Does Jesus bring peace or ‘division and a sword’?
The Lord's day lectionary reading (Trinity 9, Year C) continues on its journeying through Luke's 'special section' of Jesus' ministry and educational activity on route to Jerusalem from Luke nine.51 to Luke 18.14. In this short (and again, inexplicably truncated) reading from Luke 12.49–56 (you might cull to read on to poetry 59 to complete this section) Jesus makes some startling claims about the nature of his ministry building and the disharmonize that will ascend for his followers.
Some parts of this section in Luke are unique to this gospel, and the emphasis on division stands out. Parts of information technology (the central question about peace, and the division within a household) have parallels in Jesus' 2nd block of Matthean didactics in Matt 10.34–35, though in a slightly briefer grade, and the sayings nigh weather signs come betwixt Matthew's third and fourth blocks of Jesus' instruction, in the context of a dispute with the Pharisees.
The saying about 'not peace but a sword' comes in Matthew x in the context of Jesus sending out the Twelve on mission, and a following collection of instruction that appears to merge the immediate context with the apprehension of a coming eschatological crisis—at points Jesus' teaching hither parallels his teaching Matt 24–25. A powerful theme here is the redrawing of boundaries of kinship loyalty, so that not merely are Jesus' disciples 'brothers [and sisters]' to ane some other, but they are also the kin and representatives of Jesus (compare Matt 12.fifty), so that 'whoever welcomes you welcomes me' (Matt 10.40). The primary issues here, then, are belonging to one another in mission in the confront of opposition.
In Luke, this teaching comes in a rather dissimilar context in Jesus' teaching. As nosotros take seen in previous weeks, there has been a relentlesslytheocentric focus beyond dissimilar issues. The 'rich fool' in Luke 12.thirteen–21 is so focussed on the accumulation of his possessions that he fails to attend to the one to whom he must give an account; in Luke 12.22–34, when we focus on God and his kingdom we are freed from feet about our material needs; and in Luke 12.35–48 we are challenged to focus on the coming of God in the return of Jesus the Lord, which will lead to us being energetic and faithful servants ready to welcome him when he comes. Though in that location are numerous verbal and thematic links betwixt these sections, there has been a steadily growing focus on the event of eschatological judgement and our standing before God when we come to requite an account of ourselves to him, a theme that was introduced in the outset department of the chapter in Luke 12.i–12.
Within the passage itself, there are several very striking elements that it is easy to pass over when we read likewise quickly. The kickoff is the opening phrase in English (the verb is in second identify in Greek): 'I have come…' It is not really possible to understand this in a only local sense ('I accept come up to Galilee/Jerusalem/Jordan…etc) because of the cosmic nature of the language here. His purpose is non actually to 'bring' fire (NIV) but to 'cast information technology upon the earth' (Greek βαλεῖν, to throw; see ESV and AV), a quite apocalyptic image offered from a heavenly vantage bespeak. Simon Gathercole, in his bookThe Pre-existent Son, notes the importance of 'I take come up…' sayings in the Synoptic gospels, and highlights the ten most pregnant:
- "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who yous are—the Holy One of God!" (Mark one.24)
- "What do you want with u.s., Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you lot come here to torture us before the appointed time?" (Matt 8.29)
- "Permit u.s. go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—then I can preach in that location also. That is why I have come." (Marker 1.38)
- "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5.31–32)
- "Do not call up that I take come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I accept not come to cancel them but to fulfill them." (Matt 5.17)
- "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12.49)
- "Practice not suppose that I take come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matt 10.34)
- "For I accept come up to plough 'a man confronting his father, a girl against her female parent, a girl–in–law confronting her mother–in–law—" (Matt ten.35)
- "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a bribe for many." (Marker 10.45)
- "For the Son of Man came to seek and to salvage what was lost." (Luke 19.10)
Information technology is worth noting (in passing) that the language of Jesus 'coming' is often idea of every bit Johannine: in John'due south gospel Jesus appears to have a very developed sense of his pre-being, peculiarly when talking virtually 'coming into this earth' (John 5.43, 8.xiv, 12.46, 14.28, 16.28, eighteen.37 and elsewhere). Simply noticing this kind of language in the Synoptics helps to close the gap with John, and remind us that the sense of Jesus' transcendence and pre-existence was a very early feature of the first communities of Jesus-followers (meet Phil 2), and is present in the Synoptics who exercise not 'simply' present a picture of a human Jesus. Luke's Jesus is an exalted homo, simply he is always more than that.
