Very good.
But something I didn’t notice until just now is exactly how dripping with irony this story is from every angle.
Everyone thought he was the Messiah come to not only set Israel free from her oppressors, but establish her as the world’s capital with every nation subservient to her.
The Jews thought he was come to be their military hero. The Samaritans would have nothing to do with it because they thought that this was exactly his intention, and that perhaps he was planning on making them subservient to the Jews in the process (though their previous encounter with him was nothing but liberating). The Pharisees, of course, desired their independence to follow their religion as they saw fit, and hoped for a Messiah, but not one that so contradicted their beliefs (across all the parties, too!) They were ready to kill him since they saw that he was disturbing their own grip on the people. Thus Jesus was not going to stir up a revolution against the Empire but to become their and our sacrifice, but no one understood this!
Why Jesus didn’t immediately clear this up and just preach his own otherworldly kingdom instead, I still do not know for sure; perhaps they merely would not have understood, or perhaps what they needed was more of a gradual guidance away from political conviction into neighborly love instead, and a mere explicit statement would’ve disturbed their spiritual growth. I do not know, but I do remember a quote from Oswald Chambers where he says that Jesus left mistakes to correct themselves.
In any case, the disciples felt that these Samaritans were worthy of fire from heaven because they, apparently like the priests of Baal of long ago, were rebelling against the God of Israel in not submitting to her Messiah. Their understanding of the matter was farrrrr off, however, which is a big part of why Jesus said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.” That is, a spirit of political division and self-righteousness.
Today’s Pharisees are most definitely political in nature, and I think it should be obvious to everyone that they are self-righteous. This would perhaps be akin to believers today asking Jesus if he wanted to rain hell-fire and brimstone on a homosexual district! And these were some of the Master of love and peace’s not only closest disciples but closest friends on earth! What an upsetting idea. But how like that many of us have been - all of us, at some point or another, if we’re honest. If we haven’t been tainted by the world in some way, then we have never left the realm of mere innocence.