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From: Luke 9:51-56

Some Samaritans Refuse to Receive Jesus

[51] When the days drew near for Him (Jesus) to be received up, He set
His face to go to Jerusalem. [52] And He sent messengers ahead of Him,
who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for
Him; [53] but the people would not receive Him, because His face was
set toward Jerusalem. [54] And when His disciples James and John saw
it, they said, "Lord, do You want us to bid fire come down from Heaven
and consume them?" [55] But He turned and rebuked them. [56] And they
went on to another village.

Commentary:

51. "When the days drew near for Him to be received up": these words
refer to the moment when Jesus will leave this world and ascend into
Heaven. Our Lord will say this more explicitly during the Last Supper:
"I come from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am
leaving the world and going to the Father" (John 16:28). By making His
way resolutely to Jerusalem, towards His Cross, Jesus freely complies
with His Father's plan for His passion and death to be the route to His
resurrection and ascension.

52-53. The Samaritans were hostile towards the Jews. This enmity
derived from the fact that the Samaritans were descendants of marriages
of Jews with Gentiles who repopulated the region of Samaria at the time
of the Assyrian captivity (in the eight century before Christ). There
were also religious differences: the Samaritans had mixed the religion
of Moses with various superstitious practices, and did not accept the
temple of Jerusalem as the only place where sacrifices could properly
be offered. They built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, in
opposition to Jerusalem (cf. John 4:20); this was why, when they
realized Jesus was headed for the Holy City, they refused Him
hospitality.

54-56. Jesus corrects His disciples' desire for revenge, because it is
out of keeping with the mission of the Messiah, who has come to save
men, not destroy them (cf. Luke 19:10; John 12:47). The Apostles are
gradually learning that zeal for the things of God should not be bitter
or violent.

"The Lord does everything in an admirable way [...]. He acts in this
way to teach us that perfect virtue retains no desire for vengeance,
and that where there is true charity there is no room for anger--in
other words, that weakness should not be treated with harshness but
should be helped. Indignation should be very far from holy souls, and
desire for vengeance very far from great souls" (St. Ambrose,
"Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.").

An RSV footnote after the word "rebuked" in verse 55 points out that
other ancient authorities add "and He said `You do not know what
manner of Spirit you are of; for the Son of Man came not to destroy
men's lives but to save them'". These words appear in a considerable
number of early Greek MSS and other versions and were included in the

Clementine Vulgate; but they do not appear in the best and oldest Greek
codexes and have not been included in the New Vulgate.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.