Pastor Slaughter

8-14-22

Pentecost 10

Sermon Text: Luke 12:49-53

Theme: Hard Truth: Jesus Came to Divide

This section of Luke’s gospel and the these upcoming Sundays began with Jesus knowing the time of his departure was near. In Luke 9:51, ‘When the days were approaching for him to be taken up, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem.” If you were in Jesus’ shoes, what would you have taught the disciples? What words would you give them?

Would you simply try to comfort them? Would you just tell them that everything is going to be ok? Would you simply tell them what they want to hear? Would you avoid difficult conversations that cause discomfort? Or would you be honest and tell them what they need to hear even though it may not be what they want to hear?

As Jesus is determined to go to Jerusalem, as Jesus is marching toward the sacrifice that he himself would be, you almost get this sense of urgency that Jesus has a lot he wants to teach the disciples (and us). But he doesn’t avoid the difficult conversations to give unrealistic and false hope for the future. He wants them (and us) to fully understand what Jesus came to do and what that will do to our relationships with others. Jesus doesn’t shy away from the Hard Truth that we need to hear (even though we may not want to hear it). The hard truth that may make us squirm, the hard truth that may make us cringe, the hard truth that may break our hearts and leave us sad… The hard truth we hear today that Jesus came to divide.

You almost get a sense in our lesson that Jesus is deeply distressed, distressed about what he will have to do in the future and what he is determined to do. Jesus speaks first of his mission that included bringing fire on the earth, “I came to throw fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already ignited.” The fiery judgment had not yet come. When Jesus returns on that last day, it isn’t like he will come back and just tell people, “It’s ok that you didn’t listen to my word. It is not a big deal that you didn’t believe in me. I will just take you all to heaven.” No! The hard truth is that there will come judgment day, and it is so dreadful to contemplate that Jesus even wishes it already over “I wish it were already ignited.”

The hard truth we need to hear is that the reason for this dreadful judgment day is sin. The sin that lives in our hearts. The sins that we commit day in and day out. The guilt that we have over the choices we made, the things we did, the thoughts we have, testifies to the fact that we deserve God’s judgment. The hard truth we need to hear is that we deserve to be divided from God.

But Jesus had a hard truth that brought him distress until it was completed. It was also surrounding judgment. But not the judgment that he would bring upon the world but the judgment that he would endure for the world. Jesus said, “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is finished.”

The resolve/the determination that it must have took for Jesus continue to make his way to Jerusalem, knowing what was waiting for him there. Sin divides us from a holy and just God. Sin deserves punishment. We couldn’t make up for our sin. We couldn’t do enough good things to balance out our sin. And our sin couldn’t be ignored. So Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. He went to the cross. On the cross, the pent-up wrath of God against the sin would be unleashed on Jesus like a flood. Jesus said, “But I have a baptism to undergo…” As a result not one drop of that wrath would be left for us to endure. In other words, Jesus came to divide us from the punishment we deserve.

What a tremendous blessing that Christ has given to us that we stand forgiven because of Jesus has done. That we are recipients of that grace through faith. Paul said in Romans 10:17, “So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” That message brings to us peace between us and God. Peace in knowing that our sins are not simply ignored, or forgotten about but paid for.

But there is also a hard truth that comes along with that peace. That same message that brought us peace also brings about division. Jesus says, “Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Yes, that means he will also divide us from other people, even people that we love. Paul said in 1 Co. 1:18, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” This gospel will inevitably divide. People either view it as the power of God or it is foolishness.

Have you experienced this division in your life? Where that division cuts close to home and brings a great deal of pain with it?  A father against son, a son against father? A mother against daughter and daughter against mother. It will separate those who embrace Jesus work from those who oppose it. And those who embrace Jesus work, not only embrace what he did and gives us but what he says throughout the pages of Scripture.

Thomas Jefferson was a great thinker and inventor. But he struggled with the divinity of Jesus and the miracles he performed. So he took his Bible and as he read through the new testament he cut out sections from the New Testament and created his own. It would be hardly recognizable to us. It focused on Jesus but it only focused on how he was a good moral teacher. He took sections that pertained to Jesus miracles and his divinity. He took out big chunks like Jesus resurrection. Anything he didn’t like, he denied it and took it out of his bible. Anything he went against his reason, he simply ignored it.

Have you created a bible of your own? Probably not. I am guessing you didn’t cut out pages Like Thomas Jefferson and simply picked and choose what you want to go in it. But the temptation is there to do something similar when we are presented with hard truths in scripture and when proclaiming those hard truths will cause a pain, tension, a rifts among our closest relationships… children, parents, siblings, friends.

So the temptation is simply either to deny or to ignore what God’s word says to keep the peace and unity among those relationships. What does God’s word say about Hell, our own sin, about science and miracles, about homosexuality and transgender, about sex and living together before marriage. If we choose to ignore or deny the hard teachings in Scripture, it is kind of like we created our own Bible. What is it saying when we deny the truths of God’s word? That Jesus is a liar. What does it say when we choose to ignore the truths in scripture? That we are ashamed of Jesus?

Maybe we know what God’s Word says, and we desperately want to share the hard truths with those closest to us, but we are scarred of how they will take it. Scared about the fallout and repercussion that may follow. The potential of not seeing your children or being able to talk to your grandchildren. That’s hard. So we want to come up with the precise words, in the right way, in a desperate attempt to keep the peace. So we freeze up, and ignore those issues that will disturb the peace until we have the best way we can talk about it. But when we do that it is almost like we trust more in the way we say something, rather than in the power of God’s Word.

The hard truth is, if we speak the truth in love, no matter how good or eloquent our words are, the truth is that God’s word will divide. God’s Word works. God’s Word is powerful. But there will be those who refuse to listen. There will be times where God’s Word will divide us from those we are closest with. Jesus tells us to expect that. If Jesus suffered persecution that lead him to the cross, we should also expect to suffer persecution as well.

The temptation might be to throw up your arms and give up. What’s the point in persisting if I am just going to suffer division? It is because persevering through division is worth it. Going back to Hebrews 12, we fix our eyes on Jesus and when we do we see how he endured the distress and torment for our sins. Those times when we have been afraid and avoided speaking the truth. When we focus on him, we see how he divided us from our sins and gave us greater peace with God. Peace that results in eternal life. As we focus on him, and what he endured for us, and what he gives to us and what he will give to us, we endure the hard things, the persecution, the division that hit close to home because he paid the ultimate price for us and gives us the ultimate gift, life and salvation.

Jesus came and was determined to bring us salvation to do the hard thing that brought him more distress than we can imagine because of what he endured. He tells us the hard truth that we will endure persecution and it will causes divisions in our closest relationships. In the pain of those times let us “Carefully consider Jesus who endured such hostility against himself from sinful people, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart.  Amen.