I thought Jesus was supposed to bring peace to us? Isn’t that what the angels announced at his birth? “Peace on earth to those on whom God’s favor rests” (Lk 2:14). He has brought peace because our faith in him reassures us we are at peace with God; our sins have been forgiven. As some might put it, “My soul is at peace.” He has also brought us into a community of reconciled sinners. Jesus has taught us that if a sister or brother has anything against us, we have to leave our gift at the altar and be reconciled with that one (Matt5:23-24). Ours is to be a community where peace reigns and when it doesn’t, we are to work to bring it about.
Today Jesus is talking about peace, but not the kind of peace the world gives — not peace at any price. Not the peace that keeps us quiet when someone is being abused. Not merely the peace we feel when we have plenty and our life is comfortable. Not synthetic peace, when we are at odds with those around us, but we keep silent and settle for “peace at any price.” Not the peace of living in a separate camp detached from those who suffer want.
Hebrews reminds us today that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. These are our holy ancestors who kept their “eyes fixed on Jesus.” While their lives were never easy, these witnesses found joy in the One who endured opposition. They found peace in him who unsettled the complacent and caused division among even the most respectable citizens and religious leaders.
In the gospel today Jesus says, “I have come to set the world on fire and how I wish it were already blazing.” He is ready and willing to face the hardships that lie ahead. Jesus’ words must have unsettled his hearers then, as they do now for us. It doesn’t sound like Jesus meant that the practice of our faith should make us comfortable, guarantee harmony or tranquility. Indeed, as he predicted, belief in him would cause the most severe conflict, even in the close-knit-family world of his Mediterranean followers.
Jesus is zealous about his mission; it consumes him. He has a task to complete and will follow it through, despite the threats to his personal safety. Jesus refers to his fate as “a baptism with which I must be baptized.” He sees his coming passion as a baptism which he will accept and which will set a fire upon the earth. Remember when John the Baptist spoke of Jesus he linked baptism and fire, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:16).
Later, in Acts, Luke will again draw together the images of Spirit and fire in his account of Pentecost (Acts 1:5). On Pentecost wind and fire marked the disciples’ baptism with the Holy Spirit. Fired by the Spirit they broke out of their isolated and fear-filled world to begin their preaching of the gospel. That preaching will ignite a fire that will bring good news to many, but a fiery division for others. Responding to the grace of the gospel has its costs.
Jesus describes his coming passion as a “baptism.” That language would remind Luke’s community of the baptized that what Jesus faced as a result of his mission, would also be asked of them. The baptized should not be surprised that our baptism will cost us. It will cost us our: popularity, as we sometimes voice a contrary view from our friends and families; comfort, as we commit to giving, even from our want, to those in need; free time, as we volunteer at church or at a local community aid organization; even our accustomed prayers and pieties, if they are isolating us from the worshiping community to which we belong.
At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel the prophet Simeon told Jesus’ parents, at his dedication in the Temple, that Jesus was “destined for the downfall and the rise of many in Israel, a sign that will be opposed” (2:34). If our first commitment is to Jesus then that will challenge all of our other loyalties — even our loyalty to family, society and nation.
If we find ourselves quite comfortable in our social and political environs, does what Jesus says today cause us to squirm? How deep can our religious faith be if we have accepted Jesus’ vision as our vision, yet find ourselves completely at home in the world? Where then is our primary citizenship; are we members of his kingdom or not? And at what cost?
Summer is often the time for family reunions. They require great planning and often include traditional family foods and outdoor games to help rekindle old ties and establish new ones with the latest additions to our extended family. We do all we can to make these events run smoothly so they will draw us closer together.
Enter Jesus. He certainly isn’t against family unity and loyalties. Our shared faith in him can make us a stronger and more supportive family. But, as he predicted and has happened, being his disciples can even split the most close-knit family. Following Jesus, he says, will ask us to pay a price, and that may very well happen in our own homes, “father will be divided against his son… a mother against her daughter.”
Jesus didn’t have the luxury of leisure and extended stays with his family and friends. He saw the times as short, the events as critical — provoked by his very presence and preaching. We note that his words today weren’t addressed to the crowds, but to his disciples, those in the process of committing themselves to him and his message. Would they, and we, take his message seriously and follow him all the way to Jerusalem, where Jesus would be “baptized” with the baptism he anticipated?
Our baptism joined us to the dying and rising with Christ. We received new life when the Holy Spirit and a purifying fire not only cleansed us of sin and its consequences, but “fired” us to accept the suffering and sacrifice which Jesus promised would necessarily come to those who have been baptized in his baptism.