+ 10th Sunday after Pentecost – August 17th, 2025 +
Series C: Jeremiah 23:16-29; Hebrews 11:17-12:3; Luke 12:49-53
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
I’m guessing none of us have this section of Scripture for our confirmation verse or scrolled in beautiful calligraphy over our fire place. Maybe you even winced a little while saying, “This is the Gospel of the Lord.”
Jesus’ words in Luke 12 are challenging to hear. Hard to understand. Why is the Prince of Peace speaking about fire, baptism, peace, and division?
Knowing what’s happening in Luke 12 and what Jesus says will give us a better grasp of this hard saying of Jesus, and help us better understand Jesus’ pyrotechnic preaching
Throughout Luke 12, Jesus addresses several groups of people: His disciples. The crowds. And the Pharisees. Jesus prepares his disciples for future persecutions; he warns the disciples and the crowds against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees; and he lovingly admonishes them not to trust in possessions. Fear not. Jesus’ death and resurrection is greater than all that life throws at you. God has you covered. He is faithful. He will preserve, protect, and deliver you.
And then comes today’s reading: 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!
Even though his language sounds jarring, Jesus’ has been leading us and his disciples to this very point. Fire. Baptism. Peace. Division. These words encompass everything Jesus’ ministry is about.
Fire, as we know well during wildfire season, is both destructive and purifying. Scripture uses fire both ways: as a sign of God’s judgment and wrath against sin. Fire is also refining, purifying, holy-making like when Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit and fire on Pentecost, the fiery wind of the Spirit. Gospel fire. Like the pillar of fire that led Israel through the Sea or the fire of the burning bush that did not burn up, the fire Jesus casts upon the earth is a refining, purifying, illuminating fire.
For Jesus is the one upon whom the fire of God’s wrath for sin has fallen. On the cross, God’s wrath is kindled, but not against us. On Jesus. We’re like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as Jesus is crucified in the fiery furnace of God’s wrath to save us.
For fire to be kindled, there must be sacrifice, a whole burnt offering, a sinless Victim for the sinful many. For this peace that passes our understanding to come to us, there must be a death, and not just any death, but the death of God in the Flesh. He alone can kindle this fire. No amount of rubbing the sticks of our good works together can accomplish this, no matter how many merit badges we accumulate to our credit.
Only Jesus can bring Pentecost fire to the earth, but first, He must die and rise. There is no other way than the way of the cross. And in the words of today’s Gospel, He is driven and compelled to the cross.
And would that it were already kindled, Jesus says. Great is my distress until it is accomplished. Finished. Completed.
Jesus is pointing us ahead to his crucifixion. His ministry begins and ends with Baptism. First his watery baptism in the Jordan. Then his bloody/fiery baptism on the cross as he atones for the sin of the world. The water of the Jordan that flowed over Jesus’ head gives way to the water and blood that flows out of Jesus’ side. From the cross. To the font. To the chalice. For you.
This is what brings peace. In the darkness of Good Friday, the fire of God’s love burns brightest. The burning passion of God to save sinful humanity and a fallen creation. There, in Jesus’ death, is a peace that the world cannot give. A peace the world does not know. A peace the world hates. It’s the peace of sins washed away by the blood of the Lamb, the peace of good news and rescue…that for you, there is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.
This, then, is the irony and paradox of the Christian life. Receiving His peace. Baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection. Purified and cleansed by his sacrifice on the cross….means that more often than not, we find ourselves at odds with the world.
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
For many of us, Jesus’ words hit home. We live in a divided world. Simply confessing the Christian faith, and living in Christ, we’re divided from those who don’t. Some leave the church or reject our Lord. And then there’s our sins of thought, word, and deed that cause division in our families, marriages, friendships, and everything. This is why we call the church the family of God. Brothers and sisters in Christ. Bound together by the cross; the font; and the altar –the communion of saints.
Jesus was no stranger to division. That’s exactly what happened to him on the cross. Jesus…Forsaken for you. Judged for you. Crucified for you. Jesus was divided from the Father as he bore all our sins of division, so that in his death and resurrection you and I would never be divided from him.
Therefore let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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