Learning from Jesus: Learning to Interpret

Luke 12:49-56

49 "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 

Fire really?

What does fire do?  What can be done with fire?  What would fire be used for in the ancient world?  What could be done with fire?

The fact of the matter is that fire is not simply known for its destructive nature.  Fire can also be a very good thing.  Fire was what cooked food. Fire was something which brought light during the night and gave warmth to a home when it was cold.   Fire was that which held the wild animals at bay in the wilderness.  It was also used to refine metal, it was used to burn out the impurities, make the metal stronger and to make it malleable so it could be shaped and formed into the properly.

Throughout the Old Testament, fire marked the presence of God. It was in the form of a smoking fire pot that God seals the covenant with Abraham. God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush, and it was the pillar of fire which leads the Israelites through the dessert.  

In this light fire is a good thing, something which can form and shape, something, which can purify and cleanse.  If we see this not as Jesus calling for fire to come to the earth to destroy but as fire coming to purify and cleanse, it makes sense why Jesus is desiring for that fire to already be kindled, for the fire to begin its work as soon as possible.  Jesus desires for us all to be cleansed and purified, he desires for the work he came to this earth to be completed, for every heart to be turned toward God and for all creation to be living the way God created creation to live. 

50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

Baptism and Fire?  How are these two connected?

Talk to me about Pentecost, fire and baptism?

What baptism does Jesus STILL at this point in his ministry need to undergo?

What is the imagery we use today when we talk about full immersion water baptism?  What does going under and coming back up represent to us?

Jesus points forward to the purifying, cleansing fire of Pentecost and the second baptism, and then almost immediately says that he himself still has a baptism to undergo.  The death and resurrection pointed to in baptism was yet to come, therefore Jesus still has a baptism before him.  Before the fire can come, before humanity can be reunited to their creator, Jesus must first be laid beneath the earth and rise up out of it again, as symbolized in the going under the water and rising back up out of it again which took takes place whenever someone is baptized.  Not only is Jesus waiting with much anticipation for all this to come to pass but before the fire can come, before the Spirit can fall on believer, first Jesus must suffer, die, and be raised from the dead, and his passion and death is something to which Jesus is not looking forward, it brings him distress.  It is much like a mother to be, who looks forward to holding her baby in her arms but does not necessarily look forward to whole actually giving birth part.  Although she may be greatly anticipating the moment when she will hold her brand new baby in her arms, the idea of the reality of what it will take to actually give birth can cause great distress.  Likewise as Jesus looks forward to the baptism of death which lies before him this causes him great stress, although it will ultimately lead to that which he desires most for the world.

 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." 

What does it mean for Jesus to be a divisive force in this world?

What exactly is Jesus getting at here? Why would he say that he is here to turn family members against each other?  Don’t we believe that Jesus is here to bring peace?

Who did people expect Jesus to be?

Many people expected the messiah to be a great military leader who would come and make all things right for Israel, who would restore the political fortunes of Israel and restore their national identity and set himself on the throne of David to peacefully rule the nation as God intended. But this is not exactly what Jesus came to do.  Jesus did not come to bring military and political peace to a nation which had been in turmoil for hundreds of years. In fact restoring the nation of Israel not at all on Jesus’ agenda, in fact any kind of peace as they knew it was also not on his agenda.

Jesus was there to restore relationship with God.  Jesus was there to restore life to the way God created it to be.  Before all things can be truly set right all the things which are wrong have to be up ended and thrown to the wayside.  Societal norms will be cast to the side.  The things which you are told to value may not have any value at all.

Why attack the family?

What was family in ancient world? What was its place in society? What was its’ place in a person’s

In that day and age the family was the center of society, even more so than we would like to think it is today.  The family and familial relations were of the utmost importance.  A son, no matter how old was not under any circumstance to stand against his father.  This was also true for a daughter and her mother.  And when a young woman left her house and went to live in the house of her husband her Mother-in-law stood in the place where her mother once stood in her life.  These were sacred relationships, relationships which you respected at all costs.  You did not under any circumstances turn against or stand against these most important people in your life.  These relationships were to be protected and preserved above all other things and should be prize above anything else in one’s life. 

Jesus is saying not only is he to not bring peace as they would see it, but ultimately choosing to live the way God was calling people to live should come above the most important relationships in your life.  Jesus was not there to protect and up hold the norm of that society but Jesus was there to restore relationship with God and that relationship would stand over and above all other relationships and could very well break up that which would normally be considered sacred.  God was there to be the top, to be the most important, to be the most sacred.  If you were willing to follow God you must be willing to set aside all other things, no matter how important or sacred you might believe them to be. 

What is Jesus saying to us through this? About the relationships we value?  About what we value most?

Society might tell you this relationship CAN NOT be breached.  The world may tell you, that you can not at any cost cross this line but if that relationship stands in the way of your relationship with God or that line is blocking your way to living the life God has called you to live that relationship must be cast to the wayside and that line must be crossed.

