Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? (Luke 9:54)

“Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:54)

As the pressure mounts in Jesus’ ministry, both from people’s expectations and the religious leaders’ opposition, the disciples are trying to discern how to posture themselves. They struggled to provide right answers, but often they got it wrong. They tried to express great faith, but often wrongheaded. And that’s what we have here.

A group of Samaritans did not properly honor Jesus. Never mind that Peter, just previously, had put Jesus on the same plane as Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration. But Jesus is no mere man, and Peter is rebuked from heaven. Or, the disciples approach Jesus and ask for special honors in the coming kingdom. This pays little regard to the price that Jesus will pay to redeem their sorry souls (and ours) from the penalty of sins, theirs and ours. You see, we are much more keen to point out the sins of others rather than our own, and when we notice the Samaritans failing to show honor, we seem completely blind to the ways in which we have done the very same thing.

And so the disciples, in the voice of the young “sons of thunder,” James and John, ask the question in our title: “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” And Jesus answers, “No.” He said “No.” It is not our job to command fire from heaven to consume Jesus’ adversaries, or ours.

The truth is, “fire from heaven” is what we all deserve. Every single one of us. The distinctions that we make between our sins the the sins of others are indistinguishable when we stand in the light of God’s holiness and at the bar of His justice. Condemnation is what we deserve. All of us. And so for us to even think that we might call God’s fire down on someone else is to completely miss the point of who God is as holy, and who we are as sinners.

Being saved by grace through faith does not change the equation. Saved sinners are not all of a sudden qualified to mete out God’s justice on those not-yet-saved. Rather, we are to be those who smell like the Gospel, and not reek of self-righteousness. We are to be those who love, not specialize in showing disdain. Yes, there are people with whom we disagree. And we, like Jesus, love them anyway.

Of all the questions recorded in the Bible, I think this is one of the critical questions. Should we call down fire from heaven? The answer is “No.” It comes not from the Spirit of God, but from some other spirit.