A sermon preached at Trinity-Mount Rainier on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (LSB Proper 15C), August 18, 2019.
A Strange Peace
Luke 12:49-53
(Other Readings Appointed: Jeremiah 23:16-29; Hebrews 11:17-31; 12:1-3)
Once again, Jesus’ words in the Gospel make us wonder, “Where’s the Gospel here? Because I’m not hearing much that can be called ‘good news’.” And we are right to wonder. Here the One we know and love and follow called “the Prince of Peace” is speaking things which sound anything but peaceful: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! … Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” It just doesn’t sound like something that we think Jesus would say. And yet, here it is, right in the Gospel, coming from the lips of Jesus as recorded by Luke’s pen.
Although these words sound strange to us, we now have to wrestle with them so that we understand what our Lord Jesus wishes us to learn from them. To be sure, they are not comforting or comfortable words. They are quite challenging, jarring to our way of thinking, and quite shaking of the way that we think things ought to be. To say the least, these words spoken by our Prince of Peace present to us a rather strange kind of peace, chiefly because we are hard pressed to find any real sense of peace in them.
Perhaps our problem lies in how we define and perceive peace. When we hear the word peace, we tend to think about the absence of conflict and strife. And as we believe that Jesus came to bring peace between God and humanity and among all people as well, then to hear Jesus say that He is not the “peacemaker” we think Him to be can be a little bit confusing and perhaps even disturbing.
Yet, we sometimes forget that peace oftentimes comes at a price. In this sin-filled world, peace is not some sort of “default setting”. What is actually more “normal” for us is strife, discord, dissentions, rivalries, and the list goes on. With Jesus promising division, it sounds like He is promising to do nothing to make this world better, instead we should just expect more of the world’s “normal”. But, this doesn’t sound right either.
Even though it isn’t readily apparent, Jesus’ words here do have a logic behind them. And if we listen to them carefully, we will find what He desires us to know about Him, why He has come, and the life we live as the followers of the Prince of Peace.
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” Again, these words sound anything but peaceful. They bring up visions of destruction, seeing the whole world on fire, threatening all that live on earth with a violent end. Why would Jesus want to see everything and everyone on earth destroyed in such a way? Yet, is Jesus saying this? Perhaps this is only just what we think this fire that Jesus wishes to see kindled on the earth is for?
We need to remember that fire, besides its power to destroy, also has a beneficial side. Fire actually helps life; providing heat and giving light, and at times even serving as a tool to purify. In this way, we can see Jesus’ words a little differently. That Jesus has come to cast fire on the earth, not to destroy it, but to illuminate it, casting light into the shadowy places of sin and death, and purifying it from the evil which holds it captive so that it might be restored to the life that its Creator intended for it to have
The work of this fire which Jesus wishes to see kindled is further explained in His next saying: “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is My distress until it is accomplished!” Jesus speaks of “baptism”, but not in the sense of how we may think of it. We know that as He began His public ministry, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Yet, Jesus is here pointing ahead to things yet to come. The baptism that Jesus is looking forward to and desiring to see accomplished is what will take place on Calvary and His cross. Jesus here is speaking of a “baptism” that takes place through His blood and death. Jesus sees what will be His death and “destruction” as that which will bring life to the world, and ultimately peace between God and humanity.
In seeing the “fire” and “baptism” which Jesus desired to see and undergo as that which would bring the peace which God desires to give to the world through the coming and work of God’s Prince of Peace, we discover that the peace brought to us by Jesus came at a great cost. And it is because of this cost, that we then come to see the cost which comes to us who receive this peace from God. In promising that whole households would be divided against themselves, we have to remember what makes our peace in and through Jesus as strange—that He Himself can be the reason for our divisions.
Looking at the Gospels, we see that this was true even in Jesus’ own day. People just didn’t know what to make of Jesus and His words. We know that Jesus had His enemies and detractors who outright rejected anything He had to say, especially about Himself. Even among His own followers, even though they wanted to believe in Him, there were some who found it easier to turn away from Him than to receive and believe His words as the truth. And there were even those who “knew” Him—family and neighbors—who saw and heard what they wanted to instead of taking Jesus at His word.
In many ways, Jesus was a “scandalous” figure—especially in the sense of the Greek word that gives us the word “scandal”. A skandalon is a “stumbling block” or “a cause of offense”. And just as He was that while He walked on this earth, He still remains even today a divisive figure. Now, such a claim seems strange to make. One still hears of how Jesus is pointed to as a figure who came to teach us all peace, love, respect, and tolerance. And He did do that. But, this was not all that He came to be and do and teach. He came as the Savior, to free us from sin and to call us to a way of life found not in the pursuit of self and self-gratification but found in living according to the Word and will of God. He came as the Way to lead us and bring us back to the Heavenly Father, not as one way among many but as the only Way. And He brings us and is Himself the Truth, an eternal unchangeable truth which is not subject to the changes and whims and “enlightened understanding” of times or people.
And this is why Jesus brings us a very strange peace. He brings us the peace we want and desire—a peace which unites us back with our God and which can form a unity among those who are His brothers and sisters by the flesh we share with each other and Him. Yet, the only way this peace can work is if we receive it by receiving the One who gives it to us as He actually and really is. And to do that, we must surrender what we think Jesus should be and take Him at His Word of who He says that He is. We cannot allow ourselves to somehow think that we know better than He does, adding our own thoughts and ideas to what He has said, but let His Word speak for itself and take up His challenge to live God’s way rather than our own.
When we do this, we may find ourselves divided from those we love. But we are not called to follow our hearts, we are called to follow the Lord. Our love for Christ makes demands of us, and at times those demands may ask us to follow Him at a steep cost—that we may find ourselves out of step with family, with friends, and even with the world. This is the cost we pay for taking up Christ’s call to come and follow Him. We are called to be faithful to Him, even when it means that our faithfulness to God will put us at odds with those around us. Yet, our faithfulness is not an act of spite against the world or those we love, but instead it is a witness to them that we hold God and His Word and promise so dear because we know that in them we have true and lasting life and therefore have peace through God. And we pray that, through the witness of our lives, those around us may also come to see and have and share in this life of peace which Christ gives so that they also may have the hope of eternal peace and life with God along with us.
Jesus promises a strange peace, a peace which can at times divide, but which ultimately unites. The peace which He came to bring divided us who believe in Him from the dominion of sin and death so that we might be brought together into life with our God forever. Though our reunion with God may separate us who believe from those who are not yet believing, this peace is also for them as well, to call them to have peace with God before it is too late, so that they may also have life in and with Him. Knowing this, let us be those who extend the peace of God’s forgiveness and life in Christ to all so that in Him divisions may cease and only perfect peace, unity, and love may reign as we joyfully live forever in God’s eternal kingdom of peace. God grant it! Amen!
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