“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.”
Luke 9:51-56 ESV
One of the things that I have always loved about God's word is that He didn't make any attempt to cover up our unavoidable humanity. The passage of Scripture above shows a great example of this. Jesus gets the cold shoulder from a Samaritan village, then James and John hear about it and they are ready to fight the whole town.
They question Jesus and ask Him why doesn't He just call down the fire on these unbelievers. And Jesus being who He is rebukes them and that was the end of it.
But what I find interesting is that James and John didn't just want to beat up on these folks. They didn't want to use swords and clubs to teach them a lesson. The literally wanted Jesus to flip the switch of God's wrath and bring down the fire of Jehovah.
I have to be honest and tell you that this verse gives me hope as a man. That's because there is not much difference between you and me and the men Jesus chose to follow Him. I am a man and sometimes I get really, really angry and sometimes it is for the right reasons and sometimes not so much. James and John believed they were speaking out of their love for Jesus, that they were standing up for Him, and defending the man that they knew the Lord had sent to change their lives and the lives of the whole world.
Luke wrote down that Jesus turned to them and rebuked them for what they said. This is one time I wish I knew exactly what He said, word for word. These men were following a man from Nazareth who was teaching them to love people, and the moment things didn't go the way they wanted, the second people started to be mean to them, they doubled down on the mean scale and asked Him to call down the fire.
The point and reality of all this is quite simple: one of the hardest lessons that you and I have to learn as followers of Christ is that lost people are going to act like lost people. Shocking, huh? But Jesus calls you and I to do exactly what He did and love them anyway.
Luke 9:51-56 ESV
One of the things that I have always loved about God's word is that He didn't make any attempt to cover up our unavoidable humanity. The passage of Scripture above shows a great example of this. Jesus gets the cold shoulder from a Samaritan village, then James and John hear about it and they are ready to fight the whole town.
They question Jesus and ask Him why doesn't He just call down the fire on these unbelievers. And Jesus being who He is rebukes them and that was the end of it.
But what I find interesting is that James and John didn't just want to beat up on these folks. They didn't want to use swords and clubs to teach them a lesson. The literally wanted Jesus to flip the switch of God's wrath and bring down the fire of Jehovah.
I have to be honest and tell you that this verse gives me hope as a man. That's because there is not much difference between you and me and the men Jesus chose to follow Him. I am a man and sometimes I get really, really angry and sometimes it is for the right reasons and sometimes not so much. James and John believed they were speaking out of their love for Jesus, that they were standing up for Him, and defending the man that they knew the Lord had sent to change their lives and the lives of the whole world.
Luke wrote down that Jesus turned to them and rebuked them for what they said. This is one time I wish I knew exactly what He said, word for word. These men were following a man from Nazareth who was teaching them to love people, and the moment things didn't go the way they wanted, the second people started to be mean to them, they doubled down on the mean scale and asked Him to call down the fire.
The point and reality of all this is quite simple: one of the hardest lessons that you and I have to learn as followers of Christ is that lost people are going to act like lost people. Shocking, huh? But Jesus calls you and I to do exactly what He did and love them anyway.
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