The scriptures referred to are Luke 12:49-56.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our 32nd president, chose Harry S. Truman as his running mate in 1944 because Truman had made a reputation as a senator for going after waste and inefficiency in military contracts during World War II. When Roosevelt died less than 3 months after being inaugurated into his 4th term, Truman became president and oversaw the end of the war. During his re-election campaign in 1948 he delivered a fiery speech attacking his opponents. One of his supporters yelled, “Give 'em hell, Harry!” Truman replied, “I don't give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell.” People liked Truman for telling the truth, even if it was uncomfortable.
While complete honesty has long been a human ideal, it's rarely practiced. We've tried to enshrine it in law, making manufacturers put all the ingredients on food packaging, making phone companies delineate all their charges on our bill, having internet platforms disclose what information about you they collect and to whom they sell it. And yet companies still try to wiggle out of letting you know precisely what they are up to. And financial institutions have fought tooth and nail to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent government agency that has saved consumers $20 billion through its enforcement actions in the 14 years since it was established. Now that lawmakers have tried to defund it, we are probably going to see less action on the more than 2 million complaints that it received last year alone about deceptive business practices and financial scams. Imagine having to be honest and tell people that your business is going to try to rob or exploit them! Outrageous!
So what are we to make of what Jesus says in today's gospel? He is talking about how he will divide families. We know that religion can do that. A child from a non-religious family will become born again or a person raised as a Christian will become a Buddhist and the rest of the family will not take it well. In extreme cases they may disown the person. In Muslim or Hindu countries, the family may even kill one of their own if they convert to Christianity. Why would Jesus draw attention to this? And why does he seem to be endorsing it?
The answer to the first question is that this is an example of Jesus' radical honesty. Usually if you want to persuade people to buy your product or hire your company or join your movement, you highlight the benefits and stay away from any of its liabilities, like the companies who oppose full disclosure. It's harder to convince people to do something if you admit that there are any negative consequences, especially serious ones. As a former copywriter, I would find it a challenge to write a TV ad for a prescription drug these days. By law they have to mention major side effects, adverse reactions and interactions with other drugs. That's why they have to include a long litany of reasons you might not want to try it. Some even mention death as an adverse effect! But it's better to find out that it can cause other health problems before you take it.
So Jesus is admitting upfront that following him is a choice that will divide people. But why is he bringing this up at all? Well, in the previous chapters of Luke we have seen Jesus under attack from the Pharisees. He casts out a demon and they say he has done it by the power of Satan. (Luke 11:14-23) He dines and they criticize the fact that he didn't wash his hands in the proper ritual way. (Luke 11: 37-41) Even after a scribe admits to the centrality of the two great commandments, he seeks to limit whom he has to consider his neighbor. (Luke 10: 25-37) Finally Jesus tells them off. (Luke 11:42-54) And in our passage Jesus acknowledges that even his message of love, forgiveness, and justice—things you'd think everyone would approve of—will cause people to take sides.
We see this today. Christianity encompasses a wide range of activities and subcultures offering an enormous variety of forms of worship, devotional practices, music, prayers, charities, ministries, issues and denominations. And often these things become more important to some people than the whole or even the core of the faith: Jesus. That's one factor at play when people who supposedly follow the one who is God's Love Incarnate nevertheless do hateful things to other people, including other Christians. People get so obsessed with certain details, practices or political positions that they lose sight of what is distinctive about Christian ethics and act like any other partisan of any other ideology. They get defensive. If they are dominant, they seek to suppress other groups. If instead they are a minority, they withdraw from mainstream culture. In either case, they can turn to violence despite what Jesus said about loving both neighbors and enemies and turning the other cheek and treating others as you wish to be treated. (Luke 6:27-31) For instance, empathy—understanding and sharing the feelings of others, something Jesus does (Hebrews 4:15)—is called by some modern day Pharisees toxic or a sin. What's the opposite of empathy? Being merciless, callous, ruthless and unfeeling. Jesus saw this hatred developing in those who opposed his ministry and he knew how it would end. So he tells it like it is.
