“I came to bring fire to the earth,”
to set the world ablaze, the man cries. He speaks about baptism, and his
hearers might think of Old Testament readings about being overwhelmed by the
waters. He says that he has come to bring division, to set family members
against one another. It sounds like the language of terrorists, of people who
will ruin the world if they can’t rule it.
But the one who is speaking is
Jesus, the one who is supposed to be the Prince of Peace. “Love your enemies,” he
told people; and “My peace I give to you,” he would say to his disciples.”1
The contrast between his proclamations of peace and his words about fire and
division make us want to challenge him. Why are you offering us peace and then
telling us that war is coming?
But there is nothing to be gained by
challenging Jesus. His words will remain as his challenge to us. “You know how
to interpret the appearance of earth and sky” — that is, to read the weather
for when storms are coming — he says a few verses later. “Why do you not know
how to interpret the present time?”2 Why are you unable to
understand the meaning of the fire that is coming? Don’t you want to understand?
The decision that cannot be avoided
Jesus came to proclaim the peaceful
reign of God and to make it possible for people to share fully in shalom,
th
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