Our Scripture meditation is based on Luke 12:49–53, part of the next week’s Gospel Reading.
[49] “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! [50] I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! [51] Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. [52] For from now on in one house there will be five 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.”
It is a fitting time to give thanks to God for the wider context of the Scriptures to help us understand difficult Bible passages. Without the broader context, passage such as today’s reading could drain hope for our hearts.
Verse 51 is especially a heart-stopper: Jesus says, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Seriously? Our fatal flaw is the division between us and God caused by our sin. If Jesus didn’t come to address that great divide, then we are truly hopeless. Yet we know of Scripture passages that speak of such as Ephesians 2:13–16:
[13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. [14] For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility [15] by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, [16] and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Ah, now the picture is becoming clear. Jesus said he did not come to bring “peace on earth”. Jesus did some to make peace between heaven and earth, between God and mankind. In His death and resurrection, Jesus created this peace. Jesus literally broke down the “dividing wall of hostility” between us and God. When Jesus said he is not bringing peace on earth, he meant that this side of heaven his followers will still face acute struggles.
As Jesus said, sometimes these divisions are between family members. I have walked with new Christians who were leaving Buddhism, Mormonism, or Islam. In each case the new Christians were shamed or shunned by their immediate or extended families. The new Christians would try to reconcile with their families, but it is an exceedingly difficult process.
Thanks be to God that we could reassure the new Christians that God had already made peace with them through Jesus. They were not part of God’s family, with fellow congregational members as brothers and sisters.
Until next week, the Lord bless and guide.
Kevin Wilson 360 