OK, fair enough. Jesus is merely describing what would happen anyway as a reaction to his mission. Why does he say, “I have come to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled?” This sounds as if Jesus is looking forward to the conflict and strife. Plus his use of the word “fire” sounds, well, inflammatory! He sounds like the kind of fanatic who might be preaching sectarian violence today. How do we reconcile this with the man who rebuked Peter for wielding a sword at his arrest and who then healed the man whose ear Peter cut off? Jesus' last recorded healing is that of an enemy. (Matthew 26:51-52; Luke 22:50-51)
First we need to look at the way the Bible uses the word “fire.” Since we live in a world where we rarely use open flames anymore, we tend to see fire as a danger to be avoided. But in the past fire was seen primarily as a boon to humanity. The Greek told the myth of how Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. Fire not only allowed us to cook food and make it more digestible, and to light our ways and heat our homes, it also made the refining of metals possible. This led to harder tools and purer decorative metals like gold. And it is often in the sense of refining that fire is associated with God. God burns away the dross in our lives, leaving us purer, stronger and longer lasting. Jesus is not looking forward to the destruction of the world but to its refinement.
But he knew it would be painful. He goes on to say, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized and what stress I am under until it is completed.” His baptism by fire is his coming crucifixion, of course. He will suffer the consequences of our sins. He will undergo the heat of the crucible, the vessel which is put in the refiner's fire.
But why would he want this to happen? If we look at these two verses, we can see that they are an example of classic Hebrew poetic parallelism. Listen to how they sound:
“I have come to cast fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!
I have a baptism I must undergo and how stressed I am until it is finished!”
The casting of fire parallels his baptism by fire. His wishing the fire was started parallels the stress he is under until it is completed. He doesn't want to undergo this ordeal, as we see in his prayer at Gethsemane. (Luke 22:42) But knowing that he must go through it, the sooner it starts, the sooner it will be over. The anticipation is unbearable. Like a patient facing major surgery, he is looking at the pain and suffering and saying, “OK, let's get this done!”
One last observation: the word Jesus uses when he says he wishes his baptism by fire was over is the same word he says from the cross when he dies: “It is finished.” (John 19:30) His ordeal was done. And what he wished to accomplish by it was achieved: atonement for our sins, our reconciliation with God, a new covenant of peace, freedom for those held captive by evil, and the establishment of the kingdom of God.
The fire that Jesus wished to bring upon the earth was not the raging, destructive fire of hate but that of burning love. It is the fire that warms and enlightens and provides nourishment. It is the refining fire of God, the fire that strengthens and purifies us. It is a good thing. Knowing that, you'd think that getting people to sign on would be a no-brainer.
Sad to say, that is not true of all people. Some folks value other things more than love and peace and enlightenment. They put their culture, their form of worship, their tribe or ethnicity or country or social class or party ahead of peace. They value these things more than family, which they let be torn apart. Jesus told us it would happen and it did. It is happening. Jesus wasn't happy about it but he wasn't in denial about it. He made a full disclosure. In another place, he tells his disciples that he is sending them out as sheep among wolves. (Luke 10:3) He is not telling them to create divisions. Those will just happen inevitably when the gospel starts spreading like wildfire, making disciples. When folks take Jesus to heart, others will be alarmed and react.
As Christians we are called to love God and love those created in his image. We are called to act justly, to be ready to forgive, to work towards reconciliation, to heal, to teach, to comfort the afflicted and, at times, to afflict the comfortable. But as we are seeing in Gaza and in the Ukraine, where hospitals are bombed and people seeking food are shot, there are those who find even people who heal and help others threatening. And how are we to respond? What did Jesus command us to do to those who oppose him? Love them. Love our enemies. Pray for those who persecute us. Repay evil with good. They have no defense against the unquenchable, spreading, bright and burning love of God.
This was originally preached on August 15, 2010. It has been updated and revised.
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