Jesus gave his disciples power and authority to proclaim the kingdom and to cure diseases (Luke 9:1-2), without any resources and dependent on the hospitality of strangers (9:3-4). Where they received no hospitality they were simply to shake the dust from their feet as they departed (9:5).

But since Jesus had given them authority to heal, James and John thought maybe Jesus would give them authority to destroy as well: to call down fire from heaven to burn up a Samaritan village that refused to provide hospitality (9:52-54). Their request earned them a stern rebuke from Jesus (9:55).

Perhaps a century or so later, a preacher working on a sermon from this text wondered about the content of that rebuke. He supposed it was something like this: “You do not know what kind of spirit you are. The Son of Man did not come to destroy human life, but to save it.” He wrote that down in the margin of his copy of the Gospel of Luke. The footnotes in your Bible, or any good commentary on Luke, should tell you that these words were not original with Luke, but were added by this later commentator, and then inadvertently incorporated into the manuscript by the next generation of copyists.

Still, the point is apt: shouldn’t followers of Jesus be focused on redemption, rather than judgment and destruction? And yet, like James and John, we are often quick to assume that we could be trusted with the authority to call down destruction on those we feel deserve it. It turns out that we are not strong on the self-critical awareness to realize that we who want to destroy others are included in the number of those sinners who deserve punishment.

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And we are quick to forget that you love sinners, O Lord: sinners like James and John, sinners like the Samaritans, sinners like our enemies, sinners like ourselves. In your compassion transform our hearts, we pray, so that we too may become people of compassion, following your example.

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