Fire, Baptism, and Division

13^th Sunday after Pentecost (Ordinary Time/UM Kingdomtide), C

August 18, 2013

Luke 12:49-56

Introduction

Today’s Gospel reading is difficult to understand and to accept. It talks about Jesus wishing to bring fire on earth and bringing not peace but division. It walks about families divided against themselves and knowing the signs of the times.

Excursus: The use of a lectionary. It is often too easy to ignore or to avoid these texts altogether. It is often the charge of those who prefer to choose preaching topics according to the “felt needs” of the church that those who follow a systematic schedule like a lectionary are “legalistic” or even “boring”. They argue the preachers should be “free” to choose topics and texts that are “relevant” to the present time.

But I argue: the “freedom” to choose topics and texts may ironically be more restrictive than using a lectionary. Those who choose “relevant” topics may be in the tyranny of the immediate. This often leads to eisegesis, the reading of meaning into a text—often something that one wants. The use of a lectionary, however, can be a liberating practice: One does not have to flip through a concordance in a desperate search for a text.

Another advantage of using a lectionary is that it inculcates the discipline of study. There are times that the scheduled lections are difficult to understand or to accept. This forces the preacher to sit down and actually study the text. Studying a text makes the preacher look for meaning from the text—which is called exegesis.

Finally, using a lectionary forces everyone—lay and clergy—to confront difficult texts which would be otherwise ignored or avoided. This is (in the words of Al Gore) an “inconvenient truth”—in which we are judged by the Word of God itself.

I. I am come to send to send fire on the earth. (Luke 12:49)

In the Gospels, there are twenty-nine (29) verses that contain the word “fire” and in almost all instances this refers to the judgment of God or of Jesus. For example, St. John the Baptist says of the Messiah,

…whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Luke 3:17)

However John Wesley, in his Notes Upon the New Testament, takes a different view: “To spread the fire of heavenly love over all the earth.”

At first glance, judgment and love seem to be mutually exclusive; until we remember that both are attributes of God himself. One of the ways he expresses his love is through judgment. He punishes evil because it is ultimately destructive to those he loves. If God allows evil run free on the earth, that is not love; that is negligence.

II. But I have a baptism to be baptized with: and how am I strained till it be accomplished! (Luke 12:50)

The Gospels contain two instances where Jesus referred to his passion and death as his “baptism”, as he said to the disciples John and James:

Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? (Mark 10:38)

Jesus also uses the word “cup” to describe the suffering the he will (soon) experience: On the night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed at Gethsemane: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my wll, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

The ‘Sons of Thunder” answered’ “We can” (Luke 10:39), out of empty bravado. Later, when Jesus was arrested, all of them ran away: “Then they all forsook him and fled” (Mark 14:50). But Jesus did not waver from his mission:

…Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1c-2)

The message of Jesus’ suffering and death is a very uncomfortable truth. Perhaps the disciples did not want it to happen. (Peter told Jesus, “Favour thyself, Lord: this shall in no wise be unto thee”—Matthew 16:22.) But Jesus did not let this hinder him: “For the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

III. Suppose ye that I am come to send peace upon earth? I tell you, Nay, but rather division. (Luke 12:51)

Jesus continues by talking about the divisions within the most intimate human relationships, the family: Father versus son; mother versus daughter; mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law (vv. 52-23).

Does this make Jesus a divider of families? John Wesley writes, “There being an irreconcilable enmity between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of the world.” Wesley further explains that those who reject Jesus “will be implacable toward their very nearest relations who receive” him. Wesley concludes: “Now likewise there is no concord between Christ and Belial.”

Christians always strive for a harmonious family life. But the truth is that there are times when there are family member who give their lives to Christ while others don’t. And this can cause enmity within the family, because members who are Christians no longer share the worldly values that the non-believing members do. There may be a temptation to just give in to family pressure just to maintain quiet in the family. But when it comes to a choice between loyalty to Christ and loyalty to family, for the Christian, loyalty to Christ comes first.

Conclusion: Signs of the times (Luke 12:54-56)

Jesus ends with a saying about knowing the signs of the times. Those living in Judea in those days (as Wesley explains) know that when clouds rise from the west, i.e., the Mediterranean, it brings heavy showers, and it is so (v. 54). They also know that when the south wind is blowing, which comes from the deserts of Arabia, there will be sultry heat, and it is so (v. 55). Jesus rebukes the people (not just his disciples) that although they can discern earthly signs (like predicting the weather), they could not discern that the Messiah has come.

Even today, many people, Christians, think that the coming of the Messiah means the coming of material prosperity. But the “inconvenient truth” is that the coming of Jesus does not always mean the coming of blessings. It also means the coming of judgment, of suffering, even of division between close relations.

In the end, Jesus said, “Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?” (v. 57). Are we to do what is convenient or are we to judge what is right?

Image courtesy of Misioneros Sagrada Corazon de Peru.