Two of his own men once asked him for permission to burn a village down.
Luke tells this in chapter 9. Just before it, John tells Jesus they stopped a man who was driving out demons in Jesus' name, and Jesus says not to stop him. Just after it, a man on the road says he will follow Jesus anywhere, and Jesus tells him he has no home to sleep in.
Jesus was heading to Jerusalem. He sent men ahead to a village in Samaria, the region between Galilee and Jerusalem, to find a place to stay. The village would not have him. So two of his closest followers, the brothers James and John, came back with an offer, and this is what they said.
And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? (Luke 9:54)
The old books had a story just like that. Elijah, a prophet, called fire down from the sky on soldiers who came for him. The last words of that verse, "even as Elias did," using the Greek form of Elijah's name, are in the King James Bible but not in the oldest copies of Luke.
Jesus turned on them.
But he turned, and rebuked them... And they went to another village. (Luke 9:55-56)
The word Luke uses is ἐπετίμησεν (epetimēsen), "he rebuked, he warned sternly." It is the same word Luke uses when Jesus rebukes a storm and when he rebukes demons. He did not gently correct his friends. He shut it down hard.
That was the old way, fire on the people who turn you away. Jesus refused it to the faces of his two closest men, and walked to the next town.
Many Bibles add more words to his answer there, about not coming to destroy lives. The oldest copies of Luke do not have them, so we do not build on them. We do not need them. The rebuke is enough.
Yes, he spoke about fire
He used the word γέεννα (geenna), Gehenna, the name of a valley outside Jerusalem where children had once been burned as offerings, which the prophet Jeremiah condemned. English Bibles usually turn it into "hell." He said it more than once. It is there.
So here are the hardest fire verses, one by one, and who he aimed them at.
The sheep and the goats
Matthew tells this in chapter 25. Just before it, Jesus tells a story about servants who were given money to use while their master was away. Just after it, at the start of chapter 26, the chief priests meet to plan how to kill him.
In the story, the Son of man gathers all the nations and splits them into two groups, the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. To the ones on his left he says the hardest words in the gospels.
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Matthew 25:41)
Here is why. Not one word of the test is about belief. Not one word is about the Sabbath, or food rules, or sacrifices, or praying in the right building. Not one rule of Moses is on the list.
They are sent away for what they did not do. He was hungry and they did not feed him. Thirsty and they gave him nothing. A stranger and they did not take him in. Sick, and in prison, and they did not come.
They are shocked. They ask him when they ever saw him hungry. He answers them.
Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. (Matthew 25:45)
So the most frightening passage in the gospels is about whether you fed anybody. The religious rules people fight over are not on the test at all.
The outsiders at the table
Matthew tells this in chapter 8. Just before it, Jesus touches and heals a man with leprosy. Just after it, he heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever.
A centurion came to Jesus. A centurion was an officer in the Roman army, the foreign army that ruled the land. He asked Jesus to heal his servant, and he said Jesus did not even need to come to his house. Jesus was amazed, and said he had not found faith like this anywhere in Israel. Then he said this.
Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. (Matthew 8:11-12)
Abraham was the father of Israel's people, Isaac was his son, and Jacob was his grandson. The ones coming from the east and the west are outsiders, people like this soldier. They get the seats at the table.
"The children of the kingdom" are the insiders, the ones sure the table was theirs because of their birth and their rules. They are the ones put outside. The darkness is aimed at the proud insiders, never at the outsiders. People use this verse the opposite way.
The king who wanted his enemies killed
Luke tells this in chapter 19. Just before it, Jesus eats at the house of Zacchaeus, a hated tax collector, and says that this man is a son of Abraham too. Just after it, Jesus rides into Jerusalem.
But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. (Luke 19:27)
That is a terrible sentence, and it is a line in a story. The man speaking is a nobleman in the story. He went to a far country to be made king, and came home angry at the people who did not want him. Luke tells us why Jesus told it. They were near Jerusalem, and the crowd thought God's kingdom was going to appear right then, in power. Jesus described what kings of this world do when they get power.
Then there is what Jesus did when he had his own chance. A few days later, in Luke chapter 22, armed men came at night to arrest him. One of his followers drew a sword and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant. Jesus told him to stop.
And he touched his ear, and healed him. (Luke 22:51)
He healed a man who came to take him to his death. That is the king he was.
What the fire is never about
It is never about being an outsider. Every time he sorts people, outsiders come in and proud insiders lose the seat they thought was theirs.
It is never about keeping religious rules. In the one long passage where he lays out the whole judgment, the test is food, water, welcome, clothes, and visiting someone in prison.
And it is never something he lets anyone carry out. When his two closest friends offered to burn a town, using the old prophet's example, he rebuked them.
If you were frightened as a child
If somebody used these verses on you when you were small, here is the truth.
The picture you were given, the pit and the endless burning and a God waiting for you to break one rule, was built over hundreds of years out of paintings, poems, and sermons. It was not what he taught.
What he taught is plain. The judgment is about whether you fed anybody. The darkness falls on the proud insiders. And when he had a real chance to burn a village that had turned him away, he rebuked the men who asked.
So here is something for today. Do one thing on his list. Feed someone, give someone a drink, or visit someone who is sick or alone. That is the whole test, and you can pass it before dinner.