The disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven on an inhospitable village. Jesus had come down from heaven from His Father to give life. He was not a fire-casting Messiah. He was here to reveal the saving nature of the Heavenly Father that those disciples had not yet grasped. Nor had they grasped how much their own spirit was out of tune with His Spirit and how the kind of Messiah they wanted misrepresented the Spirit of the Father. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save. That is our mission as well. When we scorn and detest those who are not kind to us, we discover how little we know our Father and how much our spirit is out of sync with His Spirit. Oh Lord, have mercy on us!
“When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them,
[and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village. Luke 9:54-56 (NASB)
