Luke 12:49–53

12th Sunday after Pentecost

⁴⁹"I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! ⁵⁰I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! ⁵¹Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. ⁵²For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. ⁵³They 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."

Fire! Jesus said: “I came to cast fire upon the earth.” God is a consuming fire and a jealous God. All throughout Scripture, God is associated with fire. When he first appeared to Moses he appeared in a fire on a bush.

Fire and God go together. Wherever God is present, his holiness and wrath against sin are seen in fire. He says through the prophet Isaiah: “I am too holy for you; do not come near me for there is smoke in my nostrils and fire that burns all the day.” When Daniel saw the Ancient of Days, his throne was fiery flames and its wheels were burning fire. God does not keep silence, he is a devouring fire.

God’s holiness, wrath and justice are described in terms of fire. The Psalmist says God’s jealousy burns like a fire. He describes God’s wrath as a burning fire. With fire the Lord burns all of his adversaries. King David exults: “In my distress I called upon the Lord; I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice and my cry reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.” Solomon says the flame of the Lord is jealousy and in Revelation, the Apostle John saw the Son of God with eyes like a flame of fire.

Therefore, offer worship and awe to the Lord for he is a consuming fire. It was fire that Jesus came to cast upon the earth. The fire of God that punishes the sinner. It was fire that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord sent hail and fire on the Egyptians. It was with fiery serpents that God punished the Israelites and it was a fiery serpent that Moses held up on a pole.

God’s punishment comes in the form of fire. Fire came from the presence of the Lord and consumed the sons of Aaron. The Lord’s anger was kindled toward the Israelites and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed parts of the camp. For God is a righteous judge; if a man does not repent he prepares deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. The Lord rains coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and scorching wind will be their cup. He will swallow them up in his wrath and fire will consume them. The Lord will come in fire to unleash his anger in fury.

And the fires of God’s punishment are eternal fires. Those who rebel against the Lord will receive a worm that will not die and a fire that shall not be quenched. Jesus said that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire; the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When God separates the sheep from the goats to those on his left he says: “Depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Jesus said that he came to cast fire on the earth. For the earth is a fallen, sinful place. Man is a sinner and deserves the fires of God’s wrath and punishment from his birth. By nature we are enemies of God and his anger is kindled toward us. God prepares his fiery arrows for the man who does not repent. He will swallow them up in his wrath and consume him with fire. He will come with fire to visit his anger upon mankind. For we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God and by nature are children of wrath.

That is why Jesus came to cast fire. That is why first and foremost the fire would be cast upon himself! “I have a baptism to be baptized with,” he says. It was a baptism of fire. As John the Baptist had said of Jesus, “He will come to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” His own baptism was a baptism of fire. The fire of God is first poured out upon Jesus in his baptism. From then on Jesus stands under his Father’s wrath until that wrath is satisfied. With every sickness cured, every sin forgiven, every dead person raised, Jesus is both releasing creation from its bondage and absorbing into his body all sickness, sin and death. Jesus knew that he was to bear this fiery wrath and judgment of God which would fall on him in its fullness on the cross. From the time of his baptism Jesus bore the wrath of God against sin; the wrath which would be completed on the cross. Jesus began his ministry with his water baptism where he placed himself under God’s wrath on our behalf, and he completes his ministry with a bloody baptism on the cross where the full wrath of God is placed upon him as he atones for the sin of the world.

God punishes sin with fire, and so throughout the Old Testament, the sacrifice for sin was a holocaust. The sacrificial lamb was burned on the altar. After its blood had been poured out fire was placed beneath the animal to burn it.

This daily sacrifice of the holocaust was a mere shadow of the fire that Christ, the Lamb of God, would endure on the cross. For he was the sacrificial Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. Jesus absorbed our sin, sickness and death into himself and God’s wrath consumed our sin, sickness and death with his fiery breath which devoured his Son on the cross. The fires of God’s wrath burned against us in the person of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus came to earth in order to receive the fire sent down upon us for our sin and wickedness. The fire of God’s wrath burns first and foremost upon Jesus who is our substitute.

We are therefore justified before God. Our sin is paid for. Our sin has been punished. Jesus appeased the Father’s fiery wrath by his perfect life of obedience and his suffering on the cross. We are therefore reconciled to God by the death of his Son. And now, having been justified by faith we have peace with God. We are no longer his adversaries upon whom he rains down fire. We are reconciled to him. In our baptism the fire devours the old man of sin within us. A new man is raised up who lives in peace with God. As the angels sang: “Peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased.” He is pleased with us because the fires of his wrath have consumed our sin; the refiner’s fire has burned away the dross and purified the gold. We are the gold. We are the treasure of God’s heart. Why do we fear? Why do we faint from worry? Why do we despair in our agony and pain? We are his treasure! The refining fire purifies his golden treasure.

Yet we sometimes in our agony and sorrow cry out in pain. We cry out: “How great is my distress! Oh, that it were already over!” This is what Jesus passionately cries out as well. “How great is my distress until it is accomplished!” These words of our text are echoed in his prayer in the garden: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” They express the great agony and suffering that caused drops of blood to pour out from him like perspiration.

So when we cry out in distress we are not alone. Hear Jesus cry out with us. He was bearing our agony and pain. This pitiful cry was on account of our misery and sorrow which he bore. He suffered our anguish and has borne our griefs. This comforts us because we are not alone in our suffering. Jesus already bore our pain and he made peace between us and God.

Still Jesus says that he did not come to bring peace on earth. Jesus’ public ministry was completed at his death, but from that time until Christ returns the fires of God are ignited on earth. The presence of the Father’s wrath upon Jesus brings an unexpected result. It does not lead to peace but division.

Jesus came to take us into his kingdom of peace. So even though Jesus brings peace to sinners and the sick and even though the disciples of Jesus continue to herald his peace, Jesus also weeps over Jerusalem because her people did not know the things that have to do with peace.” He came to bring the redeemed into peace with God, but those who do not hear and believe shall not enter into his peace. Peace is a characteristic of God’s kingdom and those who dwell in his house dwell in peace and safety, but in the kingdom of this world there is no such peace.

In fact, the ministry of Jesus brought division and strife to the earth. For the world is at enmity with God. The world is hostile to God. Jesus’ entire ministry was one of division between the religions establishment and the sinners and tax collectors. He says that those who would follow him would sometimes have to forsake their families. Opposition to Jesus splits families. As he says, “For my name’s sake, in a family of five, two will be against three. Fathers will be turned against son and son against father. Mothers will turn against their daughters and daughters against their mothers.” Families, friends, even congregations and church bodies are divided when some remain faithful to Jesus and others stray from the pure gospel.

These words of Jesus are meant to strengthen the disciples as we follow Jesus during our lives in this world. He prepares us for the opposition we will face for following him. He prepares us for the divisions and hostility that happen even in our own families over faith in Jesus. We will suffer these fires. Fires of God which are like a refiner’s fire. The fire that purifies and burns the dross out of the gold and silver. The fire that purifies our lives and sanctifies us by burning away the dross of our sinful flesh and deeds and thoughts. For it is by fire that God corrects us and transforms our sinful lives into lives of obedience and righteousness.

And he strengthens us by showing us his own agony of the fire that he bore for us. For our agony and suffering don’t begin to compare with what he suffered for us. And we are comforted that if he passed through the fire of death on the cross for us, how will he not provide for us all that we need. He died in order to free us from our suffering. He died to take away our sin and suffering. He died to give us peace with God and that shall never be taken away not by life or death or famine or feast of hunger or thirst of sorrow or pain. For the refiner’s fire has purified the gold and the silver; the treasure of God’s heart; you and me.

Amen.