Proper 15 C
The Divisive Jesus
St. Luke 12:49-53
14 August 2016 – Redeemer
What will we do with Jesus today? We certainly wouldn’t want this Luke 12 Jesus showing up at a baptism. Imagine bringing your child to those life-giving waters and hearing Jesus say, “Do you think this will bring you peace? No, I tell you, but rather division.” He wouldn’t do very well at a wedding either, would He? A couple is being united by God in holy marriage and then Jesus rips it all apart when He says, “From now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. Fathers against sons, in-laws against in-laws.” What a blessed wedding sermon that would be!
What will we do with Jesus today? The Luke 12 Jesus is not a very winsome and friendly Jesus, is He? You wouldn’t want to take Him on an evangelism visit. If you brought friends to church you certainly wouldn’t want this to be the text. So what shall we do? Perhaps we should just skip the sermon and wait for a nicer, happier Jesus to show up next week in Luke 13. Or perhaps I could demonstrate my wisdom this morning by using my degree in Biblical languages to tell you division doesn’t mean division and not to worry this isn’t the real Jesus of Scripture.
That might be appealing, especially the part about skipping the sermon, but is that what we do with God’s Word? How do we respond when God’s Word is read? This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. Thanks and praise are our response – even to this Word, for this Word is the Word of the Lord. Jesus spoke it. It is true and it needs to be preached for us and for our salvation.
Jesus comes to bring division, but division is already here. Isn’t division what happens when you sin? What happens when children rebel, when husbands lust, when women covet, when I gossip or you slander? Do we not divide ourselves from others? My name is more important than your name so I’m going to slander you. My pleasure is more important than your pain so I’ll take what I want. Division also happens when you’re sinned against. When someone hurts you? You get angry. Your anger simmers into hatred and often boils over in judgment. I’m not ever going to forgive him for what he did!
This division between us is symptomatic of an even greater divide. Our sin separates us from God Himself. You’ve heard the verses – the wages of sin is death. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous … the way of the wicked will perish. (Ps. 1)
Scripture’s diagnoses of sin and the division it causes gets worse. We are born loving sin – oh, we don’t love the pain and the hurt and the shame, but we love sin. Dr. Luther said we are born “curved in ourselves.” Another pastor said, “We have ‘Spiritual Scoliosis.’” Your spiritual backbone is so twisted that you only can see yourself. That’s why you sin even when you know better, why you willingly hurt the people you should love the most – your father, your wife, your children, your sister.
What will we do about this sin and division? That’s very similar to the question that began the sermon – what will we do with Jesus today? Those are dead end questions. They’ll get you nowhere because we can do nothing and all our attempts at stopping sin, undoing sin, finding peace and harmony are dead ends. That is precisely why we need the Jesus of Luke 12:49ff and precisely why He came.
The key to these words of Jesus are first words of the text, “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, ESV) These words, by themselves, are not that clear – Jesus has come to kindle a fire and he has a baptism to undergo that He is dreading. Jesus had already been baptized in the Jordan when he said these words. So what does He mean? Jesus is referring to His cross. In Mark 10, Jesus says to James and John after they asked to share in His glory, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” When Jesus ties baptism to the drinking of a cup He is speaking of the cross. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours.” This is cross talk and the cross of Christ divides.
The cross of Christ divides – look at what it did to the Holy Trinity. On the cross Father and Son were divided. The Father laid on His Son the iniquity of us all. Jesus didn’t just carry the wood of His cross to Calvary He carried your sin and my sin. The punishment for everything you and I deserve was poured out on Jesus – a baptism of fire and blood and God’s anger. What happened to Jesus is the result of sin. The Son cried out for His Father and God did not answer – that’s the sinners hell right there. Jesus breathed His last and gave up His Spirit. At the beginning of the Luke text Jesus wishes the cross were over – that the fire was kindled, the baptism done because He knows what is coming His way – division from God, hell for our sins, judgment and death on the cross.
That judgment of Christ is the good news of Scripture, your good news as a sinner. Jesus went there for you. He was divided for you. The Son was divided from the Father to forgive your sins, to cover your rebellion, to declare you (amazingly) righteous and welcome before your Father in heaven. The cross of Christ is your comfort. His division your delight. His cup of suffering is your cup of salvation. His hell your heaven because He is there for you.
But here’s the rub. When the Holy Spirit calls you to faith in Christ’s cross – when the waters of baptism resurrect you to this new life, when the Word brings you to repentance and faith, you are changed. From a rebel child to a faithful son. From a lover of sin to a lover of God. The evidence of that is right here this morning – you are here, when you could be somewhere else. Instead of serving yourself you want to be served the gifts of Jesus. To be sure your sanctification isn’t complete. Right now you are saint and sinner at the same time, but you have changed. The Spirit has converted you. You have been made sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. You have been divided from your sin and united to your Father in heaven.
Jesus says that being divided from sin will divide you from others – from now on there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. We believe that the only God-ordained marriage is one man and one woman for a lifetime. That divides us – from the US government and likely from our own families and friends. We believe that God made us male and female and that what He made is good since He is our Father. That divides us. The list of divisive doctrines we believe is a long list – that Christ is the only way to heaven, that baptism saves, that the bread and wine are Christ’s true body and blood, that only men are chosen to be pastors, that the Holy Spirit doesn’t work outside of Word and Sacraments, that God created the world in six days, that all human life from the womb to the tomb is sacred, that sex is for marriage, that marriage is for life. That’s not an exhaustive list, but it is a divisive one.
So what will we do with this Jesus? The better question is what has this Jesus done for us? He has divided us from our sin, from death, from hell, and united us to His Father. So we will confess this Jesus, preach this Jesus, love this Jesus, cling to this Jesus because this Jesus is our peace with God our Father. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
13 August 2016 anno Domini