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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Several things in today’s Gospel Reading at first listen might seem contrary to what we might otherwise expect. For example, we hear Jesus ask, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” We hear that, and we might think of seemingly contrary statements earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel account: Zechariah’s prophecy that Jesus would guide people’s feet “into the way of peace” (Luke 1:79), and the song of the multitude of the heavenly host at Jesus’s birth, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). How can Jesus say that He had come to bring division? This morning as we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading, we do so under the theme, “Why Jesus Comes”.
We have skipped forward in St. Luke’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account, though Jesus continues teaching in Judea. After teaching His followers not to be anxious, as we heard last week, Jesus teaches them that they should be ready for His return at any time, especially those like the Twelve, to whom Jesus entrusted much. Though the time of fulfillment is at hand, the time of fulfillment means affliction for Jesus and for all those who follow Him. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus speaks of His coming to cast fire on the earth, of His coming essentially to bring judgment, not peace but division, even among the smallest and potentially closest of families.
Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with anyone’s wanting peace, especially in one’s family! But, what kind of peace does one want in one’s family, and what is the cost of that peace? For example, is it to be only a superficial peace where everyone is socially civil with one another? And, are some members of the family expected to go to great lengths to keep other members of the family happy? The general tone of Jesus’s teaching may have led some people to think His message was one of unqualified peace; even Jesus’s disciples may have envisioned a political peace, one brought about by a great military victory. And, they hardly understood what Jesus was going to do. We, too, may have wrong ideas about the kind of peace Jesus brings, such as expecting everyone in the world to be at peace with one another before Jesus returns. And, we, too, may not understand how peace is to be brought about, perhaps wrongly thinking that confession of God’s Word needs to be compromised in some way in order to bring about peace. Whether we sin in those or other ways, we all sin, for we are all sinful by nature.
Some of our sin we admit to other people, and some of our sin we barely admit to ourselves. Some of our sin we might even think we can deny before God. Yet, as God reminds us through Jeremiah in today’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 23:16-29), we cannot hide ourselves in secret places so that God cannot see us. He knows all of our sin and our sinful nature. As He says in that same Reading (and was repeated in today’s Appointed Verse), His Word is like fire. In the Gospel Reading Jesus says He came to cast such fire on the earth, and He kindles that fire. Judgment is present in and with Jesus: He clears the threshing floor, gathers the wheat, and burns the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:10-12). Elsewhere in St. Luke’s account Jesus says that He came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Whether we are in fellowship with Him or alienated from Him depends on whether or not we repent: whether we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. For Jesus’s sake, God forgives our wrong ideas about peace and how it comes about. For Jesus’s sake, God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be.
In the Gospel Reading Jesus speaks of having “a baptism to be baptized with” and being in great “distress until it is accomplished!” Of course, most of us know John the Baptizer gave Jesus a literal baptism with water in the Jordan River; in which baptism Jesus identified Himself with us sinners and thereby necessitated rejection and death. So, Jesus can also speak of having to undergo a figurative baptism, namely death on the cross. In the Gospel Reading, St. Luke uniquely reports Jesus’s speaking of His distress until that figurative baptism was accomplished. Jesus was torn, as it were, between the horror of the death He knew He would experience on the cross and what today’s Epistle Reading describes as the joy that was set before Him, for which He endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 11:17-31; 12:1-3). Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was aware of why He had come, and He was certain about it. So, Jesus acted on His deep desire to fulfill God’s prophesied plan of salvation once and for all, and He accomplished it, or to use the usual translation of His own words on the cross, He “finished” it. On account of Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, the sin of all those who believe is forgiven. We who believe live by faith, just like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the people who crossed the Red Sea, those who circled the walls of Jericho, Rahab, and many others.
By faith we all receive God’s gift of forgiveness and so peace—as peace with Him and as the salvation of our souls—and we receive that forgiveness and peace through His Word and Sacraments. St. Mark’s Gospel account records Jesus not only speaking of a baptism with which He was being baptized but also of a cup that He was drinking (Mark 10:38-39). In that passage, as in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus describes His suffering and death in sacramental terms. His suffering and death give substance to the sacraments, and so the sacraments give us the benefits of His death. In Holy Baptism we are baptized into His death (Romans 6:3), and so we have the forgiveness of sins. And, because from this altar He gives us His body and blood—in, with, and under bread and wine—we depart from this rail in peace.
Any of us who run errands know what it is to go to one place—say the mall in Tyler or Longview—for more than one purpose. Sometimes, by accomplishing one purpose we actually also negate another purpose. For example, we might find what we need at one store and so not have to look at another store. Somewhat similarly, Jesus comes as true God in human flesh primarily for the purpose of saving us, of giving us peace. But, secondarily He comes to cast the fire of judgment and so bring division. All those who would deny that division need to remember that such division is the necessary result of some believing in Him and others rejecting Him. There is no middle ground; people either stand with Him or against Him. Sadly, that division can separate those who once worshipped together, as the Introit describes (Psalm 55:1, 12-14, 16). And, sadly, that division can also separate members of the same family, as the Gospel Reading describes in terms God prophesied through Micah (Micah 7:6). Yet, such is the way the Gospel spreads. And, even if believing family members are forsaken and persecuted, they are part of the family of God formed by baptismal water and Christ’s blood, which enable them to bear not only the cross of renouncing unbelieving family members but all crosses that come their way.
This morning we have reflected on today’s Gospel Reading under the theme, “Why Jesus Comes”. We have realized that what Jesus says is not contrary but that He comes calling all sinners to repentance, giving peace to those who repent and fiery judgment to those who do not repent. Jesus came once to accomplish our salvation with His death on the cross, and, until He comes a final time, He continues to come to us through His Word and Sacrament, giving us forgiveness of sins and peace as our possession already now. As our Gradual said, the Lord delivers us out of all our afflictions, and, as we petitioned in today’s Collect, we pray that He will “give us grace to receive with thanksgiving the fruits of His redeeming work and daily follow in His way.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +