Jesus: The Source of Division
Luke 12:49-53
49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, 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 her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
The baptism that Jesus refers to in vs. 50 is his death on the cross, and we again get a sense of the tension that filled his life, “what stress I am under until it is completed!” We are reminded again of the fact that Jesus fully aware that there is a painful showdown coming. It is also a reminder that Jesus was fully human, and knew what it was to live with extreme stress.
The rest of the words in the passage are frightening. How do they fit with Jesus preaching about peace and love?
In a world where force (both physical and verbal) and coercion (both mental and material) are the ways governments and structures and even people use and hold on to their power, to speak of greatness meaning servanthood and to declare that humility is the path of leadership, produces anger. To forgive the violent and the hurtful, produces division. Showing love to enemies produces conflict because this is not how things are supposed to happen. Living the Jesus way will mean conflict because the Jesus way confronts and challenges the patterns of this world with their failure and inherent weakness.
Jesus has already stated he is building a new family, a family made up of those who live by God’s word (see Luke 8:21, 11:28). So as people turn to following the Jesus way, and they find their place of security eroding away, there is a new place, a new home, a new family for them to go to. The divisions will take place, but the followers of Jesus will never be alone. If our following Jesus produces conflict in our families and circle of friends – Jesus says the church is ready to be our family.
PRAYER:
God of grace, we are nervous about the cost involved in following you. We worry about whether we can be faithful in such circumstances. Remind us anew that you will hold us fast and provide us with a new family even as tension and disagreement and anger exist all around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.