The second striking phrase is precisely the language of 'casting fire on the earth'. There is something of an precipitous contrast here with the want of the disciples just iii chapters earlier, when they wish to call fire down on the opposing Samaritans in Luke ix.54. The difference is that the disciples desire burn to express their own frustration and acrimony, but the burn that Jesus brings is the presence and judgment of God—a judgement that has, for a brusk while, been postponed until all Israel has had the chance to repent.
The linguistic communication of fire offers a counterpoint to the watery linguistic communication of baptism in the adjacent poetry, which would literally mean existence immersed in and overwhelmed with h2o, but (as elsewhere) has the metaphorical sense of existence plunged into some overwhelming feel. Here we are offered another glimpse of the existent human tension that Jesus feels about his ministry building, a tension that comes into abrupt focus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and ane that, from the beginning, we have been warned will affect all those close to Jesus. Rather than finding himself in a broad, open up space, Jesus discovers that obedience to his Father's call means constraint—the same constraint that Paul felt in his compulsion to preach the Word (Acts 18.5), that comes with the compelling dear of Christ (2 Cor 5.14), and that even pulls Paul in tension between this life and the life to come (Phil i.23, all these verses using the aforementioned verb). How constrained practise you feel by God's call on your life?
Jesus at present appears to anticipate his listeners' objection to these comments (whether the listeners are his disciples or the crowd continues to be unclear), as Luke might well anticipate the objections of those hearing his business relationship of Jesus' life. And the objection will be particularly sharp for readers of this gospel, since a repeated and relentless theme in Luke is that Jesus brings peace.
As noted higher up, the give-and-take 'peace' does not occur frequently in Luke-Acts. Withal, peace is critical to the narrative; information technology is appear at highly pregnant moments, and it is woven into the very fabric of Luke's two-book work, specially the Gospel of Luke…
The give-and-take 'peace' makes its first appearance in the Benedictus, which ends on the word 'peace'; it is the culmination of Zechariah'southward hope/prophecy—the reality that his son John (the Baptist) will prepare and that the Messiah will bring (Luke one.68–79). God volition mercifully guide the people out of the 'shadow of death' into 'the way of peace' (1.79), meaning deliverance from enemies, forgiveness and salvation, and service to God in security…
These first 3 peace texts in Luke—the hope of imminent peace to exist brought past the Messiah (1.79), the inauguration of peace in the birth of the Messiah (2.14), and the confession of Simeon (2.29–30)—are programmatic for Luke'south gospel and his entire theological project…
If the Gospel of Luke begins on a repeated notation of peace, it as well culminates on such a note…All of this is why Peter, in Acts x.36, can insinuate to Isaiah 52.7 and 61.1 and rightly summarize God'due south activity in Jesus as 'preaching the good news of peace by Jesus Christ. (Michael Gorman,Peace in Luke and Paul Grove booklet B76).
All through this gospel, Jesus' ministry is one that brings peace—but forth with peace, it unavoidably brings trouble as well. Those who accept the invitation to live in this peace will be, in some sense, at state of war with those effectually, as their loyalty and their lifestyle will exist out of step with those with whom they would naturally relate, acquaintance and belong. Jesus is the crusade of 'the rise and fall of many' and 'a sword volition pierce your heart as well' (Luke 2.35). It is worth noting immediately that this 'sword' is entirely metaphorical, and elsewhere in the NT is the sword that comes from Jesus' mouth, that is, his teaching and his claims about himself, the kingdom, and the nature of God—so at that place is but no grounds for endorsing violence as part of the style of discipleship.
In order to make articulate the implications of this sectionalisation, Luke then includes Jesus's saying nearly the divided family. It is actually a near quotation from Micah 7.half-dozen and refers to the loss of moral probity that results from the people's drift from God's educational activity—only here Jesus appears to be drawing on the wider theme of the anarchy to be expected in the time just before God comes to his people once more—so the theme is eschatological expectation, equally fits with this whole section of teaching in Luke. Equally an incidental, the annotate likewise offers united states some insight into the social realities of first century households, which in this case comprises five people: father; mother; son; daughter; and daughter-in-law. This fits the assumption of the nativity narrative in Luke, where Mary and Joseph have come to live with Joseph'south family in Bethlehem before later settling nearly Mary's family in Nazareth. But it needs to exist read in a civilization quite dissimilar from virtually of ours, where one's start and enduring loyalty was to 1'south immediate family and relations; in this context, Jesus' redefinition of kinship loyalty in relation to his own demands was radically disruptive.
The final imagery, most signs in the sky which tell u.s. about the coming atmospheric condition, come later in Matthew, simply are included here in Luke because of the verbal connections with what has gone before. The dissimilarity between fire and watery baptism relating to Jesus' ministry come up now in reverse order: the threat of a watery deluge of pelting (which might lead to dangerous flash floods); and the burning heat of the desert wind. The topology causeless fits a setting in Judea-Samaria-Galilee, rather than Greece, where some commentators posit Luke'southward location when writing. Weather from the W coming to Israel has crossed the Mediterranean and and so the clouds are laden with water which falls heavily over the colina country. Winds from the s (and the e) come up from the deserts of Arab republic of egypt, the Negev and Jordan; they are a regular function of the seasonal changes in Spring and occasionally in Autumn, and are traditionally thought to occur over a 50-twenty-four hour period period, giving rising to the Standard arabic proper namekhamsin. I think experiencing this weather when I lived in Israel; these hot winds accept besides picked up orange dust from the desert, then yous can hands come across them budgeted, and the grit gives them an almost peppery color. I call up watching this orange cloud travel relentlessly forth Mount Carmel from the south-eastward, until this fiery cloud was spewed into the coastal plain north of Haifa forth the hills of lower Galilee.
If Jesus' listeners are able to come across and interpret these signs, why is it that they are not able to empathize the signs of Jesus' educational activity and the implications of his announcement of the coming kingdom of God, with the partition it will certainly bring? Hither, 'hypocrite' does non really refer to someone who is play-interim as we might retrieve, but rather someone who refuses to face the reality which is set before them.
What does this mean for us in exercise? When previously commenting on this teaching in Matthew, I highlighted a pair of complementary questions which arise from Jesus' teaching here:
a. Seek unity wherever nosotros tin can find it. This is encapsulated in Jesus response to his disciples' desires for factionalism in Mark 9.40: 'Whoever is non against us is for us'. Those who are working for the kingdom, even if in a different group or in a slightly different style, are allies and we should build partnerships with them.
b. Seek truth wherever nosotros tin find it. This is urged on us by the reverse saying of Jesus, giving in a context where his teaching is being challenged by his opponents in Matt 12.30: 'Who is non with me is confronting me'. When the pedagogy of Jesus is beingness undermined, we demand to have courage to stand firm, since information technology is past the word of truth that God's people are sanctified, protected from the world, and made one.
The ii questions nosotros so demand to ask of those with whom nosotros are in some tension are: Is this person in Christ? and Is this person speaking truth? When the answer to both questions is the same, then life is straightforward. When the reply to the 2 questions is dissimilar, then we have the challenge to 'speak the truth in dearest' (Eph four.15) in a way advisable to the context.
In its context in Luke, I wonder if the questions that ascend might exist cast in slightly dissimilar terms:
a. We should seek and proclaim the peace of Christ wherever we tin;
b. We should be prepared for conflict and division when people are not willing to embrace the peace that Christ offers and respond to the claims that he makes.
There is no doubt that Jesus brings peace inside—peace within the heart and life of the believer, and peace inside the community of believers as they share their lives together. But at that place is likewise no dubiousness that Jesus also brings division, between his followers and their relations, and betwixt the community of followers and wider social club. Nosotros can trace the kickoff examples of both peace and conflict in Luke'southward 2nd volume, every bit both of these are worked out in the life of the apostolic customs.
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