Saturday 31 Jul 2021

July 31: Luke 9:51-56
 
Key Verse: Luke 9:54
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’
 
Devotion:
When the time was right, Jesus set out to return to Jerusalem – the place where people wanted to kill Him! Jesus knew what was going to happen but He also knew this was the only way He could save us from our sinful lives. When they stopped along the way, they sent messengers ahead who would do the booking so to speak. They did not have phones or anything like that, so if they wanted to stay with anyone they would still have to call ahead, but manually!
 
When the messengers got to the Samaritan village, the people there did not want to welcome Jesus and the disciples. They may have heard in the past about the king wanting to kill Jesus and even though they would have heard the king was dead, they would not know if Jesus was still on the most wanted list. They would be the ones who would get into trouble for harbouring Jesus and His followers if this was so.
 
James and John took offence and wanted God to rain down fire and brimstone of the village because they had refused (unknowingly) the Son of God. Jesus rebuked them for thinking this way and that is what I would like to focus on today. When we find or hear of people who do something against God, we get cross with them and we often wish bad things on them...
 
Jesus is not like that. He was trying to teach the disciples how to love everyone – yesterday we touched on that a bit. Jesus wanted them to remember His commandment to love their neighbours. As they went into the village, these people would be their neighbours. We may find it hard to love anyone in these circumstances, but Jesus did not and does not.
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you wish bad things on people who work against you?
 
Would you consider loving them instead?