Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2
Luke 12:49-56
The Trouble With Jesus
In reflecting on today’s Gospel text, Jared Alcantara wrote this: “If a pollster walked around a major city with a film crew and asked strangers at random, ‘Why did Jesus come into the world?’ we can presume that none of the respondents would reply, ‘That’s easy. Jesus came into the world to bring fire upon it and cause division in it.’ If someone answered this way, the pollster might assume the person had misheard the question.”
But that is indeed what we hear Jesus saying in Luke 12: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth! I have come, not to bring peace, but division!” Oh my! It’s not quite what we’re used to hearing in church about love, kindness, caring, and peace. Isn’t peace supposed to be one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Wouldn’t Jesus bring peace into the world and into our hearts?
Certainly, peace is one of the gifts that we do hope to receive from our faith. When our lives are stressful and the future is uncertain, we come to church looking for hope and encouragement, hoping to find peace in the midst of the figurative storms around us. And very often we do find that peace.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does say “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be children of God.” And in the Gospel of John, when the Risen Christ appears to his disciples, the first thing he says is “Peace be with you.”
Earlier, shortly before Jesus is arrested and killed, you may remember hearing him say this to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.” But then he goes on to say, “I do not give peace to you as the world gives.”
And in another place in John’s Gospel he tells his friends that he wants them to have peace. He explains that “in this world [they] will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Thinking about all these different references to peace and to trouble, it starts to become clear that the peace Jesus gives is different. It’s not that he scoops up his faithful followers and brings them to a place of quiet and safety – away from the conflicts and dangers of the world. But he promises that even though they will experience the trouble and violence of the world, they will always have Jesus’ promise of peace and everlasting life to come.
Our reading today from the Book of Hebrews is very explicit in recounting the kinds of trouble that God’s faithful people tend to experience in the world. The author talks about faithful people and prophets of God who went through torture, mocking, flogging, chains, and imprisonment. She tells us that some were stoned to death, others sawn in two, and still others were killed by the sword. Many were poor, persecuted, tormented, or homeless.
And the early Christians to which the author of Hebrews is writing were going to have to deal with some of the same kinds of challenges. Living in a time and place where Christianity was not accepted by the authorities, many of these Christians would face the dilemma of choosing either to deny their faith and worship other gods, or to face torture and death.
But rather than offering them a place to hide away and keep them safe from their accusers, this author encourages them to persevere and find strength in the witness of those who came before them. She tells them to look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of their faith, the one who went before them and showed them the way, who himself endured death on a cross, and who now sits at the right hand of the throne of God.
You see, there is a kind of peace (a worldly peace) in which the powerful lord it over the poor, and everyone does what they can to endure the injustice and the suffering because it seems impossible to do anything about it. Best to stay quiet and not make things worse for ourselves or for anyone else.
I think that’s the kind of peace that existed in Palestine when Jesus was born in a small town within a territory that was occupied by the Romans. I think that’s the kind of peace that existed among the Jewish people of that time in which the religious leaders lorded it over the rest of the people, imposing strict religious laws, and excluding those who were considered marginal for one reason or another.
And Jesus’ response to that kind of false peace – that peace without justice, that peace without kindness, that peace without mercy – was to bring fire and division.
You may remember the fire that John the Baptist spoke about when he announced Jesus’ coming ministry in the world. It was the fire of judgment that would not be content the let injustice continue unchecked. It was the fire of judgment that would call out hatred, oppression, and violence, that would stand up and speak out on behalf of the poor and the rejected ones.
And yes, Jesus’ ministry brought division too. I don’t think it was aimed at destroying families or communities. But when you speak up and name the problems, and when you stand up and say that things have to change to line up with God’s will for the world and human communities, there will be a lot of people that won’t want to accept that message, that won’t want to change.
I’m thinking of the stark political divisions that have grown and grown over the last several years in the United States, and to a significant extent in Canada as well. And it’s not just that we have different opinions about some policies or priorities that lead us to vote in different ways.
These are deep divisions related to core values that have the potential to do great harm to so many people. So we are called to speak, and to advocate, and sometimes to engage in peaceful protest. Think of the Black Lives Matter protests a few years ago. Think of the more recent “No Kings Day” protests, and the resistance against policies of broad deportations from the U.S.
Think of the protests here in our own city when the Saskatchewan Government used the Notwithstanding Clause to suspend the rights of youth to choose what they would like to be called. Think of the various protests by Indigenous communities over the years, as they dug in their heels to protect the land, forests, and rivers given to us all by the Creator.
I expect that our cities would appear more peaceful if everyone put down their placards, kept their mouths shut, and stayed home. And if we didn’t talk about these difficult issues and differences of opinion in our homes, and communities, and churches, we wouldn’t risk getting into conflicts with each other either.
Similarly, if Jesus had chosen the quiet life of a carpenter in Nazareth, he wouldn’t have caused such upset among the religious and state rulers of his time. He wouldn’t have called disciples to leave families and livelihoods behind and go out on the road with a dangerous message from God that could get them into trouble.
Of course, Jesus could have avoided all the trouble of the world that came to him when he debated with the teachers, challenged the authorities, and claimed to represent God in a way that frightened the people who thought they were the highest power.
He could have stayed home, or chosen to remain with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at their home in Bethany. But instead, he paraded into Jerusalem on a donkey with crowds of people following and singing his praises. Instead, he persevered in his mission until he was arrested, tortured, and killed on a cross.
Commentator Alcantara in the “Working Preacher” blog puts it this way: “The one whose presence and mission will bring fire and division to the world knows how much it will cost him to bring it, yet he decides to move forward anyway.
“One could argue that it will cost him everything long before it costs us anything. It will cause him great stress and even harm but will not deter him from his mission. When faced with the choice between avoiding the fire and enduring it, [Jesus] will choose to pass through it, especially because he knows that this is the best and the only way to reach us.”
Jesus shows us that no matter what troubles or trials we may face in this world, that he has overcome the world. Jesus shows us that no matter how cruel and violent the powers of this world may be, that we are called to follow Jesus’ way of speaking and acting for justice, no matter the cost.
Jesus shows us that he came into this world, not to bring an easy peace, a worldly peace of quiet and inaction, but that he came to bring fire and division, speaking truth to power, embodying the way of justice and love, and ultimately giving us the promise of everlasting peace.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”