In our day and time, the word Samaritan is synonymous with someone that does a good deed, as in a Good Samaritan. This comes from Jesus’ parable which we know as the parable of the good Samaritan. But to Jesus’ audience, this was a scandalous parable.
The Samaritans were half Jewish-half Gentile, and to the full-blooded Jew, they were considered dogs. It was a constant clash between these two groups of people. Most Jews wouldn’t associate with a Samaritan and would even go out of their way to avoid traveling through Samaria. There was hatred between the two groups that would rival any cultural war going on today.
So, when Jesus used a Samaritan as the hero of his parable, I imagine the minds of his Jewish audience would have exploded. Not to mention, the time that he talked with a Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar. That was scandalous on several counts. Yet, Jesus didn’t mind breaking cultural expectations and taboos.
While his Jewish brothers would consider the Samaritans as dogs and enemies, Jesus saw them as people to be saved. Jesus didn’t see people as his enemies. He simply saw people as lost children of his father that needed rescuing.
Let’s Call Down Fire
Luke records a story in his gospel about a time when Jesus and at least two of his disciples went through Samaria (Luke 9:51-54). They were on their way to Jerusalem and were seeking some hospitality in a village of the Samaritans. Hospitality was a cultural issue for the people of this time. It was a slap in the face to refuse someone’s hospitality. It was equally as bad not to offer hospitality.
These Samaritans were refusing to receive Jesus and his team simply because they were on their way to Jerusalem. This infuriated two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, the aptly named “Sons of Thunder”. They wanted to call down fire out of heaven to consume the Samaritan village.
And they had biblical precedence for their actions. But just because they were biblical, it doesn’t mean they were Christ-like.
The great prophet Elijah had called fire down out of heaven to consume people and the disciples would have been very familiar with this story. This story is found in 2 Kings 1. So, there you have it, Jesus, Elijah called down fire so let us do it!
There are a couple of interesting thoughts from this story that I want to focus on. Let’s take a look at them.
You don’t know what spirit you are of.
Remember that the disciples had Biblical precedents for what they wanted to do. Elijah had done it so why can’t we? Yet, Jesus rebukes the disciples and goes further to tell them they were operating in an “anti”-Christ spirit.
While Jesus didn’t use the word anti-Christ, the implication is there in that they were operating in a spirit that wasn’t in line with Jesus. I believe they were operating in a satanic spirit. These two disciples were wanting to be judge, jury, and executioner simply because the Samaritans had rejected Jesus.
When we judge others and become accusatory against them, we are operating in a spirit that isn’t holy.
Jesus protects his “so-called” enemies.
A person is only my enemy if I make them that way in my mind. Someone can see me as their enemy without me feeling the same way toward them. The disciples are giving into their cultural bias by seeing the Samaritans as their enemy. What do we do with our enemies? We get them before they get us, or if they do something terrible to us then we retaliate.
The disciples wanted to light their enemies up, so to speak. Yet, Jesus rebukes his disciples but says nothing about the inhospitable and offensive actions of the Samaritans. They have refused hospitality to Jesus and the disciples will not stand for that.
Instead of judging the Samaritans and punishing them, Jesus protects them. Here’s a mind-blowing thought – he protected them from his followers.
I shudder to think how many times in our culture wars today that Jesus has had to protect the perceived enemies of the church from the church.
In Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount, he instructs his disciples to bless those that would persecute them, and not curse their enemies. However, the disciples had not quite learned this lesson just yet. I fear that we modern-day followers of Christ have not learned it either.
Jesus doesn’t threaten the Samaritans with hell.
In today’s evangelical world, every Sunday in most pulpits across America pastors will tell people that if they reject Jesus that they, along with everyone else who rejects Jesus, will break hell wide open. It would seem from these sermons that the penalty for sin and rejecting the supreme sacrifice of Jesus is an eternity in eternal, conscious torment.
If that’s true, why didn’t Jesus threaten the Samaritans with hell? Why didn’t he threaten the crowd that ultimately rejected him by having him crucified? If Jesus didn’t use this method then why do we? Just some food for thought.
Jesus is seeking to save humanity not destroy them.
I find it very interesting that while the disciples wanted to punish the Samaritans by destroying them with fire, Jesus had no such desire. He tells his two zealous disciples that he desires to save humanity, not destroy it.
Jesus is expressing the heart of his Abba because the apostle Peter would later tell us that God is not desiring that any should perish but that all would come to eternal life. The heart of the Father is not to destroy life but to give it.
Follow Jesus’ lead.
I see so many similarities between the evangelical church in America today and the sons of Thunder in this story. We are so quick to want God to punish those that see things differently than we do. There is almost a sense of seeing ourselves as God’s bodyguards.
Jesus never did defend himself from those that wanted to reject him. He just let them be. Even his people, who cried out for his death by crucifixion, were met with his forgiveness on the cross.
Why do we as his followers feel the need to judge and punish others that willingly reject Jesus? Many times, I believe that we take offense at them because they don’t see things our way. We can fluff it up and say that we love them and don’t want them to go to hell. That may be our desire, but sometimes I think our greater desire is to be right.
I know that in my own life I have felt like calling down fire upon people who have hurt me, rejected me, or harmed me in some way. I’ve wanted those people to pay and I wanted vindication. As I now know, I was operating in the spirit of the accuser.
Jesus never did that. He never sought to win these Samaritan villages over, he didn’t try to reason with them, and he didn’t try to get them saved. He simply kept going. And, I believe, he forgave them.
Jesus didn’t come to destroy humanity. He desired to save people. Should our desire and our methods as his followers be any different?
Who Are Your Samaritans? (Video)
