Luke 9:51-56 “When the days were coming to a close for him to be taken up, he determined to journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of himself, and on the way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But they did not welcome him, because he determined to journey to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.”

There are two things to note about the hostility this Samaritan village showed. First, it wasn’t dangerous or violent. These men would confront life-threatening opposition later in their ministries, just like Christians are attacked and killed by the hundreds and thousands in parts of Africa and the Middle East today. But on this day it was more the garden variety of disinterest and dislike we tend to encounter. These villagers didn’t want Jesus and his band of followers to think they were interested in their religion, or interested in having them hang around hoping to get into a conversation about faith. “No thank you. Keep going–next village, please.”

I meet hundreds of the same kind of people every year. Sometimes before I can finish introducing myself at the door on which I knocked, the door is already closing again: “No thank you. Keep going–next house, please.”

The second thing to note about the Samaritan villagers is that their reasons for rejecting Jesus were relatively petty. They don’t refer to deeply held theological or moral convictions. They were Samaritans, and Jesus was a Jew making his way to Jerusalem, one of their least favorite cities. That was the end of any conversation. I can’t tell you how many times people have shut down any conversation with the “deeply theological” insight, “We’re not church-goers.” It’s essentially, “We like to sleep in or play on Sundays. Don’t disturb our comfortable habit.” Their objection is not, “We disagree with Christian teaching on sex and marriage,” or “We have a problem with the idea that Jesus was God.” It’s been said the path to hell is paved with good intentions. I’m convinced that some stretches are also paved with spiritual and moral laziness.

If James and John found the hostility of the Samaritan villagers surprising, it was Jesus’ reaction that really gave them an eye-opener: “When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them.” You may have heard the disciple John called the Apostle of Love because of all the times he quotes Jesus talking about love. But we forget this pair of brothers was also called “The Sons of Thunder” based on this very incident. “These people don’t appreciate you very much, Jesus. Do you want us to incinerate them?”

Can we Christians today be a little too ready to go to war and call down death and judgment on our opponents? Can we so frame our relationship to an unbelieving world that we make them all an enemy to attack? I often read the comments section after online articles. I am struck by how many Christians lose all sense of decency and good will in the comments they make. I am humbled when I realize how outraged and hostile I begin to feel towards people whose views may be horribly mistaken.

Jesus turned and rebuked the brothers for their suggestion. That’s not why he came. If these villagers were ultimately lost to hell, that wasn’t a victory to celebrate. It was a loss to grieve. Jesus rescued us, no better than anyone else, from our sin and unbelief. He was on his way to Jerusalem to lay down his own life to secure our forgiveness and life.

There is a war, a spiritual battle, between Jesus and the world, it is true. But it is a war to liberate souls, fought with love and grace, not a scorched earth campaign to rid the universe of the people who are trapped in darkness. Nothing beats the darkness back like the gospel: good news of a gracious God who forgives every sin, whose love turns enemies into friends. It is only appropriate that we deliver that message with grace and love as well.