Jesus did not come to bring peace, Jesus did not come to up hold the status quo and become a pillar to support the systems protected and revered by any particular society.  Jesus came to stand over and above these things.  God is more important than social structures.  Relationship with the creator of the universe is to be valued more than any relationship you may have on this earth.  The standard which Jesus calls us to should be sought after over and above, and even to the contrary of, any standards which the world around us might call us to live by. 

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?

What does it mean to “see” the weather coming? Anyone ever live anywhere, where you can see the weather coming? 

How does being able to see the weather coming apply to being able to understand what is going on in the world around us?

Jesus was calling for his disciples to have that same kind of understanding of the world around them and about the gospel.  They needed to stop being ignorant of the things which were all around them, that is the truth of the gospel.  They needed to stop expecting Jesus to be who they wanted him to be.  They needed to look to the signs, look at the horizon and see what was going on all around them. Jesus was here to cleanse them, to bring a baptism of fire which would purify them and make them into the people God created them to be.  They needed to open their eyes to the signs around them and see that Jesus was not there to prop up the status quo of their society and live up to expectations which the world around them had set up for them.  Jesus was there to go against the norm, to break up the failures of the sinful status quo and set things right, not bring peace for Israel but to set things right for all creation, to bring all humanity back into relationship with God.  Jesus was not there to be the person they wanted him to be but Jesus was there to allow all of humanity to be the people God created them to be.

Conclusion:

Jesus is calling us to be the people God created us to be.  We were created to live in unhampered relationship with God.  We were created to be pure and holy.  We were created to love God and love each other with unfettered and inexhaustible love but sin and the separation which sin caused between us and God as well as with one another (let us not fool ourselves into thinking that sin merely affects our relationship with God and is not extended to all our other relationships).  Jesus came to this earth to restore us to be the people God created us to be.  He came to this earth to allow us to live the way we were meant to live.  While he was here on earth his greatest desire was to usher in the coming of the refining fire of the Spirit which would allow this to begin to happen in the hearts and lives all those who choose to accept him as their Lord, savoir and restorer of their lives.

As Christians our deepest desire it to be who Jesus calls us to be, to be the people God created us to be, to be cleansed from all that disconnects us from God, to be freed from all that hinders us from being who we were meant to be, to be restored in relationship not only with one another, loving each other purely and wholly but to be restored in our relationship with God. 

But this may not look the way you or I would hope for it to look.  It may not follow the form or the pattern we want it to follow.  Jesus did not come to up hold our expectations.  He did not come to be who we think he should be.  He did not come to prop up the societal norms or to bolster the inadequacies of any individual culture.  Jesus came to shatter the norms, to tear away the inadequacies and restore things to their proper created order.  Jesus did not simply come to make our lives better, he did not come to simply make our society the best society it can be, he did not come to make things perfect as we would see perfection, but Jesus came to set things right once and for all.  Jesus came to shatter our understanding of perfection and show us what perfection truly is. 

Jesus came to do all these things for us, for our community and for our world, but you and I have no control over the world, we have no control over our community but we do have control of ourselves.  Jesus came to make things right beginning with me, beginning with you.  Jesus came to shatter all expectations, I have, you have of him.  Jesus came so that you might live, so that you may live abundantly, that is to live in pure unhampered, uninhibited relationship with God and so that you can learn to live same way that as you do in relationship with God in all your relationships in this world.  Jesus came to call you to be the person God created you to be. 

Jesus is calling for us to look around us to see the signs of this world, to see the truth of the Gospel to know and understand where the truth lies, to know and understand the expectations and the ways of our society and to know and understand how they measure up to the truth of who Jesus is and who it is God is calling us to be and to discern accordingly, what in this world is of value and what needs to be ignored.  We need to be able to see the signs of the gospel and see where our society falls short in what it expects of us and then to refuse listen to the voices of our society in those areas of our lives, to not follow that line but to instead to live in the ways which God is calling for us to live. 

Jesus also is calling for us to look to the horizon of our own lives, to be honest with ourselves about which way the wind is blowing in our lives and to understand how that stands up to what it means to be the people God wants to shape us and form us into being.  Living in right relationship with God; living lives which are cleansed, purified by the fire of the Spirit of God, means living the way God created us to live; that is loving God with all our hearts, strength and mind and to love one another with and through the love we have for God and the love which God gives to us.  Holy lives, lives pure and refined by God are lives of love.

In order for us to these kinds of lives, to live lives marked by the love of God, the lives Jesus is calling us to live, Jesus must be first in our life. In order for us to be the people God is calling us to be, we must live the way God created us to live, that is in relationship with the creator and that relationship must be the most important thing in our life.  All other expectations, all other priorities must be rearranged around this primary priority.  Anything that hinders, anything that stands in the way, anything which goes against God and against God’s call on your life must suffer, must be tossed to the wayside.  Nothing is as important, nothing is more important than allowing the cleansing, fire of God to purify you, make you holy and bring you to a point where you are living the way God is calling for you to live.