Luke 12: 49-59
Jesus, the Crisis of the World
I grew up in a small village in the North of England, in Yorkshire… in a rural area that was far from London, almost in Scotland…and Yorkshire people had a reputation for being very down to earth, very straightforward and honest…sometimes brutally so to people who were more used to the sophistication of places like London …
My dad used to say “Yorkshire people call a spade a spade…except when they fall over it”…but there it was…tell the truth….
Then I grew up …and I discovered that telling the truth wasn’t always quite so valued …sometimes telling the truth felt very lonely and left out. Sometimes it was easier to fudge a little on the truth to get through the moment.
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you…an oddball…”
This quote is from the Southern author Flannery O’Connor…And somehow that feels more like the way it is In our world…
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you…an oddball…”
Which isn’t exactly Jesus’ message in our passage today from Luke, but it’s a place for us to begin, I think…
Telling the truth, especially God’s truth, can be disruptive…and even divisive.
Luke is the most eloquent of the gospel writers. His Greek style is flowing and engaging and we’re easily drawn in to the story.
He’s the master storyteller…after all, isn’t it usually to Luke that we turn for the Christmas story every year…and at Easter for the story of the resurrection…and to the Acts of the Apostles – Luke Volume II – for stories about the early Church.
But Luke’s story telling isn’t a human fable…it isn’t a work of literary fiction…Luke’s story is about a real, historical person…Jesus of Nazareth.
And Luke is also the most God-centered of the gospels...he places great emphasis on the workings of the Holy Spirit.
Luke is simply telling God’s story…salvation history…and the story is unstoppable because it is God’s plan. It’s God’s will and God’s reign that are at work in human history…and the plot is always driven by the divine necessity of Jesus’ mission in it.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Promised One, the Savior…Jesus is the principal player in God’s divine drama.
And Jesus lived amidst the very real conflicts of his world…political conflicts between Israel and the empire of Rome, religious conflicts with the Pharisees, the establishment religious authority.
Jesus lived all of this…and being reminded of it makes the story more meaningful for us today…more relevant and powerful…and even more dangerous.
Because you see God’s story can’t be confined to a building …or a particular religious tradition…or a special time of day…
There are two things that we should always remember when reading Luke…because Luke is always pushing the boundaries of conventional wisdom…
” Luke’s God remains terrifyingly faithful …and yet scandalously free to save people…all people…any people…and especially those people who aren’t like us.” (Dr Black)
The second is that when we witness to the gospel…when we live like disciples…we often won’t be thanked…as Flannery O’Connor says…we’ll be the oddball…out of step…and it will probably be uncomfortable…
But the truth – God’s truth – doesn’t change according to our ability or inclination to stomach it.
So how does all this fit into our passage today…
This middle section of Luke – chapters 9 – 18- is known as the Travel Narrative…
Jesus has turned his face towards Jerusalem…he’s on his way to meet his divine destiny…and he’s using the time to teach his followers along the way.
But, as we read, Jesus’ teaching is no cosy fireside chat…
Jesus talks of fire and judgment, of stress and division.
Fire in the bible usually suggests purification, cleansing, being honed into something better…and it can be painful.
And the baptism that Jesus refers to isn’t his immersion in water.
Jesus is referring to his upcoming baptism in suffering…his death as part of the divine plan… so that we might be washed clean in his blood.
Nothing less than the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ, God’s son, God incarnate, will suffice in God’s story of salvation. Jesus knows that he is journeying to his death.
And so he is understandably under stress…he is distressed…until such time as his mission is completed.
Peace will only come to the world if all accept Jesus as the Messiah.
Otherwise he will be a cause of division if he is rejected, even division among family members.
Jesus is calling us to choose for him, for the ultimate truth,
To choose for God and for God’s salvation story…
How is it that we can so confidently and easily interpret and choose the mundane things of life… Jesus asks…things like the weather…but we choose to dilly dally around in the most important decision of our lives…
Choose for yourselves…is Jesus’ message…despite the insistence of even family members, choose for yourselves…choose the truth, and do it now.
Jesus may very well be the cause of division in our lives…a time of decision…a time of crisis…a time of upset to our comfortable status quo
The meaning for us…in our present time… is this…
Judge for yourselves…
Choose for God...
Follow Jesus…
Divide yourselves from the pack…
Be the oddball…
And be free.
Let us pray
Timeless, unfathomable God, help us to see you clearly
And to follow bravely where you lead…
From Bethlehem to Jerusalem and beyond…
In your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen