Did Jesus come to tear families apart?

Brad Sullivan

Proper 15, Year C
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Psalm 82
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56

So, Jesus came to tear families apart. That’s kinda what it sounds like on an initial reading of today’s Gospel. Father will be against son, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, ok that last one might not be because of Jesus, but we can’t really ignore that Jesus said he came to bring division. I thought a house divided against itself couldn’t stand, and yet here’s Jesus today bringing division and fire on the earth. I thought he was supposed to be the prince of peace.

Jesus did bring a lot of peace, after all. When he healed folks, he often told them to go in peace. When his disciples went out to minister, he told them to offer their peace to those with whom they stayed. Jesus was definitely not averse to peace. Therefore, by saying today that he came to bring division, I don’t believe Jesus was saying that he came to add rancor and strife to world simply to make the world a less pleasant place to live. Jesus healed. He taught about blessedness. He told people they were beloved of God.

He also told people when they were living destructive lives, counter to how God had taught them to live. Jesus may have been the prince of peace, but that doesn’t mean he came to remain silent when he encountered problems or that he came simply to play nice.

Looking back a little way in Luke’s gospel, Jesus had been preaching against the Scribes and the Pharisees. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees,” Jesus said, “that is, their hypocrisy.” He then went on to teach about the blessedness of every human being. Do not fear because God cares about you was the basic message. Then we get to the story we heard a couple of weeks ago. A man interrupts Jesus and asks him to help him out with his family inheritance. I can see Jesus being a little annoyed at this point.

“Seriously dude, your inheritance? I was preaching to you about blessedness, and God’s love for you and how you don’t need to fear, and you want to ask me about money?” Boy that guy got more than he bargained for. Jesus went on to talk about money and the dangers of putting our faith in our money and our possessions rather than in God. “All your possessions, all your stuff, it’s gonna be gone one day. You’re gonna be gone one day, and what good is all that stuff going to do you then?”

I can see the guy who first asked the question about inheritance at this point trying quietly to extricate himself from the crowd, and his friends holding him there saying, “Way to go Steve, he was being nice being nice before you spoke up.”

To be fair, having a question about an inheritance is fine; it happens. Sometimes we have disputes and we need help settling them. Jesus seemed to notice something more in the man’s question, however, than a purely innocent request for help in settling a legal matter. I’m further guessing that the man who asked about his inheritance was simply one among many in the crowd who wasn’t so much interested in God’s kingdom as in getting what he wanted and having Jesus help him get what he wanted. “That’s nice, Jesus. God’ loves us. We should care for one another, blah blah blah, now here’s what I need.” The yeast of the Scribes and the Pharisees seems to have been taking hold in the crowd.

So, Jesus speaks today about wanting to throw fire down on the earth and bring division. Well, throwing fire down on the earth was an act of cleansing perhaps to burn away the yeast of the Scribes and the Pharisees. The fire Jesus was to throw down on the earth was like a fire of burnt offering to cleanse people, to take away their misdeeds (as they offered them up), and to remind them of who God is and to get them back to walking in God’s ways once again.

We might also note that there was no actual rain of fire that Jesus sent down (the Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire), but I think we can safely say Jesus’ fire was kindled. His fire continues to this day, sometimes burning where there is injustice and greed, cleansing people from walking in ways that God knows are not helpful ways for us to walk. I believe I’ve been cleansed at various times by Jesus’ fire (metaphorical fire we’re talking about here). Perhaps some of y’all have experienced that as well, and if you have, then you know that being cleansed is not always the most pleasant thing in the world.

Turning back towards God, seeking his help and forgiveness, changing one’s life, stopping unhealthy practices and starting healthy ones is cleansing by Jesus’ fire and it is not necessarily a pleasant experience. The result, however, is great and well worth any discomfort along the way. Jesus came to bring fire on the earth, and thank God that he did. We need his fire to cleanse us and then to remain in us to be light to the world and to cast darkness out of the world, and if we do that. If we allow Jesus’ fire to cleanse us, and if we allow his fire to remain in us, and if we take that fire with us to help cast darkness out of the world, then we are going to cause some division.

That’s the second disturbing thing Jesus said in today’s gospel, wasn’t it. “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on the earth? N, I tell you, but rather division!” If you ask people to change, they are going to resist you. If you try to bring light where there is darkness, there will be those who don’t like the light. Consider the Scribes and the Pharisees. They had a good thing going. They had power and influence. They had money and prestige, and Jesus with his Kingdom of God preaching was wrecking the whole thing. They weren’t very good religious leaders. They weren’t caring for the people so much as for themselves. They weren’t teaching the people to care for each other so much as to care for the religion and by extension their own pockets.

Jesus brought light into that darkness, telling the poor that they were blessed too, telling the people that they were all beloved of God. Jesus taught about true blessedness which comes from loving God and loving one another rather than in the accumulation of material wealth. Even in that bit of teaching, Jesus brought division. There was division in the crowd listening to him, evidenced by the man asking for his inheritance. “I don’t like what you’re saying there Jesus. I like this blessedness bit, but it sounds like if I’m going to really follow you, I’m going to have to make some sacrifices. I don’t really want to do that.” Others in the crowd loved the idea. They caught Jesus’ fire. They believed his message about blessedness, and they wanted to make sacrifices in order to follow him, to be that light to others and to help bring some healing to a broken world.

In one afternoon of teaching, Jesus brought some division. Again, the purpose was not division for division’s sake, but the only way not to bring some division would have been not to say anything at all. Jesus could have healed people and performed some miracles, and that would have been great. It would have brought peace to those who were served by him, and if he had kept his mouth shut and not spoken up against injustice and oppression, he sure wouldn’t have brought much division, but he wouldn’t have had all that lasting of an impact. People might have called him a nice, peaceful guy, but he wouldn’t have brought with him the fire that cleanses and casts out darkness.

So yes, Jesus did come to bring division. He knew that he would cause division within families, but like I joked about earlier, we don’t really need Jesus to be divided within our families. Son against father and mother against daughter, sounds like Jesus came to turn all children into teenagers. Families will be divided sometimes when some within a family catch Jesus’ fire and others don’t. Division in families is not the goal, but a likely outcome, and something that may likely come anyway.

Division within families is hopefully not the end of people catching Jesus’ fire. Jesus didn’t say, “honor your father and your mother…unless they haven’t caught my fire, then to hell with them.” Jesus said, “uphold the commandments; honor your father and your mother.” If some within a family follow Jesus and others don’t, then so be it. Our challenge is not to stop following Jesus because some whom we love do not. For those who follow Jesus and have family or friends that don’t, we need not, however, denounce our families and friends in order to follow Jesus. We should in fact stay with our families and friends. We love them. Why in the world wouldn’t we remain with them?

God loves us and remains with us, even at a cost. Jesus knew his fire would come at a cost, but he also knew the greater cost would have been not to kindle that fire. For us, having caught Jesus’ fire, we too are the light of the world. Following Jesus, for us too will come at a cost and may bring some division. At the same time we’re working to live in God’s kingdom and to help others live in God’s kingdom. That seems worth the cost. Amen.