Trent Goeckner (Zooming in only made it more unreal! The scale of these rock fins is hard to capture — jagged, folded, and textured in ways that almost look sculpted.)
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Author: Stephen Weller
642 words, 3 minutes read time
Fire, Baptism and Division
Scripture: Matthew 10:34; Luke 12:49-51
With the previous lesson we finished the section devoted to being ready as a faithful steward. With this lesson we begin a section which describes how Jesus brings division and not peace among those who find him.
Lk 12:49 I came to cast fire on the earth, and [how I wish] that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. Mt 10:34 I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
The main mission of Jesus coming to earth was to provide our means of salvation, but in the process he became the “Great Divider” of humanity, as people decide to follow him or not. In connection with this division is a process of purging as expressed by Luke 3:9 ESV: “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” That fire he came to cast was to consume the unsaved that are not bearing fruit. Separation and burning is also seen in Luke 3:17 ESV: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Wishing that the fire was already kindled looks ahead to the suffering before the cross and on the cross, when our salvation was purchased that results in this division and purging. The fire affects the world, especially the unsaved, but the division can, and does, result in persecution of believers and thus in a smaller way affects them also. The fire has not yet been kindled as Jesus has not been baptized by the coming suffering that would wash over him like a flood. Jesus wants that fire to be kindled, to complete the baptism process because of the great distress it is causing him. The sense of this is felt in Psalm 88:7 ESV: “Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.”
As danger for Jesus builds at Jerusalem, some instruct him to leave to get away from Herod, but Jesus responds by saying, 32 “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’” Jesus is on mission and for the joy that was set before him he is willing to endure the cross, despising the shame it will bring him.
Because of sin, unsaved humans are not at peace with God. To bring about peace Jesus was sent to provide our salvation and through the process of being born spiritually, we can obtain peace with God. In that divine sense, peace is obtained, but in the process the unsaved and the saved will be living together in conflict. That conflict is described using a “sword” as a metaphor for the inevitable lack of peace due to the separation between those who believe and those who do not.
Conclusion
This division that Jesus brings between people over the issue of our salvation will be detailed in the next lesson. This division will be so severe that it will divide families even to the point of murder.
Anchor My Faith 
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