Fire from Heaven - March 15
I find it pretty easy to relate to the disciples James and John... and not only because my name also happens to be John! I find it easy to relate to them because of the kind of righteous indignation that they feel towards the people who reject Jesus in today's reading from Luke 9 (ESV).
In Luke 9:54, after some Samaritans refuse to welcome Jesus into their village because they learn that He's heading to Jerusalem (remember that the Samaritans and Jews hated each other), James and John ask Jesus, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven and destroy them?" They were miffed! These Samaritans had the gall to reject the Lord?!? James and John probably figured that these "Samaritan dogs" were lucky that Jesus was even willing to give them the time of day! They didn't deserve Him - not like they did, at least. Remember that James and John were the same ones who figured that they had the right to ask Jesus to let them sit at His right and left hand in glory in Mark 10:37!
It can be so easy to look at other people - especially those people who seem to be working hardest to oppose Christianity in our nation or world - and wish that God would just smite them for their sins! It's easy to see what they do, and allow their actions to breed hatred in our hearts. But is that really how Jesus wants us to respond to those lost people of our world? With hatred? Did Jesus ever respond to anyone with hatred? Maybe righteous anger... but never hatred! Jesus never once said that He wanted to smite anyone. Rather, Jesus is the same God that Peter talks about in 2 Peter 3:9 who he says, "is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
So the next time we see or hear about someone who seems to be a complete enemy of God and Christianity... someone who seems to be completely lost... let's remember that we were once just as lost too, and that it's only by the grace of God that we're even capable of being forgiven! And instead of wishing that we could call down "fire from heaven" to destroy them, let's use that moment as a humbling experience - a moment to remind us who we've been to God. And instead, let's turn our hatred and our anger into prayer and love for those fellow broken human beings. In the end, everyone will be better-off for it.