiliated by people who hate you and who are wrong - remember how Jesus sees those people, and try to see them as future brethren, beloved of a God who longs to be restored to them. Punishment is God's for God's timetable. Your job is mercy.
So...
No, Jesus would not like you to call fire down from heaven and destroy them.
