Division and Conflict

Gospel Luke 12. 49-53

When the Gospel is announced the reader says

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to N.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Not Peace but Division

⁴⁹ I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!

⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.

⁵² From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.

⁵³ They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Fire and water – two most destructive elements. Paraffin on stove. Paper warehouse in Liverpool. Exploding incinerator. Water in house – leaking pipes, blocked gutters, flat roofs.

Yet here is Jesus talking of fire and water as desirable. He has come to bring fire on earth. How I wish it were already kindled he says. And about the baptism he will undergo how distressed I am until it is completed.

The baptism might of course be through water, but I suspect he is here referring to a baptism of fire. Does Jesus want to bring fire, division and conflict as this passage seems to imply? No – but what he is saying is that these things are a likely consequence of his life here on earth. Like us, whenever a painful and distressing experience lies in the future, we are keen to get it over with and not allow it to hang over our heads.

The words of today’s gospel reading were addressed to the disciples, not to the crowds or to religious authorities. So Jesus is reflecting on his own fate, and he is probably more prepared to be honest about his feelings in front of his friends, black though they are, than he would be in public.

I expect, like me, you will find it odd that Jesus speaks in this way, especially as all this talk about division and conflict runs counter to so much of what he preached about love, peace and harmony. But clearly Jesus was aware it was not love and peace that awaited him, nor will the end times and the last judgement be so for many. You only have to read Revelation and some of the apocalyptic literature in the Old Testament for that.

For Christians, persecution may come, but the baptism of fire is baptism by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus’ suffering and death brings about our own atonement, as we discovered last week, so that we may know pardon and peace both now and in the world to come. Amen