The Great Divide

Proper 15, year C Luke 12:49-56

Transcript

Pastor Bruce: 0:08

Will peace be with you? Let's pray. Father, may your will be done. Jesus, may your word be proclaimed. And Spirit, may your work be accomplished in us, we pray. Amen. Peace or no peace? That's the question. That's what looms here in the gospel lesson. is if you were to take in Luke's account, in Luke's gospel specifically, if you were to go back and read every moment where it talks about peace, what you'll find is peace is coming to the earth and Jesus is bringing it. Peace is referred to in a positive sense, except in one place, from the mouth of Christ himself. And here we're getting something that might confuse us. Is Jesus being contrary? We've been told this whole time that he comes to bring peace on earth. But here he says, I have not come to bring peace on this earth. Instead, I have come to bring division. So which is it? Peace or no peace? That is the question. And that's where we will focus our brief time this morning. Does Christ come to bring peace? Absolutely he does. That's what the scriptures speak to. but it's something that we need to understand about when we receive this peace from Christ, what might happen when you receive it. And I think this is where John chapter 16, verse 33 is very helpful here to understand what this tension is between this peace that Jesus brings, but yet doesn't bring. John 16, 33 says this, these things I have spoken to you so that in me, you may have peace. In the world, you have tribulation. But take courage, I have overcome the world. So right there, we begin to see what it is that Jesus is ultimately talking about. He has come to bring peace, but this peace will also be at enmity with the world. And so you will experience division from the world. That's what the peace of Jesus that he brings into our lives is going to take place. You think about Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace, and he comes into the world. What happens immediately? There is a great divide among the people, among his own people and among the Romans. Everywhere he looks, there's division, there's plotting, there's hostility, but yet he's the Prince of Peace. He is the one bringing peace into the world, but its effect on the world is that the world despises it. The world hates it. And ultimately what happens to this Prince of Peace? The world divides the Prince of Peace from her. What's nothing to do with her. We will kill her. the Prince of Peace. And it's here that we learn that what Jesus is talking to. Over the last several weeks, we've been looking at this teaching that Jesus, who's directing his attention to the disciples with a crowd full of people standing on top of each other. kind of leaning in and listening as he's teaching his disciples. And what we've been looking at is this dichotomy that you have this kingdom that is at hand that Jesus is bringing and you have the world. And Jesus has been teaching his disciples to get rid of this and to cling to this, that you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, which I have come to bring, Jesus says, and still hold some of the world. I've come to divide you from the world and establish you in my kingdom. And I do this by offering my peace. You might even think about after Jesus is dead and the disciples are in the upper room and they're meeting and for fear of the Jews. So they're hanging in the room. Jesus comes walking into the room. And what's the first thing that Jesus speaks to these men, his disciples that are fearing those outside the walls? Peace. Peace be with you. It's the very words that when we pass peace to one another, we're speaking Christ's words into each other. Peace be with you and also with you. That's what peace means. But even in that situation, that scenario, while peace is experienced in that room, there's hostility from the world. They're divided out of the world. And this helps frame what Jesus goes on to say in verses 52 and 53 in this gospel lesson. First, we have to understand that as he's been teaching, there's a division between the kingdom and the world, that the kingdom is not of this world and the world is not of the kingdom, that they are two opposing entities. And he is calling you your attention and wanting you in this kingdom. He says, this is where your treasure ought to be. Don't put your treasure here. Put it here. Put your life in here, not in here. So he's teaching that there's this division among kingdoms and his kingdom is going to be the one that rules and reigns. And at the end of all things, though Christ comes first to bring salvation and peace to all men, the second time he comes, he is going to bring judgment. And there's going to be this great divide among his kingdom and all the other kingdoms of the world. And he's going to separate the sheep from the goats. Christ himself presents the great divide. But not only this, he begins right here on Luke's account to talk about division that might take place among the family. And this one's a hard one. And it's a little bit more harder for his disciples than it is for you. Because back in the first century, you didn't identify as Bruce. I would be the son of Larry. That's how my identity, the son of Larry Grimmett. Your family identity was everything. I'm the daughter of so-and-so. I'm the son of so-and-so. And so for Jesus to proclaim that he has come to bring father against son, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against mother-in-law, what is happening? Can this be a good thing? I thought Christianity is all about peace and unity. What is Jesus saying here? Well, first and foremost, In the first century mind, in the disciples' mind, Jesus is redefining what true family is. He says true family isn't blood relationship. True family is your blood baptism in Christ Jesus. You are made the family of God