Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, 08/19/2007

Sermon on Luke 12:49-56, by Hubert Beck

[Jesus said to his disciples], "I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five 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."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.' And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,' and it happens. 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?" (ESV)

HARD WORDS FOR A CRITICAL TIME

Contemporary literature is quite regularly permeated with inquisitions into and information about the "inner life" of the subject. It is important to psychoanalyze, scrutinize and examine motives, hang-ups, intentions, purposes, goals, objectives, drives, neuroses, malfunctions, disfunctions and who knows what else about the person / people concerning whom the literature is interested. It isn't enough to write about a person, but it is important to know why a person does what one does, what kind of special hopes and goals, earlier trauma and recent experiences have shaped and formed the present moment, the actions recorded or the failures that haunt the person.

Perhaps that is one reason why Jesus remains such a mystery to so many contemporary readers, for only on rare occasions do we get even the faintest glimpse of such an "inner life" of Jesus. What kind of emotions does he have? What kind of personal and hidden feelings lie behind the things that he does and says? It is true that these feelings are mentioned on occasion, to be sure. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd," Matthew tells us. (Matt. 9:36) At the death of Lazarus we read, "When Jesus saw her [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled . . . Jesus wept . . . Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb." (John 11:33, 35, 38) "Jesus was troubled in his spirit," John says of Jesus on the evening of his betrayal. (John 13:21) "Being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground," Luke tells us. (Luke 22:44) John is so bold, in fact, as to speak of himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." (John 13:23) In these ways we get glimpses of Jesus' "inner life," but only glimpses. .

Such moments are rare in the gospel narratives, though. Those accounts tell of his words and his actions - hardly ever of his motives or his feelings or his emotions presented as a way to "understand" Jesus. It is clear that he has a goal - the cross. It is clear that he has an intense commitment - the performance of the Father's will. His internal life, however, is of little interest to the writers. They are not writing biographies to explore the interior of their subject. These are confessional writings. They tell of what Jesus did in faithfully enacting the Father's will. They tell of what Jesus said as expressions of the divine will and who he was and how he interpreted the events, the people, the world around him. They speak of his drive toward the cross, refusing to be side-tracked by anything along the way. But, in spite of recording actions resulting from his obvious anger at those who spoke or acted contrary to the word and will of the Father, they are not interested in how he felt about the people and events he encountered.

AN OBVIOUS DISTRESS - FOR JESUS AND US BOTH!

That is what causes the simple phrase "How great is my distress until it is accomplished!" in today's text to stand out in a virtually dazzling commentary on both "the baptism" he is to be baptized with and "the fire" that he has come to cast on the earth. He is impatient to get on with what he came to do on earth! He recognizes that it will not be easy. He is "distressed," recognizing how hard the road ahead is. He also knows, however, that it is necessary to travel this road, for the fire must be kindled if his life is to give rise to its intended meaning. This, too, is a "distress" that he bears. And he knows that when the fire is kindled and his baptism is completed, it will become a fulcrum for division on the earth. "Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division."

Surely the reader of this text must be completely distressed also! It seems to fly in the face of everything the pious follower of Jesus generally fabricates about this man. We do, you know, manufacture many inventions about Jesus. He is a gentle, mild-mannered, generous, kindly, even-tempered, loving and lovable, intense (but in a nice way, of course), courteous, compassionate, sympathetic, benevolent man devoted to righting the wrongs of this world. He does go through some hard times and his death is a really, really tortured one, but by and large he is the kind who knows and understands our human foibles. He gathers the poor, the sick, the troubled, the outsiders, those who are discarded by society in general and incorporates them into a nice little family where peace reigns, forgiveness is an everyday experience and all live happily ever after (except for those meanies who don't really catch on to who Jesus is and therefore end up killing him). But he trumps the whole mess created by his enemies by rising again from the dead! So there, you enemies! Put that in your hat and eat it!

Well, perhaps that is a bit overdrawn, but I say it to get perspective on what is happening in the text. The Jesus we frequently invent with all the niceties that we fabricate about him stands shattered in our text - and in much of the chapter around the text, the exception being the "do not be anxious" section in verses 22-32. The chapter is filled with "hard sayings," as they are frequently called, that issue from the lips of our Lord. We know, of course, how to "tame them down" to make them palatable and to assure ourselves that we are in synch with them. So we often do not give too much attention to them lest they "mess around" with our pious impressions and pre-suppositions.

But we cannot tame the words of the text! "I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." Try taming those words down and you gut them of their power!

