Luke 12:49-56
Holy Division
It has often been said by Church Fathers that the best way to learn Scripture is through prayer, meditation, and suffering. Prayer leads us to consider the mind of God as we read his word. It helps guide us to think in a heavenly light instead of an earthly one. Meditation is a dwelling on the word, that it may live within us to change us and make its truth known. Through these two, we can certainly come to a better understanding of God’s word. Yet, even with these two, we still find much of Scripture allude us. Yes, you see… it also takes personal experience, that is, the struggles and turmoil of life, to shine a light on God’s word. Certain passages don’t make sense to us when we try to reason our way through them. There are many parts of Scripture that don’t seem rational in the slightest. But, lo and behold… we soon discover… life isn’t always rational. We can’t always reason our way through life… and some of the most important and difficult truths are ones that must be learned the hard way. For that’s really where we are today with our Gospel reading. It’s not one of those readings that we comprehend because of reason or wisdom. Yet, we nod our heads to it because we know the scars and bruises we bear that witness to this truth. Personal experience has taught us this difficult truth. Faith is divisive. I can say personally that I’ve lost friends and even family members for the simple reason that I’m a Christian. For I know the sad reality is that likely you have too.
If that is the case for you, or even if faith has caused you strained relationships among your family, then our Gospel lesson is for you. Jesus reminds us that his ultimate purpose isn’t to make us all stand around a campfire and sing Kumbaya. Rather, Jesus teaches us that following him can be painful. For so we learn:
JESUS HAS COME TO DIVIDE!
I.
As Christians, we’re often the first to stress and tout the importance the family has on the individual. We know ever since the creation of man that we were meant to grow up in a family with a mother and father. Potentially sisters and brothers too. A family is our immediate safety net to the unknowns of life. Our parents care for and nurture us into adulthood. Our siblings provide entertainment and companionship throughout life. We especially recognize this in the fourth commandment. Honor Your Father and Your Mother. God gave this commandment as a safeguard for family. Nothing was meant to replace the role a father and a mother had for you. This is why St Paul even says in Ephesians 6, “… (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land,” (Eph. 6:2). Family is what makes life “go well with you and that you may live long in the land”. Of course, in a perfect world, that’s the way it would always happen. Yet, we’re not living in a perfect world… which is why we feel the pain and sting of broken families.
To have a parent, sibling, or even a friend turn their back on you and stop talking to you altogether is extremely painful. To have it happen because of faith is even more so. But this is the truth that Jesus tells us. Just as Jesus said, “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,” Luke 12:51-53. Faith in Jesus divides. It divides friends, coworkers, and especially families. Two against three and three against two. One against all and all against one. For so we must understand the demands of faith. Jesus sometimes divides us from friends and even family because Jesus demands our ultimate allegiance. When family gets in the way of that, there’ll be pain. There’ll be hurt; and there’ll be division.
II.
But you see, this is why we must understand Jesus’ true mission. For his mission was never one of peace. That is, Jesus didn’t come to give us peace on the earth. Rather, Jesus came to give us peace with God, peace in heaven and for eternity! Jesus had to come to divide you from the world in order to give you a true peace, a peace which surpasses all understanding. Jesus’ mission was none other than to divide you from your sins… and that is a painful endeavor. Just as Jesus said, “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!” Luke 12:49-50. The fire of God was sent on this earth to purge the sin from our lives through repentance and faith. For it’s none other than the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit who seeks to dwell in your heart. Jesus sends out the Holy Spirit through his word that his word may spread like fire on the earth. So too, great was Jesus’ distress until he was baptized with the fire of God’s wrath on the cross. This was Jesus’ baptism. He had to be drowned in the sins and pain and agony of this world that it may all be drowned and die in Him!
For this purpose, Jesus came. He came to divide you from sin and all its ways. Division is also the language of holiness. Yes, to say it another way, Jesus came to make you holy through his Word, through baptism and faith. For to be holy means nothing else than to be divided from the kingdom of Satan and united to the family of God in Christ Jesus. While we’re in this world, we’ll still experience the pain and suffering which broken families bring, especially on account of faith. Yet, that doesn’t mean we’re to abandon our family. It means we’re to pray for them, witness to them, and be the light of Christ that faith may be kindled in them too. For there can be no true peace on this earth, except the peace which is through faith.
By prayer, meditation, and certainly through suffering, we come to understand the truth of God. Jesus has come to divide us from the sin that has controlled our life by none other than his suffering and death upon the cross. For only through the division, or holiness, of faith do we come to experience true peace which comes from Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name! Amen!