Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Luke 9:54 

Perhaps there is no greater malice in the human heart than revenge. James and John, who are known for their thunderous zealotry, would have those who did not welcome Jesus be consumed by the wrath of God. But Jesus rebukes them. Vengeance and acts of violence are not— and never can be—answers of hope for a fractured and hostile humanity. 

 Violence, of course, still scars our world. It swells in our spirits when anger and rage get a hold of us. We come to reject others and to find all kinds of justifications for this hatred. But Jesus, who has set his face to go to Jerusalem, is not going there to perpetrate violence. He is going there to take the biting jaws of all violence away. Even James and John will come to a new and better spirit—that love is for all others, even for one’s enemies. 
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