It was March 1843 when one of the most significant engineering feats of the nineteenth century was completed. It was the day that between Wapping and Rotherhithe a tunnel was completed under the Thames River in London. Nothing of its kind had been done before, and it had taken an enormous amount time, expense and engineering expertise to accomplish. It is fitting that very tunnel is still used in the underground today as the south side of the British subway system. But what made it so incredible was that everything began in 1825, shortly after the Thames Tunnel company was formed. Prior to this, various attempts were made but failed under the difficult conditions, until they decided to adopt a method by Frenchman, Marc Isambard Brunel. Brunel was an unusual man: he was born in Normandy, France; joined the French Navy; eventually finding his way to the United States of America where he held the post of Chief Engineer of New York City. He helped build the Hudson Canal, but he also established his own business. He eventually left the United States and settled in the United Kingdom where he became the famous engineer who designed the tunnelling sleeve that made it possible to build this famous Thames Tunnel. Unfortunately, he also went out of business, ended up in the debtors’ prison. After his release from prison, he worked his way back up again until the tunnel was built, and he was made a member of the Royal Society and recognized by the Queen.
What is remarkable about this story is not only that someone had come from outside the UK to do this –and that is a political issue that I am not touching! But he was opposed by the clergy. The clergy did not like what he was doing, because he was “flirting with the underworld” and they felt by actually stirring up things under the earth, he would cause spiritual problems on earth. Here is this man who had overcome immeasurable difficulties to do something so splendid, and remarkably in his early years he trained to be a priest himself. Here he was, a devout Christian being condemned by other Christian for flirting with the underworld. It is unfortunate that throughout the ages people of strong faith have often tried to stand in the way of progress. We need only look at 1633 and what the Grand Inquisition did to Galileo to realize that the track record often of people of faith is not entirely good.
They had a good precedent based on two of the disciples, James and John. We heard in today’s passage that James and John are on their way with Jesus to Jerusalem. Jesus, at the end of his ministry, knowing that he is going to spend his last days in Jerusalem and having already toured around the region, is now heading to the Cross. He sends James and John ahead through Samaria to get to Jerusalem. The only problem is that when they get to Samaria, they are rejected and driven out. Scholars tell us that the Samaritans felt this way because they did not want Jews staying in Samaria on their way to Jerusalem. They did not want pilgrims to stay overnight. They could pass through, but they couldn’t interact with the people, such was the tension between the Israelites and the Samaritans, particularly in the time of Jesus. Jesus then comes into Samaria and faces exactly the same rejection. So, James and John, his faithful disciples, the Sons of Thunder as they were often called, ask Jesus this question: “Would you like us to call down fire from heaven on these people?” Jesus rebuked them.
In most of the texts in the Bible there is nothing more than a simple rebuke and they move on to another town. But Jesus must have said something more. Surely, a simple rebuke would not be enough. There are very ancient manuscripts, certainly accepted by the Reformers and included in the King James version of the Bible, that actually suggest that Jesus did say more. If you look at your own Bibles at home, you will see there is a footnote: Ancient manuscripts include a reference to Elijah and the words “The Son of Man has not come to take life, but to save life.” This is from what is known as the Codex Bezae, which is one of the most ancient manuscripts. It makes sense of what Jesus said when he rebuked the disciples. Basically, he told them off. He said, “My way is a different than your way.” I think – and agree with John Calvin and others – that the words of Jesus in that Codex are ones that we can take as being true.
If that is the case, then we have two very different, almost polar opposite approaches to solving the problems of the world. James and John wanted to bring down fire from heaven and destroy the Samaritans. This of course, is a reference to Elijah, the great prophet who brought down fire upon the false prophets. Not that they had the power necessarily to do it – maybe they were just deluded! They had no right to call on heaven to bring down fire, but they certainly felt they should. They based all of their arguments about destroying the Samaritans on two things. The first is precedence. In other words, they went back to Elijah. They went back to a moment in time when God had come down on the side of the prophet, and they thought this was another occasion for it. After all, they were thinking that they were only just destroying Samaritans, and Samaritans are not the Chosen People, so it doesn’t matter what we do to them.
Their sense of precedence was not like law. Law has precedent, as we know, and years ago I attended an Admission to the Bar ceremony, and I remember a Chief Justice here in Ontario speaking eloquently about the importance of precedent and the importance of history, and making sure that the law is done in a careful way. It was a wonderful speech! On the other hand, there are precedents in law that are used, and they become very destructive. The whole debate in the United States right now over the Second Amendment is a case in point. Here is something that was written in another century, another era, another world. Even they base their sense of what constitutes the right on a Bill of Rights that came from Britain in the seventeenth century. That is how far back that amendment goes in terms of the origins of its thought! So, you look at that, and you see the problems that we are having, and particularly south of the border, and it does make you wonder. Precedence isn’t all good; but it is important.
The problem with James and John is that they were using a precedent to suit themselves. They chose something that they felt would bring down the wrath of God on the people of Samaria. But they were also basing it on their own experience. Be under no illusions, they were acting out of anger. They had been rejected, but also, and let’s be honest, their Jesus had been rejected. They were angry because the very Son of Man himself, the very Messiah of the Jews, on his way to Jerusalem no less, was rejected. You can feel for them, can’t you? When Jesus is rejected publicly and openly, you can understand why those who loved him and followed him would feel so aggrieved – so bring down fire, why not? That is how they felt in their anger. Often when that happens it does not further the Gospel one iota. It might eliminate the people who have caused the problems or have been bigoted or who rejected the faith, but it in no way redeems or saves anybody.
