daily java

Daily Java:

As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up.” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. So they went on to another village. (Luke 9:51-56)

People feel free to make fun of Christianity because Christians do not blow people up.

When the disciples saw that this town refused to welcome Jesus, they were incensed. And rightly so. These people had refused to admit the Son of the Living God, the Messiah of Israel.

James and John were the ones with the fiery tempers. Jesus had even nicknamed them the sons of thunder (Mark 3:17). He liked people with strong emotions. James and John wanted to call fire down on these people like Elijah or someone from the Old Testament.

They could see it in their minds. Those who had survived crawling out asking for forgiveness, the apostles lecturing them sternly about disobedience and unbelief, those people would be sorry and would be an example to others who dared defy the Son of God. No one would refuse Jesus from now on and his apostles would be his vanguard, punishing the infidels.

Jesus said, in essence, you guys shut up. This is not how we work. In the Kingdom of God, our weapons are not like that. We do not kill people who do not listen to us.

And there lies a lot of the problem today. We do not kill people who do not listen to us, so people think they can do anything they want to us.

Jesus said that our hearts will be changed by the word and by the drawing of God, not force.

Paul said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT): We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

Of course, it makes people view us as weaker, but it isn’t true. It also makes people think that they can do anything they want to us and we will not retaliate.

But you know what? That is true, too. Jesus presented a gospel of non-retaliation. He said that people who come to him will come because their hearts are changed, not because of fear of being killed.

This is not to say that a Christian cannot defend his family, or even his own life. But what it says is that force is not to be used in the true kingdom to bring people to Jesus.

At the last of his life, as he stood before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor over Jerusalem, Jesus said, My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.

Of course we live here, but what Jesus meant was that when we live here, God is living in us. And he got in us not because we were afraid someone would blow us up if we didn’t accept.

That is a travesty of a religion.

Praise be to God. Yahveh is his name and Jesus is his only Son.