“Jesus the Troublemaker” Luke 12: 49-56, by Marshall Zieman, Preached 8-18-2019 at PCOC
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“Jesus the Troublemaker” Luke 12: 49-56, by Marshall Zieman, preached 8-18-2019 at PCOC Our Scripture readings continue in the gospel of Luke; for the third Sunday in a row we are in the volatile 12th chapter. Today we’re at verse 49 of Luke 12. In our first sermon from this chapter we heard Jesus imploring folks to look beyond the material things they can store up on earth. “Be rich towards God,” was his counter-cultural message. Last week we saw Jesus again beseeching those around him to look beyond what they could see - to always be ready for the day he will one day return – unexpectantly, like a thief in the night. Today he goes even further in his teachings - he talks of impending division and conflict - which will come about, he says, because of him! He sees himself as the cause of division. If your idea of coming to church is a place where we try to leave all stress behind, or if you see Jesus as just someone who will shield you from real world troubles, or if your idea of dealing with differences is just to ignore them, then today’s sermon is probably not your cup of tea. But don’t blame me. Your beef is with Jesus, and you should take it up with him, which would be good! Let’s hear Jesus’ words from Luke 12, beginning in verse 49: 49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 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.” 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God! Well, that’s all pretty clear, so let’s just close in prayer and take the offering! In a nutshell, Jesus came to earth to shake things up. In a nutshell, although Jesus promises us a happy ending with God and a glad reunion in the life to come, getting there is another story. 51“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” Now, we don’t want to hear that. That’s not why we came to church this morning. Life is hard enough; we’ve got enough conflict as it is, our country is conflicted, we 2 certainly don’t want our relationship with God to cause us more trouble, and Jesus tells them, yeah, “I came to bring fire to the earth.” Sadly, Jesus’ words here have been used throughout the centuries to justify religious strife, intolerance, and holy wars: “I’ve come to bring division.” That’s not what Jesus is meaning. He is not preaching holy wars, “he’s predicting the impact his message of love will have on our self-centered human nature.” (Father David Sellery) The gospel Jesus preaches, the Good News he inaugurates, is so revolutionary and counter-cultural, it will cause every human being to be at war with our old nature of selfish, self-centered ways, and our “me-first” mentality. Christ has come to turn the value system of our world on its head. The process of doing so will not always be pretty. Christ is calling for the human race to be transformed into the Body of Christ – but that will not be done without effort. The ways of “the world, the flesh, and the devil” do not go quietly. The ways of Christ are truly cross- cultural to any culture and society. Each year, as we go through the various readings of the gospels, we are regularly confronted with the radical claims that Jesus makes, and how his hearers responded. What did he teach? “Forgive your enemies, be a servant to others, the first shall be last and the last shall be first” - no wonder people exclaimed, “No one has taught like this before!” The crowds grew, his followers increased, and yet, he was met with opposition, which also grew. Others thought he was demon-possessed, or crazy. More than once someone exclaimed, “This is a hard saying; who can accept it?” Here in Luke 12, hostility towards him is rising. The “baptism” Jesus talks about is his coming crucifixion and death. Lest you think, “Oh, since he was God, it wasn’t that hard for him,” note his words, “what stress I am under until it is completed!” Jesus draws pushback - from strangers, from neighbors, from friends, even from family. That’s how it was then; it’s still that way now. He said he came to set the world on fire. That doesn’t mean he wants us to build his kingdom by fire and sword. The trouble with just getting a snippet of a passage every week is that we can lose context. We must remember that Jesus is the embodiment of divine love, a love so great we fail to comprehend it. His call to arms is a call to unconditional love, service to others, and care for the poor. So he’s not encouraging territorial struggles over land and treasure and conquest. The conflict he predicts will be between those who follow him as their Lord and Savior and try to put into place all he commanded, and with those who reject him and his gospel. There is conflict over decisions people make about Jesus. This could take the form of a casual disagreement, like sort of just ignoring what he says, or not taking his claims seriously. We all know folks like this, you invite them to church and they just sort of ignore you, put you off. They see you as ‘churchy people’ and they keep their distance. Conflict about Jesus could also take the form of arguing - you’ve run into folks who want to argue about what Jesus said, about what he meant, or about what different churches teach. So, sometimes 3 you get into a casual conversation about Jesus, and sometimes it’s a heated argument. And, throughout the centuries, there have also been times of violent disagreements, even wars and bloodshed, over the teachings of Jesus. The advance of the Church across the world has sometimes been met with opposition and killing. Certainly the early Church knew persecution and struggles. Nowadays, when our mission teams visit Russia, we hear the stories of the church in the Soviet times, and they were hard times. Our Russian brothers and sisters have truly suffered for their faith. When ISIS was invading Iraq, there were Christians in Mosul, even Presbyterians, who had to flee their homes or be killed, or were killed. I know other Christians in Syria whose villages are still threatened by ISIS today. The population of Christians in the Middle East is rapidly shrinking. Fortunately, there are good mission groups, like the Presbyterians’ Outreach Foundation, who see their mission to help Christians remain in these countries, even thru these hard times. Closer to home, Jesus warned that what you think about him is also a dividing line in families, three against two, and two against three - between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. What is it that families aren’t supposed to talk about at Thanksgiving or Christmas - sex, politics, and religion! We warn each other - “Don’t bring up church with Uncle Bob.” We’ve all caught ourselves arguing about the differences between Protestants and Catholics, or Baptists and Lutherans, or why cousin George thinks his church is far superior. I think we’d do better to just let our church differences go and just focus on Jesus instead. At least that’s a more productive argument to have. Many years ago, Becky’s family started having annual family reunions. As the kids all got married, we discovered we didn’t all go to the same kinds of churches. There were Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics. We have three ministers in the family, from three different denominations. The first few years we inevitably got around to focusing on our differences - infant baptism, worship styles, different programs. Since then, we’ve all discovered how much more productive it is to focus on what we do have in common, which is about 95%. We are told to build the kingdom of God by loving God, our families, and our neighbors - with humble and honest witness - to love our neighbors as ourselves. Through the grace of God, we are called to help love his kingdom into being. Once, when Jesus taught this, someone just had to ask him who was his neighbor. Jesus’s answer was, well, basically anybody in need, and Jesus used a hated Samaritan to make his point, which riled everybody up.