Luke 12: Fire, Baptism, Division

This is a really hard text to listen to and to take on board today.  What has happened to Jesus, our Prince of Peace?  

As we approach the gospel, it may help if we remember that history is written backwards; sermons are written forwards. 

Luke’s history of Jesus’ mission and ministry is no exception to this rule. It was written backwards.  Luke took the traditions he had inherited and added material from his own unique sources to produce a story of Jesus that made sense of his community’s experience. The realities and concerns that occupied his community — issues of wealth and poverty, the delay of Jesus’ return, imperial power and its injustices, concerns about the orderly transition of apostolic authority, and more — all of these things influenced how Luke thought of Jesus and how he wrote about Jesus.  History — all history, including gospel history — is written backwards, shaped by the concrete circumstances and realities of the historian and his or her community. 

Sermons are also shaped by the circumstances of the preacher and the community for whom they are written.  When Graham and I are writing our sermons we are always imagining how you might hear what we have to say.  However, sermons, are written forwards. As interesting as the historical context and background of the biblical text may be, the more pressing question is not the past of the text but its future. What is the text saying to us today?  What might this text say to us about our life in faith and in the world? How will this passage shape our view of God, ourselves, and our neighbour? How will this passage affect us? What will it do to us? History is written backwards; sermons forwards. 

I raise these considerations because the passage before us is complex and difficult. The first thing to note is that at times Jesus appears to be talking to the disciples and at other times to the crowds.  This change of audience shifts backwards and forwards. Given these repeated shifts in audience between the disciples and the crowds throughout this section of Luke’s narrative, it is likely we have multiple distinct recollections of Jesus’ ministry spliced together, either by Luke or by one of his sources. Similarly, Jesus’ comments seem to slide between references to his immediate mission and fate and a more distant reality to do with judgement and the final destiny of the human soul.  If this is not confusing enough, Jesus’ message about bringing division rather than peace feels counter-intuitive, if not downright contradictory to most of his other preaching.  What are we to do with this? 

In order to get to grips with this passage, I suggest that we first attend to how Jesus’ describes his mission. Jesus says he has come to bring fire, to be baptized, and to bring division. 

Fire, Baptism, Division — Oh, My! 

The image of fire appears in the Bible as having differing purposes.  It can represent the presence of God — think of the pillar of fire in Exodus (13:17-22) and the tongues of flame at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). It can also represent end of the world judgment — in Revelation, Satan and his army are consumed by fire (20:7-10). Fire also represents purification — the Old Testament prophets, Zachariah (13:9) and Malachi (3:2-3) each refer to God’s intention to purify Israel as a refiner purifies silver by fire.  Jesus and his ministry can be seen in all these ways. Jesus, as Simeon foresaw at Jesus’ birth, not only represents God’s prepared salvation (2:30-31), but also “is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inward thoughts of many will be revealed” (2:34-35). Jesus embodies the presence of God which simultaneously judges and purifies. 

Baptism also is used in the New Testament to represent both judgment and purification and was connected with fire by John the Baptist when John said whereas he, John, only baptised with water, Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire (3:16-17). Jesus is referring here, however, not to the baptism he brings but to the one he is soon to receive – the baptism of his death. In this context, the baptism of which Jesus speaks seems clearly to be an allusion to the cross, an event that dominated every moment of his mission. Strikingly, the One who embodies the presence of God, Jesus, is not simply meting out the fire of judgment and purification, he also bears it himself. 

The division of which Jesus speaks is a result of the purifying fire he bears. The kingdom of God Jesus proclaims represents a new order governed not by might but by forgiveness, not by fear but by courage, and not by power but by humility.  

It is at this point that Luke’s time and ours come together.  Those invested in the present order in Luke’s time and in ours; those lured by the temptations of wealth, status, and power; and those who rule now, will resist this coming kingdom, which Jesus proclaims, for it spells an end to what they know and love and have built their lives upon. Hence Jesus — though coming to establish a rule of peace — brings division, even to the most intimate and honoured of relationships, that among family. 

So, there we have it - baptism, fire and division – Oh My! 

But we have not finished, for we have the weather forecast still to come.  The weather forecast then and now. 

In the second half of this week’s gospel Jesus chastens the crowds for not recognizing the signs he bears. Like dark clouds or a dry wind, the teaching and acts of mercy he performs indicate what will come. Jesus is born for one thing: to herald the coming kingdom of God, and to establish this kingdom he will raise neither banner nor sword but instead hang on the cross, the vulnerable insignia of God’s new reign. Those who recognize the signs and choose to follow him will not only need to forsake the trappings of power that adorn the lords of the present kingdom, but can also expect resistance, even opposition. 

But if Jesus’ call to a new way of relating to each other — via forgiveness, courage, and humility — stirred up division during his time and that of the early church, what does it bring today? While Christians in some parts of the world continue to face grim and frightening opposition, Christians in the western world are asked to give up very little for the sake of their faith. How, then, do we hear Jesus’ pronouncement that he brings fire and division rather than peace? 

To answer this question, Jesus invites us to discern the signs of our times: what elements of our lives hinder our service to the God of the lowly and powerless?  Where are we careless of God’s creation?  Where do we turn away?  In earlier passages from Luke, wealth, a lack of faith, fear, and a desire to put oneself first all presented themselves as potential distractions from the way of Christ. What are our distractions? 

This is a hard reading, but I do not think that Luke wrote this passage to make us afraid.  He wrote it to make us wake up.  This journey with Jesus is a serious undertaking.  This gospel changes lives and it should change ours – and some people we know are not going to feel very comfortable about that.   If we fear undergoing this baptism by fire, we might take comfort in the simple yet stark fact the Lord who comes to baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit (pretty wonderful things) first embraced his own baptism.  Jesus experienced harm that we might know healing.  Jesus underwent judgment so that we might know pardon.  Jesus suffered death that we might know life, both now and in the world to come. Thus, looking backward to Jesus and his baptism, we find the courage to look forward to discern the signs and challenges of our own times, joining our hopes and fears to those of Christians throughout the centuries by praying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”