Truth and Division: A Meditation on Luke 12, for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost

I am come to send fire on the earth;

and what will I, if it be already kindled?

But I have a baptism to be baptized with;

and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?

I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided,

 three against two, and two against three.

 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father;

 the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother;

 the mother in law against her daughter in law,

and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

 

On first read, Jesus’ words in Luke 12 would seem to conflict with what Luke records in his second chapter with the angels singing at Jesus’ birth:  Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!  Yet we know that all Scripture is God-breathed from the same Holy Spirit, so it does harmonize across all its centuries and human authors.  What was announced at Jesus’ birth was the dawn of redeeming grace that reconciles mankind with God through the Vicarious Atonement which would be made by the Son—the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  Jesus as the only Way, Truth, and Life would bring peace between God and men.  What would remain in a sinful and fallen world is the conflict between men; those who would accept reconciliation with God by grace through faith in Christ alone, and those who would prefer the enslaving darkness of fellowship with the devil.  The fire Jesus was kindling on the earth was that of the Gospel, and His baptism would be His death on the Cross as a substitute for the whole world.  After His resurrection, He gave that victory over sin, death, hell, and the devil, to His disciples, that they might further make disciples of all nations, baptizing, teaching, and forgiving them just as freely as they had received the same.

 

Unfortunately, one of the gravest consequences of evil, is a suicidal insanity—a departure from truth and reason that could end only in destruction.  An individual mind and will that rejects the Mind and Will of their Maker, is one that is cut off from the source of its own life, and can do no other than fall ever further into darkness.  As Jesus, the very Word and Will, Light and Life of Almighty God walked among His people, there were those who gladly heard and followed Him, and those who angrily heard and rejected Him.  The Word of God came to all, freely calling all people in divine love and grace to receive forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus.  That Word never called for violence or coercion, because true love and grace can never be coerced or forced.  The Holy Spirit, working through the Living Word, gave then and gives now the ability of a fallen mind to freely receive the gift of life which Jesus alone can offer.  Yet the Holy Spirit coerces no one to love God, and allows all those who reject Him to receive the consequences of their insane death wish:  the judgment of hell which they have freely earned through their evil and rebellion.  Though some Christians at different times and in different places across the centuries have erred gravely in arrogating to themselves the judgment of God against their neighbors, Jesus is clear in His commission to His people that the Gospel is to be proclaimed in freedom and grace, while judgment is to be left to God alone.  The sporadic failure of man, either Christian or non-Christian, to abide by the Word of Christ, does not impugn or diminish that Eternal Word.  Rather, it reflects the reality of division among men which Jesus prophesied.

 

Sometimes this looks mysterious in our modern world, just as it did in times before ours.  There’s a kind of unity which comes with evil, even as it devours itself with an endless variety of malicious intentions and actions.  Every individual soul that idolizes itself is at the same time both at war and in harmony with all the other souls doing the same, which generally leads to some kind of violence and tyranny of the strong over the weak.  Evil is always about power and coercion, seeking to take what is not given from those who can be swindled or bent to the will of others.  The devil has orchestrated a marvelous global cacophony of selfishness and hatred that finds titular heads in tyrants of every shape and kind.  The tyranny of force and compulsion from one will to another is the antithesis of love and freedom, and so the devil continually guides men into the service of their own passions, where they find only slavery and death in his demonic worldly system, even as they become in themselves agents of slavery and death to others.  The devil and his entire worldly system can tolerate every form of evil and oppression, every variation of selfishness and pride, but what it cannot tolerate is the Truth.  The devil’s enslavement is built on a lie that the creature can dethrone the Creator, and the Truth of God’s Law and Gospel shatter that illusion.  As the greatest threat to the devil’s kingdom is the Truth of God’s Eternal Word which has come to seek and to save the lost, it should surprise no one that the devil’s greatest effort is spent persecuting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

But of course, the devil has all the wrong tools to suppress the Gospel.  The devil brought a Roman cross, and Jesus accepted it for the salvation of the world.  The devil inspired Saul to persecute and murder the disciples of Jesus, and Jesus made him the greatest missionary Evangelist in history, even changing his name to Paul.  Everywhere the devil tries to murder and suppress and malign those who carry forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel continues to be proclaimed as the free gift of forgiveness which no man could earn—a reconciliation and peace with God than no man could coerce by his own power.  Every lying powerplay of the devil dissolves in the freedom, mercy, grace, and love of Almighty God.  The irony of the devil’s insanity is brought fully into the light, as he with his inferior power cannot achieve what he demands, while God with His omnipotent power achieves total victory by grace.  In the end, God will show forth His power by placing all those who choose evil into their final infernal prison, but the Wisdom of God in this time is that He makes His power perfect in weakness:  the victory of the Cross, the preaching of the Gospel, the conversion of the heart, mind, and will of fallen people that they become reflective lenses of their Creator’s Light, Life, and Word.  While the devil will inspire fallen men to take up swords and weapons and intrigues to terrorize their fellow men, the Lord God Almighty gives the sword of His Word and the fire of His Holy Spirit that all men might repent, believe, and live forever in Him, forgiven and free.

 

If you are disturbed by the division of the world around you, be of good cheer, for the Word of God has come to you in your time, just as it has come to everyone in their times across history.  Only the Eternal Word of the Living God can reconcile you to your Maker, and will transform you into one of His people, united across all time and space in His Kingdom which has no end.  The devil’s empty promises may be received by the insanity of evil minds, but his time is short, and he knows it.  Stand fast in the Gospel which has made you free, and the forgiveness which has made you whole.  Reflect the love which is given so freely to you, that the love of God might touch the hearts and minds of those around you, and the dawn of redeeming grace may shine upon those whom God has placed around you.  Soli Deo Gloria! Amen.