in so much as you have received the covering of Christ for your sins and united to the Father through Jesus Christ. You are part of a heavenly city, a heavenly kingdom, a heavenly family to which you yourselves can be called sons and daughters of God. This is echoed in John 1, verses 12-13. But as many as received him, Jesus, to them he gave the right to become children of God. even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So Jesus is teaching his disciples that as much as you think your identity is and whose son you are, whose daughter you are, your greater identity is your relationship to God the Father. Are you an adopted son and daughter? He's redefining family. And the peace that he's bringing might cause division in their own blood relative family. There's an example of this. I think maybe even some of you might be able to experience this. How following after Jesus might cause family tension. This has happened in my own life. And I've shared this multiple times. That when I received a call to the ministry yesterday, I knew I had to be divided with my father because my father thought I was ignorant and dumb and this Jesus thing was absolutely foolish. It is better, Bruce, to go on and be an accountant because the world's economy is made of money and that's how you can provide for a family. That is the most logical thing. My dad shared with me, because his dad was a pastor, I've seen how the church treats people. Bunch of hypocrites. And then right there, with my dad, people say I look scary. My dad looked scarier. Face to face with my dad, I had an eternal conflict. My father, who I should respect and love, will follow Jesus, who's my king and savior. Man, as an 18-year-old, can I just express to you the challenge And the voice and the authority my father held over me that I didn't want any tension in my home. I wanted to come home and be at peace. But it's that type of peace that my father would have offered me better than the peace that Christ was offering if I would just submit to him. And if I'm going to experience the peace of Christ, it would cost me division with my father and ultimately being able to be back home. Because he says, if you do this, you are not welcome to my house. And I just say this not to draw any sympathy, but I say this because that's a reality I've experienced. And maybe you've experienced something as well. Maybe even your own children or maybe your own parents that following after Christ causes tension. Can't speak about your religion, what you believe, because there might be some tension. We're told in the scriptures that over and over again, that if you follow after Christ, the world will treat you the way it treated Christ. For a servant isn't above his master. And that's why Jesus says, if you want to follow me, you have to also take up your cross and follow me and be willing to die like I have been willing to die for you. But it is this division and these sorrowful experiences, these are really things tribulations and afflictions that we experience when we follow after Christ. We have to make really hard decisions and relationships are impacted when you follow after Christ. It's just how things work. It's the effect of sin. It's the effect of the prince of the power of the air who rules in the world to draw people away from Christ. That if you follow after him, there's going to be division in your life. Before we get too discouraged, before we get too sorrowful, before we want to cave in to the affliction so that we don't experience it no more, can I offer you a little bit of encouragement this morning? The whole reason why there is division in Christ says, I have come to bring it. He says, I haven't come to bring peace to this earth, but I've come to bring division. What is it about division that could be so beneficial? What is it about dividing that could be so life-giving? Let me just paint this picture for you as best as I can. And it takes place in the opening chapter of Genesis. And this pattern of division and shaping and new life happens over and over and over and over and over and over again throughout the scriptures. It's evident almost on every page. If you remember back when God was creating the world, that he created waters and land, but what did he do to the land and the waters? He separated them. And not only did he separate them, he called them something new. This is the ocean, that's the land. And then he evaluates it and he says, and this is good. Not only that, but he takes man who he created in his own image out of the dust of the earth. He created them and then he sets them into a garden for man to cultivate or rip up the ground to separate up the ground so that it can produce fruit and vegetation. Not only that, but about marriage. He takes that man made in his image and he lays him to sleep like death and he divides him. Sometimes our translations don't always paint the picture we need to have painted for us. But Adam, it just wasn't a little slit. God divided him and pulled from him a bone. And from that bone, he fashioned and formed a new creature, woman, bone of my bones. And the two shall become one flesh. So by dividing and slitting Adam open, A new life formed and a new name came. And this begins to tell us and establish this pattern of division, this pattern of death and resurrection, division, separation, and yet a new life, a new forming, a new creation comes out of it. This is the pattern that we see over and over and over and over again. And it's for this reason that That even a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and the two become one flesh. The leave and cleave is a division, is a saying, I'm going to divide myself from my father's household, and I'm going to establish a new household with my wife. This is right and good. There's nothing wrong with that. And what we get from these patterns that are dispelled all over Genesis and through all the scriptures is to know that how is it that we grow in our own Christian maturity? But it's through a series of division and reforming of death and resurrection in our lives. You think about it even right now. In our current August is when school begins. You remember going to school. It seems like right when you moved on from one grade and you got a handle on that one, you're thrown and catapulted into the next one. And it's a new experience. Right? Sorry, Andrew, but I want to talk about you for a second. We've been talking about him being a senior, and he hopes that this year is better than the one he had prior. And that's what we always think. We always feel. We're always progressing, moving from something. The Bible tells us we're actually moving from glory to glory to glory to glory until we're ultimately glorified. You should not look the same as you did yesterday. You should look something a little bit more like Jesus. And this moving from glory to glory to glory only takes place through division and newness of death and resurrection. And that's why Jesus brings glory. Division. It's because you need to be separated from the world. You need to be separated from your flesh. You need to be separated from sin. To be fashioned and remade into the likeness of Christ. Maybe even, not just the students going to school, but maybe you had a senior last year. And now they're moving on to college. And now you're experiencing something new. A child of yours is... being separated from the normal, what's been taking place for the last 12 years of his life. Now they're going on. They're becoming their own man. It's a division and a separation that we should welcome because it's right, it's good. It brings maturity. Those moments of division have to be navigated with faith, hope, and love. Because division isn't nice. It's not easy. It's afflicting. It's sorrowful. And it's in those moments that you employ the keys of faith, hope, and love to say, I trust that this division in my life that is taking place is going to lead me to more maturity and to grow more into your likeness. And I trust this by faith. And this is also my hope. That I'm just not unnecessarily and needlessly experiencing this division in my life. But that this division is working for my own good. So that God is forming me better into the image of his son. But not only that, not only those moments of division when things are rattled up into your life and things seem to be stripped from you. But also when you're being remade, refashioned, reforming begins to take place, you're experiencing something new, right? This is in marriage. You get married for the first time and now you have to wake up next to somebody and you get to know what their breath smells like. It's new experiences. You get to find out which one's more messy than the other. Who likes to do dishes? Who doesn't? You experience this new thing, and there's often that tension of trying on this new life that you're living into. But nonetheless, you live into it because you're not supposed to be a kid forever. You're supposed to grow up to be an adult. And so even the challenges of a new life require faith, hope, and love. That you're trusting in God to instruct you and guide you in this new season of life. That as you go off to college, and as you become your own man, that you allow God to direct you in the right direction. It's a new season. It's a new life. We all need guided. We don't figure it out on our own and God has not left us alone to figure it out. And we're given this promise when it comes to this division that might be hurtful and afflicting, a tribulation. It's very much a tribulation. It says this in 2 Corinthians 4, 17, for momentary light affliction, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Cling to that in the midst of your division. Those dividing moments in your life against your own family, knowing that the tension you feel among your family because you're following after Jesus is working in you an eternal weight of glory, is helping you move towards becoming more glorious. Romans 8, 18 says this, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us. All of scripture speaks to our lives grow in maturity when they're stripped, reformed, and recreated into something new, renamed, and evaluated as good. That's what Jesus is teaching his disciples. That's what we all need to stir each other up. There might be people in this very room who are experiencing these separation moments, these dividing moments. And here, gathered here among God's people, we need to be speaking hope, faith, hope, and love into them and encourage them. This is for your good and eternal weight of glory. that if you're being divided, know that what comes next is resurrection, something new, something better, something that's more glorious. That can get you through the valley of the shadow of death, knowing that on the other side of death is resurrection and new life. Maybe some of you are living into the reforming, the renaming, the resurrection piece. It's new. And you don't know how to navigate it. How much more do we need each other to speak faith, hope, and love and encourage each other to say, welcome to the new life. Welcome to this new thing. Now celebrate it. May it stir up in you a deeper love for God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And may it teach you how to love others better the way you love yourself. That's what This great divide that Jesus is bringing and speaking to in his disciples in the midst of this hostile and overwhelming world. Jesus graciously and peacefully teaches his disciples, though I bring peace, the peace I offer you will also cause division. But don't worry about this and don't fear this, for you have to be divided. You have to die to yourself if you want to live again. Let's pray.