St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
19 August 2007
Luke 12:49-56

I wonder how many of you are now sitting there, thinking, “I’ll bet he is going to preach on one of the other lessons.” No, we are going to address the Gospel lesson today. It is interesting when I go into homes, I am always quick to notice when people have scripture lessons cross-stitched on various things. I always like to see the 23 rd Psalm, or John 3:16, or the Psalm I mentioned last week, ‘This is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.’ You know in all the homes I have ever been in, I have never seen this Gospel passage cross-stitched on anything! It is not in our home either.

What I want to do today is a straightforward teaching. I want us to try to make some sense of this as best we can. So, let’s do that for a few minutes. I remind you that once again this is part of the travel narrative. This is a part of a series of lessons we have had recently. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. That is very important to understanding the context of this kind of language. Jesus knows that his days are numbered. He is on his way to Jerusalem, and he knows what is going to happen there - - that he is going to be given over to the hands of the Romans, and, ultimately, be killed. He, also, has said he will be raised on the third day, but he knows that his followers don’t understand that. So, I say that simply to say that there is an urgency in what Jesus is doing here. He’s got a reason to be very focused and very driven as to what he is trying to teach people at this time in history, because he knows he doesn’t have many more days with them in his earthly ministry.

So, let’s go through this. Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” Scholars, specialists in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, agree that fire is a symbol for judgment. The fire here represents judgment. Now judgment doesn’t necessarily mean condemnation. We have to be careful about that. Judgment is not necessarily a bad thing, because one can choose to make the right decision, and survive the judgment. So, when Jesus says, “I want to bring fire to the earth. I have come to bring fire, and how I wish it were already kindled,” this isn’t a condemnatory statement. What he is implying here is, “People have to decide about me. People have been looking for the Messiah for generations, and I am He.” So, this is what people have been waiting on. Now, the question is, How will they decide? Will people recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One? Or, will they think he is a deluded rabbi - - deluding himself into believing that he is the Son of God? I would suggest to you that this imaginary here isn’t meant to imply condemnation necessarily, but judgment implies a choice. If there is going to be a judgment down the line, we have to choose how we will respond to that. I would humbly suggest that is what Jesus intended here. He knows he is controversial, but he also knows he is offering people the love of God - - and he wishes they would accept it from him.

The next sentence is, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” I think most of us, when we hear the word baptism, think of sacramental baptism. We think of the priest being back at the font baptizing someone. It is a perfectly normal thought. But, the Greek word here for baptized simply means to immerse. The word that gets translated baptized in the New Testament existed before Christianity. The Christian church took over the Greek word for ‘to immerse’. I am going to tell you something. As a former Baptist, I have to say this. Our Baptist friends have a point. The word baptized, in Greek, literally means to immerse. And, indeed, over time, more and more Episcopal Churches are being built with baptisteries, because we know that is the meaning of the word. So, what I am suggesting here is that this doesn’t mean sacramental baptism the way we think of it. Jesus is going to be immersed in the activities in Jerusalem. He is going to have to go through this incredible event he can anticipate in his mind. So, it is going to be a baptism. He is going to be immersed. Ever so often in our parlance we say, “I am covered up. I can’t do that right now. I am covered up.” Jesus knows that he is going to be ‘covered up’ when he gets to Jerusalem. He is going to be immersed in all of this frenzy of activity, and so, Jesus is saying, “I know what is on the way to happening. I am under great stress until it happens, and, in a way, I wish it were already done.” This is what I humbly submit that Jesus is saying here. He is acknowledging that he is on his way to Jerusalem to offer himself up as a sacrifice for human sin.

The longer portion of the passage is the one I think that most people are troubled by, because it is so memorable, and it goes against the grain of what we think about Jesus. “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 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.” We think of Jesus as the Prince of Peace, and, at other points in the Gospel, Jesus does clearly bring peace. There can be no question that Jesus brings peace. He offers peace. So this goes against that grain. But, what is really happening here? Let’s go back to the first part of this passage. “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”

The reality is that some people were accepting Jesus’ message and some were not. Jesus knew that. So, Jesus, here, I think is simply acknowledging there are people who don’t accept who I am, and it causes division. It causes division in a family. Jesus knows that. He doesn’t intend to create division, but, indeed, it happens. If I say, in our modern day language, “There is trouble on the horizon,’’ that doesn’t mean that I want there to be trouble on the horizon. That doesn’t mean that I relish the fact that there is trouble on the horizon. But, I am acknowledging that there is trouble on the horizon. I submit that is what is happening here. Jesus wants everyone to accept his message. He wants everyone to be united. But he knows they won’t be, because there will always be people who reject his offer of God’s love. He talks about that a little bit later in the passage.

Let’s move on. “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens.” This is a simple, realistic reference here. The Mediterranean Sea is to the west of Galilee in Palestine. It is to the west of what we call the Holy Land. In that part of the world that is where the rain always comes from. Clouds gather up over the Mediterranean, and then they move east and rain in the Holy Land. Jesus is saying, “When you see a cloud in the west, you know that it is going to rain.” Then he says, “And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat’; and it happens.” The Arabian Peninsula is south of the Holy Land, so when these desert winds blow up from Arabia, that is when it gets scorchingly hot in what we now call Israel. People knew that then, just like they know it now. They knew which direction the wind was coming from. So, Jesus says, “You can tell when it is going to rain. When the wind blows from the south, you know it is going to be very hot.” Then he concludes, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Here is what I want to conclude with. This passage isn’t meant to be obtuse. I will grant you that it is not the easiest passage to interpret at face value. I don’t know any one who would say, “Oh, this is my favorite passage in all of Scripture.” Maybe it is, but I don’t know any one who feels that way. But, we can make sense of this if we step back and look at it very carefully. What Jesus is saying to the people is, “You can tell when it is going to rain. You can tell when it is going to be hot. You have the Son of God standing right in front of you, and you don’t see it.” That is the point of this passage. There is division, not because he wants it, but because people don’t understand, and won’t accept who he is. Jesus doesn’t want families to be divided, but they are. Because, some admit, “You are the Christ”, and others just can’t bring themselves to say, “He is the one.” Then, when he uses this very simple example of the weather, he is saying, “You can see the clouds, and know that it is going to rain. You can feel the wind, and know that it is going to be hot. I am right here with you, and you still won’t believe.” He is frustrated. That is what I said earlier about context. Context is so important here. Jesus knows that he is on his way to Jerusalem. He knows that he will be killed there. And, while he is with these crowds, he would love for them to accept his love, to allow his love and peace to flow into their hearts, and they are not doing it - - not everybody anyway. That is where the urgency comes from. “You know when it is going to rain. You know when it is going to be hot. I wish you would see what is standing right in front of you,” says Jesus the Son of God, offering God’s love, “And you won’t accept it.”