LUKE 9:46–56
When James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
(Luke 9:54).
Luke tells us that, after His transfiguration, Jesus set His face toward His suffering and death. This begins Luke’s “travel narrative,” which traces Jesus’ progress from Galilee to Jerusalem. The first place Jesus passed through was Samaria, and He sent messengers into a village to get things ready for Him (Luke 9:51–52).
The Samaritans, however, did not receive Him. We know from John 4 that Jesus had some followers among the Samaritans, but these Samaritans rejected Him “because He was heading for Jerusalem” (v. 53). The Samaritans had corrupted the faith by intermarrying with pagans during the time most of Israel was in captivity. They had no regard for Jerusalem and had their own high places for worship (John 4:20). Because of their hostility toward the Jewish worship in Jerusalem, Samaritan villages would not show hospitality toward Galileans traveling through their territory on their way to the Jerusalem feasts.
Luke tells us that when James and John saw this, they wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy these Samaritans. They were zealous for Christ’s honor, but their zeal was not according to true knowledge, for Jesus rebuked them. In their zeal they were ready to compromise the very essence of the ministry of Christ. Jesus had not come to destroy men but to save them.
Jesus quietly went on to another village (v. 56). There is a kind of judgment involved in this because they missed out on the chance to be with Him. Earlier in their history the Samaritans had rejected the true worship of God the Father, and now they were rejecting God the Son.
The disciples were not wrong to be zealous for Jesus’ honor, nor were they wrong to foresee a coming judgment, but their timing was off. It was not time for God’s wrath to be poured out because now was the day of salvation.
CORAM DEO
2 Chronicles 4–6
John 12:20–50
WEEKEND
2 Chronicles 7–12
John 13
If the disciples had been judged by the severity they desired to impose on the Samaritans, fire would have long ago consumed them. How like them we are! We are quick to pour out the fire on the other person’s head, while we beg for the Judge of the world to be patient with us. Today exercise the fruit of patience in your taxing relationships.
For further study: Matthew 18:21–35; tape #B57INT.44/45
WEEKEND