Our experience is the dominant force when we determine what it means to be a disciple. We think that discipleship and what God is calling us to is based solely on what we happen to think at any given moment. Very often, people’s experiences are completely wrong. There is a wonderful story of James Young Simpson, who was a wonderful Scottish inventor, scientist and doctor. He practiced in the middle of the nineteenth century, and many, many things were discovered in that time period in history, weren’t they? While working with his students at the university, teaching them how crystals could work, he was trying to find a way that would numb people’s pain during an operation. Well, these crystals worked, he created chlorophorm – and knocked out the entire class! When they woke up, and word got out about this, the Church wasn’t happy that he was experimenting with such dangerous things. Again, it was the clergy – I am sorry! But they were angry! Look, he is knocking out students; he is a dangerous man. And so, they condemned him: it is better that we suffer than we start playing around with drugs and stuff like that, you know, that can be dangerous! So, he responded –quoting the Scriptures, and he said, “I want to go back, brothers, to the Book of Genesis, to the very beginning......” “The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh, and created woman.” Simpson said, “God was the first anesthetist.” Isn’t that precious! People were relying on their own experience and their own experience in condemning him was flawed. We are all probably at some point the beneficiary of some form of anesthetic in our lives. But they were so, so sure that it was wrong: like the tunnel was wrong; like Galileo was wrong; like the Samaritans were wrong! They based their sense of right and wrong on their own experience.
Jesus’ way was entirely different. You would have thought that Jesus would have been the one to bring down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, wouldn’t you? But of course, as Martin Luther points out, this would have been inconsistent with everything else that Jesus ever said and did with the Samaritans. After all, it was the story of The Good Samaritan that constitutes the foundation of charity for the other. It was the woman who was caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman, who received his forgiveness. It was the Samaritans who were the beneficiaries of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus went out of his way to go to Samaria when all of his own people were telling him not to do that, not to mix with them, that it will only be trouble. But for all Jesus’ wonderful talking about the Samaritans, he is now an abject failure on his way to Jerusalem before he has been lifted up. Notice the very opening words, “Before he will be taken up to heaven” just like Elijah before he was taken up to heaven, Jesus goes to Jerusalem, he bears the Cross, he is raised from the dead, he is made Judge of all things. Paul says, “All things are at his feet.” But had Jesus brought down fire on the Samaritans before then, who knows what his ministry of the Cross and the Resurrection would have been like. It certainly would have been tainted by an act of vengeance and violence, and that was not Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth made it abundantly clear the reason that he had come, is not to take life, but to save it: “To seek and to save that which is lost.” How many times did Jesus in his ministry try “to seek and to save that which is lost”? And how many times could he from the moment of his temptation to the moment that he ended up on the Cross, have brought down all the angels from heaven but did not. He didn’t, because he had to bear the Cross. Jesus knew that the discipleship that followed him was also the discipleship of the Cross. It was the discipleship that would save the world. He also makes it abundantly clear that now, having turned towards Jerusalem and the Cross, there is no going back. There is no Elijah re-visited. Rather, this is Jesus on his way to the Cross, the Cross that he has to bear, and there is no turning back.
The stories that are told near the end of this passage, right after Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save”, talk about all of those who want to make excuses about not going with him to Jerusalem. Jesus says, “You can’t turn back! Discipleship is not about returning to a house at the end of the day; it is about moving forward into the future.” This, I think is the great vision that the Church of Jesus Christ has to have today. I think our western world increasingly is becoming fragmented and divided. I think that we have got a moral and a spiritual crisis, which I talked about last week. I don’t think everything is perfect in our garden at all, but I think that the way forward, and the way forward for followers of Jesus is always the path of the Cross, not the method of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. There is no discipleship of yesterday! Discipleship implies following, which means that we have a leader, who goes before us. The task of the Church and the task of Christians in our era is to say, “Lord, where are you taking us now? What lives do you want us to save? What people do you want us to bring to you? What are you, the Judge, going to do about this world that we live in? You show us the way, and we will follow. We will put aside any biases or issues that we have with our own experience, we will lay those to one side, we will follow you, and we will let the dead bury the dead, we will let our farms go, we will let everything go for the sake of following you.”
Every now and again, I am fortunate to be told stories that in many ways completely bring my sense of what it means to be a believer to the fore, and gives me the most enormous hope. I heard a story, and it was told by someone who works for World Vision of a man called Ang Lee. He had lived and grown up in Mandalay, but had come from a Malaysian background, so he was now in Myanmar. Lee was born to a family with four children, but all of his siblings died when they were very young. His father was an abusive alcoholic, who ended up in prison, and his mother died of malaria. When his father came out of prison, he remarried, and the woman decided she really didn’t want a son. So he was forced on to the streets of Mandalay. There is this young boy who scrambled to make a life for himself, but there was a Christian retreat area for the homeless and they took him in, gave him food and clothing. They introduced him to a church that had a church school that taught him. He became part of a small Christian community, and his life was changed. This young man, who had been rejected by everyone and had seen nothing but death all around him was saved. He was picked from the fire, and he was given the chance at a new life. At the end of it, when being interviewed by Christian caregivers, he said, “For the first time in my life, I am in good hands.”
I think the world is a bit like Ang Lee. People want to know that they are in good hands. Whatever their problems, whatever struggles and disappointments they might have, whatever tradition and background they might have come from, whatever rights and wrongs they may have done, it doesn’t matter. The good news is that because of Jesus of Nazareth, who had come “to seek and to save that which is lost” they are in good hands. As disciples, ours is not to ask that fire be brought down from heaven; ours is to introduce them to Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Life, our Judge and our hope. Amen.