Fire and Brimstone (Luke 9)

This is a long chapter. There is lots to discuss. But what interests me most today is what seems like a trivial little incident in verses 51-56. In the Bible I read today (which was the ESV), it is labeled as "a Samaritan village rejects Jesus."

It is not surprising that a Samaritan village would reject Jesus and His disciples. Very famously, Samaritans and Jews hated one another. We don't have the space to discuss the origins of that hatred here. Suffice it to say that it was very real and very deep. Samaritans were not normally welcoming to Jews traveling through their territory. (And Jews would normally not go through Samaritan territory for that matter). But what made matters worse here was Jesus' destination. One of the bones of contention between Jews and Samaritans was where God should be worshipped. Jews worshipped in Jerusalem. Samaritans worshipped at Mount Gerazim (see John 4). The fact that Jesus was determined to get to Jerusalem would have added theological contention to the racial issues.

The snub that the Samaritans give Jesus is a big one. Hospitality was a chief value of Jesus' society. Refusing to offer hospitality was not just an insult. It was virtually an act of war. That is why James and John (aptly known as "The Sons of Thunder") react as they do. They want judgment to come upon these Samaritans. And not just any judgment. They want it to come on a Sodom and Gomorrah scale. They are looking for fireworks and pyrotechnics.

Jesus is not interested in judgment though. Even though Jesus has been treated in the worst way by the Samaritans, it is James and John he rebukes. How often are we as Christians like James and John? How often do we hope for fast, dramatic judgment on the abortion doctors and the gays and the child molesters, etc., etc. Maybe this passage warns us that we are too quick to rush to judgment. We need to have the same mercy that Jesus had with us. Rather than hoping for people to be fried, we ought to be hoping for people to be saved. James and John shouldn't have prayed for judgment. They should have prayed for the souls of those Samaritans. Let us not repeat their mistakes.