Day 9 James & John Want to Kill the Samaritans But Jesus Responds With Correction Without Rejection!

God Is Just Like Jesus

In this episode we can clearly see the sin of the disciples. James & John are offended with the Samaritans who will not offer hospitality to Jesus for food for an over night stay so they suggest burning down the entire village with a lightening bolt! It is a fit of anger and rage and is blatantly sinful. James and John are probably thinking of Elijah in I Kings 18 where he confronts the 450 prophets of Baal and God provides a lightening bolt to prove to everyone that Yahweh is the good God over Baal. (Remember I Kings 23 says that those who worship the Canaanite gods would burn some of their children in the fire and offer temple prostitutes to the people as they came to worship these gods.)
However, James and John fail to realize that the Samaritans are just regular people and are not the prophets or leaders of Baal worship. So their anger is completely misplaced and sinful.
Once again Jesus' goodness is revealed through His intensity and fierceness combined with His ability to reason. He sternly rebukes James and John and then instructs them that they don't even know what kind of people they are or they should be, because Jesus came not to destroy people but to save people!
Jesus always has to train anyone who would follow Him to become a leader or a pastor. Often his intensity or fierceness is to do just that. Therefore, even Jesus' "clean" anger is good for us as His followers and makes us care for people better!
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