THE FIRE JESUS CASTS ON THE EARTH

So what is this fire that Jesus is casting on the earth? Jesus never defines it. He just says he is casting it. Therefore we have something of an "open metaphor" to work with when we read his words, although it is clear that however we define it, the fire must have something to do with the one who is casting it. And there is a variety of possibilities that open before us.

Fire is an image commonly used in the Bible for judgment. "Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" asks the Lord in the First Lesson taken from Jeremiah. (ch. 23:29) Jeremiah makes clear that the false prophets would receive their come-uppance from the Lord for their misleading words to the people. From the very beginning of his prophetic ministry Jeremiah warned Israel to repent of its ways "lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." (Jeremiah 4:4b)

When Jesus says that he came to cast fire on the earth, is he not telling us that he comes to pass judgment on the rebelliousness of this world? Surely he is saying that he comes to burn up all the false hopes the world has raised for itself from within its own heart. Jesus' presence is an explosive presence, touching the match to the fireworks that will shower the whole earth with a destroying power that lays to rest any self-confidence in its own ways as though worldly wisdom or power could ever set things right. He casts the fire of destruction over all the aspirations and expectations that arise from within the world, leaving them nowhere to turn other than to the one from whom they came and to whom they go. Mary anticipates this upheaval, this fire that will come with the presence of Jesus, when she says, "He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away." (Luke 1:51-53) John brings the great conflict between God and Satan to an end with fire, saying in a climactic passage in the book of the Revelation to St. John, "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:14, 15) This image of fire is a powerful one, is it not?

Yet another aspect of fire, however, is this - it brings light into darkness. Elementary though that image may be, it is a very significant one.

Jesus, "casting fire on the earth," throws light on the very presence of the God who has sent his Son into the world - and of the Son who came into the world on behalf of the world - and of the Holy Spirit who reveals who the Son truly is. The fire Jesus casts on the earth is the revelation that God has not forsaken this wayward world. God continues not only to remember it, but also to stand by it and for it at precisely the point where those of us who are in this self-willed world, when completely honest with ourselves, would think that God had - or at least should have - cast it off. Instead he casts the light of his presence in it and for it! John the Baptizer used this image at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry when at Jesus' baptism John said, "I baptize you with water, but . . . he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Luke 3:16) The fire that Jesus brings does all that! Just as the children of Israel were led out of Egypt by a pillar of fire by night, so Jesus comes to lead us out of captivity into freedom from the slavery of sin. That is a powerful image all its own.

This judgment on the ways of the world along with the revealing of God's presence in the world carries with it another aspect of the fire, however. The judgment on the sins of the world brings with it on its backside the judgment of God's good will for us. When he reveals the hopelessness of the world with the fire of judgment he also brings with it a purification of the world through God's self-sacrificing presence in it. This, too, is a work of fire - to purify the ore that is smelted within it. The fire that Jesus says he will cast on the earth is a fire of purification, a fire that will remove the very obnoxious stuff that raises a terrible stench in the nostrils of the Father. This cleansing fire carries with it the promise of a new way of life to replace that which was destroyed by the fire. The climactic statement quoted above from the Revelation to St. John is followed immediately by this one: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people." (Rev. 21:1-3)

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS' DEATH

Here we see deeply into that which Jesus is so distressed about "until it is accomplished." The "baptism with which he is to be baptized" is his death. He uses this imagery at other times also. When James and John "jockey for position" when Jesus comes into his kingdom Jesus asks them, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" (Mark 10:38) This "baptism Jesus is to be baptized with" will be a most difficult and agonized path of anguish and suffering - and Jesus can already feel its opening pangs throughout his ministry. "How great is my distress until it is accomplished." The tension mounts. The stress becomes almost unbearable. The torment is felt long before the whip lashes or the crown of thorns or the nails pounded into the cross. As Jesus looks about him he sees those for whom he must endure all this. He experiences a world fallen to such depths that only the death of God's Son can turn the course of the world back into the paths of God. He is that Son. He is the One on whom all this is laid. His baptism at the River Jordan was only leading to his baptism of blood on the cross. He knows very well where he is going.

He also knows the many forces that want to distract him from that path, to lead him astray. Nor are they light and simple temptations. "Turn this stone into bread" has become a daily, lively temptation . . . turn these miracles into that which the world most worships - power and greed and self-centered seeking after the jewels of the earth. "If you can drive out demons, surely you can control the course of the world!" Turn your words into a worldly wisdom and you will get all the honor and glory you could possibly want. "All these things will be yours if you only pay me the most passing form of honor," Satan said. All around him were the accusations that he was not paying enough attention to the word of Moses, to the keeping of the Sabbath, to the proper sacrifices, to the correctly kosher way of life. "Cast yourself down . . . for it is written," Satan had breathed into his ear. "Listen to those who know God's way given to Moses. You are not above all that, are you? Surely you are misleading the people!" He heard all these temptations clearly - and more. Yet he must keep unswervingly on a path opposed to all that the world would offer him. For his was the way of the cross, the way to an unseemly death that reeked of criminality and lawlessness and mistaken priorities. He had to endure temptations such as these all along the way . . . and the distress grew and mounted as he marched steadfastly to the cross.

