Shall We Bring Down the Fire?

Luke 9:51-62

⁵¹When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. ⁵³But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴And 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?” ⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶And they went on to another village. ⁵⁷As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ⁵⁹To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” ⁶²Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

With verse 51 we see the main turning point in Luke’s Gospel. Up to this verse, the story has been primarily about Jesus’ ministry in the area of His upbringing – Galilee. Now, He resolutely turns His face toward Jerusalem and the bitter death that awaits Him. The trip to Jerusalem means traveling through Samaria where Jews were not welcomed. It was about a 3 day journey to Jerusalem and the Samaritans often refused to shelter or feed any Jews that were passing through. This meant that the Jews often traveled down the eastern side of the Jordan River to avoid Samaria, adding miles to their journey. But not Jesus. His message is for everyone and He was not going to avoid Samaria.

Unfortunately, the Samaritans did not receive Him very well in some villages, leading James and John to offer up quite a show. They wanted to call down fire from heaven to deal with these people who would not help them. This is almost comical. But they are pointing back to the events in the life of the prophet Elijah. At one point, due to the idolatry of the king, Elijah did indeed successfully call down fire upon his enemies.

2 Kings 1:2–12

²Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.” ³But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? ⁴Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah went. ⁵The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, “Why have you returned?” ⁶And they said to him, “There came a man to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” ⁷He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?” ⁸They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” ⁹Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’ ” ¹⁰But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. ¹¹Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty. And he answered and said to him, “O man of God, this is the king’s order, ‘Come down quickly!’ ” ¹²But Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

That James and John thought they could repeat the events in this story is somewhat amusing, as if Jesus needed their power to accomplish anything. Jesus takes a pass on their offer because His message is for the Samaritans too and so He marches on without the fire and brimstone.

Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples’ request to destroy the Samaritans who reject Jesus is therefore unexpected in light of the scriptural precedent. It does, however, point to the arrival of a new era when God will act in a new way. The theme of reversal should not be missed when Jesus travels to Jerusalem to proclaim judgment on God’s people while he apparently refuses to condemn the “foreigners” or “outcasts.”

G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson (2007). Luke. In Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament

(p. 316). Grand Rapids, MI;  Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;  Apollos.

Along the way, there are several who offer to follow Jesus, with conditions. Jesus points out the faulty thinking that would allow people to follow Him half-heartedly. Of particular interest (and not a small amount of confusion) is the man who offers to follow Jesus after he has buried his parents. Clearly, this man’s parents were not yet dead or he wouldn’t have been talking with Jesus; he would have been taking care of funeral arrangements. He wanted to wait until they had passed (and he had inherited their money) to make good on his offer to follow Jesus. That event may have been years away. So his offer is bogus. Jesus knows this to be true and thus we have what appears to be a rather weird response. Jesus told him that the spiritually dead could bury the physically dead, and that the spiritually alive should be busy proclaiming the kingdom of God. Our willingness to follow Jesus cannot be conditional or manipulated. Either you follow Him or you don’t.