When Peace Isn't Peaceful
In Luke 12:49-53, Jesus shocks us with the announcement that there are times When Peace Isn't Peaceful. August 26, 2007.
One of the most dangerous explanations of the meaning of life is the idea that God wants everyone to be happy. Soccer parents who think everyone should be happy get frustrated when playing time and position opportunity are dished out based on ability and their child with below average soccer skills sits on the sidelines. If you’re on the road during summer construction or stuck in the Marquette interchange at 8:20 a.m. late for work you shake your fist at the orange barrels and wonder why this is happening to you, can’t all drivers just be happy? And then there’s the conciliatory suggestion that we’d all get along better if we just agreed that we all worship the same God, we just call him different names – well, that’s now not good enough for some like the Roman Catholic bishop in the Netherlands who recently recommended that people of all faiths just call God “Allah” because that’s such a beautiful word. In response, Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations welcomed the idea. “It reinforces the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God,” he said. “I think it will open up doors” (Kathleen Parker, syndicated columnist in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 12, 2007, p. 11A).
Those are the open doors that Jesus slams shut in today’s gospel when he shockingly announces, “Do you think I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” Either the Prince of Peace has his own rogue agenda in mind or there are times When Peace Isn’t Peaceful. Whatever the case, Jesus wants us to rethink the popular notion that God wants everyone to be happy.
How could God want everyone to be happy when Jesus states his mission for us: “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.” If this statement of Jesus explodes your concept of peace on earth … good! Jesus wants it to! In the original Greek language Jesus begins the statement with the word “fire!” (which always gets people’s attention). A Savior pleased with the status quo who just wants to sit back and smile while everyone is happy doesn’t yell “fire!” But Jesus does. Fire is deadly. Fire kills people. Fire burns, consumes, and destroys. Jesus doesn’t come to this earth carrying a flickering torch of peace like an Olympics opening ceremonies participant hoping to unite the world. Jesus carries a fatal atomic bomb. “Fire I have come to bring on the earth!” So, when does this bomb explode? Jesus wishes he could speed up the countdown to detonation by turning the dial and being done with it. “How I wish it were already kindled.”
So according to Jesus his mission is not to bring everyone happiness and unite the nations with world peace. His mission is to light the world on fire by dropping a bomb of destruction and death. A fire he wished at the time was already burning, but it wasn’t. What might this fire be? Jesus explains further, “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed.” If this statement makes you double take your understanding of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River … good! Jesus wants it to! In the original Greek language Jesus begins this statement with the word “baptism,” emphasizing that baptism is a pouring out of water and the Holy Spirit that totally changes a person, giving new mission, new purpose, and new meaning. An outpouring of heaven. A flood of new life. You’d think Jesus would be excited about living out his baptism –when John the Baptist anointed him as the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and set him on a course for redeeming the world – but Jesus sighs, “how distressed I am until it is completed.”
Do you sense that Jesus is happy? Do you detect that his goal for life is that he and everyone else should be happy? Is that why God the Father sent Jesus to this earth, to be happy? Jesus is aching with grief here. He’s as anxious about his mission as any of us has ever been anxious about a looming deadline or hefty assignment. He’s as troubled about his purpose in life as any of us has ever been troubled about why we’re right here, right now, with this role, this job, this relationship, and where we’re headed. He wants his assignment to be over and done with. He’s stressed out that it’s not going to be easy. Jesus could, if he really wanted, be happy. He could ditch it all, duck into a corner tavern, then disappear and live the good life escaping all his troubles. But the soul of Jesus tells him there’s conflict and hardship here he needs to experience or he will fail. The Spirit of Jesus will not let him rest until he faces his fears, stepping into the darkness ahead. Just like he expects of us.
The Father of Jesus has given him the fire and he must carry it, he must bring it to the world, he must feel the burning pain of its deadly flames scorching his beard, his skin, his soul. Fire! Death! Destruction! Forsaken on the cross! Killed by wicked sinners! Suffering for guilty sinners! Pain! Crying! Blood! “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus …who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Shame. Joy. Yes, fire kills and destroys but there is new life in those ashes. Fire also illumines and refines. The atomic fire of Jesus was nothing other than his death on the cross for everyone. Was it peaceful? No. Does it bring peace? Yes. And it brings life and forgiveness.
This is why Jesus stood in the waters of the Jordan River three years earlier with John the Baptist at his side. This is why the Father opened up the heavens and spoke words of power and responsibility to his Son. This is why the Spirit landed on Jesus equipping him with the desire and determination to complete his assignment. Here at the cross we see the baptism of Jesus. Here in the pain and persecution of a choice he made we still see the sparkling waters of the Jordan dripping down his beard mixed with the blood and the tears and the sweat. Jesus’ baptism, and yours, is not a one-time event but a life-time experience. Jesus’ baptism, and yours, is a gift for a responsibility, and a promise for an assignment. When we baptize babies today, what looks to be so peaceful as water trickles on a little baby’s forehead and so cute as the wrinkles on that baby’s face squeeze tightly together wondering what is going on is really not peaceful at all. That act by those parents guarantees a life of pain and hardship for that child, as along as he or she continues to live in the Christian faith – just like Jesus’ baptism determined for him his path to the cross. Is your baptism peaceful? No. But does it bring peace? Yes. And it brings power and promise for a life filled with meaning. Filled with God.
“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” Jesus came to disturb earthly peace that feels happy but for all the wrong reasons. Think of this statement of Jesus this way: the division and conflict that Jesus creates in your life is infinitely better than unity and peace without him.
How is Jesus disturbing your peace? Where is Jesus creating crisis and conflict in your life? If you want to follow Jesus then he has the right to make you unhappy. Will you let him do that? Will you trust him when he puts a torch to your life goals or daily behaviors that are unbending to the race he has marked out for you? Will you turn back now that you know you need the same determination to follow him as he needed to take up the cross? “How distressed I am until it is completed,” Jesus said. That word “distressed” means “pressed in from all sides” or “unable to go any other direction.” It’s the same word that the Bible uses in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Christ’s death and resurrection compel us. We are so pressed in by his love we will not go any other direction. And if that creates conflict or division in your life, don’t back down. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of conflict or division with Jesus. Be afraid of peace and happiness without Jesus.
Someone who understands the benefit of conflict is Lisa Fithian, a colleague of Cindy Sheehan, the angry mom who crusaded against President Bush to end the war in Iraq. Lisa Fithian is a grassroots activist for the world peace movement who has been arrested over 30 times for creating crises – situations that force the powers that be to cease doing business as usual. While we cannot condone any illegal activity, we can take note of Fithian’s strategy. “When people ask me, ‘What do you do?’ I say I create crisis, because crisis is the edge where change is possible” (Quoted in The Christian Century, August 10, 2004, p. 18).
Jesus, the ultimate activist for real peace, arrested himself after being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, creates crisis so that change is possible. Fire. Water. Baptism. Death. Resurrection. When Peace Isn’t Peaceful in your life, then you better believe that Jesus is at work. And he’s at work giving you something far better than happiness. He’s giving you fulfillment. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on August 26, 2007
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