The problem was, of course, that all the fingers pointing at his criminality and lawlessness and mistaken priorities were true after a fashion . . . for they were the criminalities and lawlessnesses and mistaken priorities of the whole world laid on his shoulder. He had to bear them all in place of those who were the criminals and the lawless ones and those with mistaken priorities. Rather than making his path easier, though, this only made it the harder, for he knew that he, who had no sin, must bear the sin of the world. It was his task to remain faithful to the Father's will until it was all done. "How great is my distress until it is accomplished," he said. Do we understand him the better now?

THE DIVISIONS

Is it any wonder, then, that those who watched and listened to him would be divided over him? What was there to suggest to them that he, becoming more and more the despised and rejected of men, was the One on whom they should pin their hopes? Matthew attaches to the words of our text a further explanatory note: "And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10:38, 39) To follow him was (and is to this day) to forsake attaching any ultimate importance to all that is most important in this world in order to hold to that which is most important in the Kingdom of God which has come among us in Jesus Christ, the one who speaks in our text. Families will be divided over whether this One is worth following - which means, of course, giving up any ultimate claim or even desire for everything that was once considered most important in life. That is not an easy thing to do. Once when Jesus had said "only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eyes of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God," the disciples had asked, "Who then can be saved?" (Matt. 19:23-25) Ah, yes, the disciples caught the problem - and it is the source of the divisions spoken of in our text. "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible," Jesus had responded to their question. (Matt. 19:26) The division comes because there are critical issues at stake. Here the relationship between God and humans is at stake. And not everyone is able to see that clearly. It is far easier to settle on relationships among humans, difficult though they may be, and be done with it!

INTERPRETING THE TIME

The words that have held our attention so far are words addressed to Jesus' disciples according to Luke. So he now adds, "He also said to the crowds, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west . . . And when you see the south wind blowing, you say . . ." Ordinary, everyday "signs" are read daily by those who are dependent on the skies, as agricultural people are - and "the crowds" were largely that. I.e., "The ‘signs' guide your activity, the way you order your lives when planting and harvesting, so you pay close attention to them and recognize their meaning." "You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. . . "

So "why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" The word for "time" denotes a "critical time," a "time that will shape and form all future time," a "time that will govern the way you live and think, for it holds within it, as it were, all time in its hand." He is not urging them to watch the skies or natural phenomena or historic events in general around them. He is pointing to himself! "Do you not see in me that for which all Israel - indeed, the whole world - has been waiting? Of all ‘signs,' the one ‘sign' of eternity present on earth, of all the past and of all the futures yet to come gathered into one moment is present here before your eyes. Do you not hear in what I say and see in what I do the one thing that all creation has been waiting for? Can you not ‘interpret the time' when you hear and see me?"

He is, indeed, the one whose "baptism of blood" would pour new life into the veins of all those baptized in the waters joined to the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit, uniting and establishing them into the one indivisible family of God. The "sign" of bread and wine as bearer of the body and blood of this "Sign of all Signs" feeds and nourishes this family set on the pathway to eternity where they will rest in his grace forever. His word, simple and almost weak in its appearance, rises up to bear the promises that first arose in the dawn of the eastern skies and that shall be fulfilled in all their glory when the sun sets in the western skies. "You see the skies and read its signs," Jesus says. "Look to me and see in me the ‘sign' of the Father's good will toward you. Come and be embraced by the One whose reconciling hand reaches out to you through me! The ‘critical hour' of all history has arrived in my coming. Don't miss it, for all futures lie hidden within this hour of my presence among you!"

We, too, are called on to "interpret the present time," for the Lord lives in our time as much as he lived in that time. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:1, 2) Or, as it is put in today's Second Lesson, "Therefore . . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:1, 2)

Is it not a wonder that he who felt great distress until his task was accomplished also knew the joy that was set before him when he endured the cross? May our joy be joined to his as we take up our cross, in turn, and follow him, losing our life in order to find it in him

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Retired Lutheran Pastor Hubert Beck
Austin, USA
E-Mail: hbeck@austin.rr.com

(top)