James and John especially were indignant at the unkind treatment.  They felt keenly the insult to their Lord, whom they believed was on His way to Jerusalem to establish His Kingdom, and was worthy of the most generous hospitality and the sincerest homage.  They had a fresh remembrance of the glory in which they had seen Him on the Holy Mount in company with Elijah.  They were reminded of that prophet’s experience more than nine hundred years before.  It was this:  Ahaziah, a king of Israel, was seriously injured by a fall from the balcony of his house.  He sent to inquire of the false god Baal-zebub whether he should recover.  God sent Elijah to reprove him for his idolatry and insult to Himself.  The king sent a captain with fifty men to seize the prophet, but they were consumed by fire from heaven.  Another captain and his fifty men were also destroyed in like manner.

Such a punishment James and John would call down on the Samaritans.  They felt that it would be just.  If fitting for the enemies of Elijah, how much more for those of Jesus.  They were ready to give the command which God permitted Elijah to give, if Jesus would allow them to do likewise.  And so, being displeased, provoked, revengeful, with a fiery spirit, they said to Him, “Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?” But Jesus “turned and rebuked them,” and said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”

It was contrary to the spirit of meekness and love manifest in His declaration to them, “The Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”  And so He inspired them with another spirit, as He quietly led them “to another village.”  We sadly turn to another scene in which imperfection in the beloved disciple is especially revealed.

The favored brothers had not yet learned perfectly the lesson of humility which their Lord had tried to teach them.  They were still devoted to Him, following Him, loving Him.  But they still misunderstood what He said about His death, and His kingdom, in which they hoped for the most honored places.  They wanted to be assured of promotion above their fellow-disciples.  They were earnest in an unholy desire.  They had a bold, ambitious request to make of the Lord.  It was the chief occasion on which their pride was revealed.  We have two accounts of it.  In one of them the mother Salome appears as the speaker.  She brings her sons to Jesus, prostrates herself before Him, and offers this petition, “Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on Thy left, in Thy Kingdom.”  She had a loving mother’s pride.  She was the aunt of Jesus, and perhaps felt that because of this relationship, her sons had a right which the other Apostles could not claim.  She had given them to His service, and had proved her own love and devotion to Him by following Him with other women of Galilee, ministering to His comforts.  Meanwhile James and John, according to another account, themselves urged their mother’s request saying, “Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand, in Thy glory.”