These are days, in our society and in the world, where the temptation to call down fire from heaven is almost irresistible. A brief look at the headlines in your news feed will let you know that the skies have been filled with actual fire these last few weeks. In the Middle East and Ukraine: drones, missiles, planes of all sorts, with explosive ordinance capable of demolishing hardened military installations, not to mention homes and hospitals. Literal fire has been raining down in Ukraine for years now, since the Russian invasion. People there look for a “cease fire” but to no avail.
The Samaritans in our Gospel reading were people who lived in territory that had once been part of the northern kingdom of Israel. In other words, they lived relatively close to Jerusalem, cheek to jowl with observant Jews; they also shared with the Jews some common traditions and common scriptures. Yet they were a distinct community that didn’t worship in Jerusalem, and observant Jews considered them to be interlopers, illegitimate worshipers of God.
Sometimes it’s the very closeness of others that breeds hostility. That closeness can be physical, as it was with Jews and Samaritans: after all, good fences are supposed to be needed to make good neighbors. But that closeness can also be less about physical proximity and more about the lack of emotional distance. Jews and Samaritans shared so much; but that closeness to each other underscored the things that they did not agree about. Each could think of the other as stubbornly failing to get things right. They ought to know better! Each could think of the other as a threatening simulacrum of the truth; as a dangerous and deceptive imitation of the true People of God.
No wonder the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven! When the Samaritans figured out that Jesus and his disciples were traveling to Jerusalem they knew they were members of the adversary people, and refused to be hospitable. In calling for fire from heaven, the disciples were following the example of the prophet Elijah, who destroyed the soldiers sent by evil King Ahaziah (a ruler of the northern kingdom) to arrest him (2 Kgs 1:10). The fire from heaven had a well-worn precedent, part of an existing prophetic pattern.
But Jesus breaks the mold and rebukes the disciples. No particular reason is given, and perhaps none needs to be. Jesus is following a different pattern, one that is also drawn from the scriptures. “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6), God tells Moses in Exodus; words that also appear in Psalm 103. “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness” (Ps. 103.10). Jesus is marching to the beat of a different drum.
For Jesus, personal revenge and retribution are the stuff of the devil. Calling down fire from heaven on our enemies is a temptation to be avoided. It’s easy to think, “Too bad; they had it coming to them,” and to move on. But the metric of mercy won’t allow us to do that. We have to consider the divine perspective, which persists in seeing each of us as sinners who are also the beloved children of God.
For Jesus, mercy sets the stage. He interprets the will of God in the scriptures through the scriptural lens of mercy. I think it’s easy for us to think that Jesus is simply being lenient here, letting the Samaritans off the hook. But Jesus’ interpretation of the scriptures isn’t really about making things easier for people. In the next breath, Jesus is amending the prophetic pattern again. When Elijah called Elisha from plowing the field with the yoke of oxen, he let him go back to take leave of his family. But when Jesus calls us, the measure is much stricter. “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God’” (Lk. 9:62).
Jesus’ call is actually more demanding and more exacting. There’s no time to waste, and no time for revenge. Jesus is keen to move us on from the old pattern and the old way of life, and to move us forward in obedience. He’s set his face toward Jerusalem, and not even unfriendly Samaritans can keep him from his task. He goes to Jerusalem in order to be crucified, and to offer his life for the sake of others. God raised him from the dead to show us a new way of living. It’s time for us to get on with it.