“Is not my word like fire, declares, the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29

Fire Upon the Earth

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!”

At first glance, today’s Gospel reading might be hard to understand. It might also be hard to accept when we do indeed understand its meaning. But it teaches us such an important lesson that we must attend closely to it. So, let’s follow the flow of thought in Jesus words.

What is Christ meaning when he speaks of casting fire upon the earth and being baptised with a certain baptism?

The Greek word for baptism is baptizo and in means “immersion” or to be covered with something. Christ therefore refers to something that will completely overwhelm and overshadow him. Commentators agree that this refers to his passion and death upon the cross.

This might be surprising for us at first since we associate the word “baptism” with the sacrament of baptism. And yet we can remember here that baptisms were and are regularly carried out by so-called full immersion in which a person is literally immersed completely in the water of a large baptismal font or pool.

In comparison the sacrament of baptism to the baptism of his death, he is making a point about the comprehensiveness, the awfulness of what is going to happen to him. Like a shroud, his passion and suffering will be cast over him and will immerse him completely.

And this thought leads to the second image: Christ’s casting fire upon the earth. The image of fire is used in many ways in Scripture: most notably to represent the Holy Spirit, and to speak of the word of God. But whatever image we prefer, fire here represents the powerful working of God in the world after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension. In other words, it represents the work of the Gospel and the Church in the age in which we live now.

Fire is powerful: it consumes, it burns, it creates chaos, it divides, it kindles, heats and makes alive. It is the perfect image for the Gospel.

Christ tells us plainly: he is ready for this baptism and distressed before it is accomplished. He longs for the fire of the Gospel to be cast upon the earth.

Peace or Division

And then perhaps the hardest part of the reading: “I have not come to bring peace but rather division.”

In other words: “You thought I came to bring unity and peaceful co-existence upon the earth within the human family. Not so. My identity, my ministry, and especially my death and resurrection will in fact be a source of great division and heartache.”

He chooses the most intimate image of the human family to make this point: even within a household, father will be divided against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, and so on.

Notice here that Christ is not saying that this sort of division is a positive thing and he is certainly not saying it should be sought out by his followers. Rather, it is an inevitable consequence of his ministry.

Nor is this a contradiction of the fifth commandment – honour thy father and thy mother – which is upheld by Christ in various ways, not least in his rebuking of the religious leaders of the day for giving financial contributions to the Temple but not supporting their parents in their old age.

The point Christ makes here – as he does at other times – is that God is to come before all. And that honouring God must come even before the highest earthly obligation which is to honour our parents.

Cyril of Alexandria puts this well:

“If honour is to be paid to parents, how much more to your parents’ Creator, to whom you owe gratitude for your parents!...You are not forbidden to love your parents, but you are forbidden to prefer them to God.”

We might also wonder what to do with the words Christ spoke to his disciples when he appeared to them after his resurrection: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you…” and so on.

In addition, the Bible speaks in many other places of peace: the Apostle Paul, for example, speaks of the peace which passes understanding in the book of Philippians, and he identifies peace as one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians. There are doubtless many other examples.

Friends, we must recognise that there is no contradiction here: when Christ speaks not of peace but of division, he speaks of the kind of division that occurs between his own followers and those who oppose them. When he speaks to his disciples of a peace that he gives to them – and when the Apostle Paul speaks of a similar thing – he is speaking of an internal peace that occurs between brothers and sisters in Christ and the peace of God which we carry in our hearts.

This is the peace that passes understanding of which Paul speaks. By this he means that it is a peace that endures hardship while the world around cannot understand. It is a peace that endures in the midst of suffering, opposition, sorrow, persecution, and so on, because it is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

So we can see that both are true: in a sense Christ did come to bring peace – the greatest peace the world has ever known. Although he did not come to bring peace amongst all people but rather division over that most crucial question: Who do men say that the Son of Man is?

Are you ready?

I will refrain from an explanation of the final part of our readings for time’s sake. But suffice to say that he there encourages his listeners to understand the spiritual meaning of the times and not only the physical meaning of the changing of the seasons.

I would like to pass from this explanation to some application, asking the question, “How does this apply to our lives?”

The basic point to draw from Christ’s words is that division will inevitably arise in this world over the question of following Jesus. This is true on a matter-of-fact level: if we prioritise our walk with Christ above all else then this will not be something that we can share with those who do not know Christ and do not walk with him.

But we musn’t hesitate to go further. The cost of following Jesus is to be divided in a very significant way from those who do not follow him. And it is, to a very great extent also, to be actively opposed by many of them.

We are fortunate in this country not to experience severe persecution for our faith. But the history of the Christian Church – and the reality for many millions of Christians today – is one of persecution, suffering, rejection, and death.

This fact is often hidden from us because of the bias of Western media but to give some recent examples: in Nigeria, Islamist group Boko Haram and Fulani militants are responsible for thousands of kidnappings and abductions of Christians. Churches and homes are burned and Christian communities face ongoing threats and violence.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo in May this year, Christians face violence and murderous attacks from organisations such as the Allied Democratic Forces, who are, in fact, an Islamic militant group.

In India, it is estimated that about two attacks on Christians occur every day with anti-conversion laws and arbitrary imprisonment of Christians very common.

In Mozambique, ISIS and affiliated groups burn the homes and churches of Christians with reports of abductions and beheadings increasing this year.

The Chinese Communist Party exercises strict control over the Christian Church, rewriting the Bible to align with state ideology. Pastors and believers face arrest, surveillance, and social credit system penalties for non-compliance. Many North Korean defectors, who escape to China from the brutal regime of persecution in North Korea, are sent back to North Korea, where the Chinese authorities know they will face torture, forced labour, imprisonment or death.

When Christ speaks of division, this is the kind of thing he is talking about. This is the kind of thing he experienced himself: the division of persecution, suffering and death. He therefore poses a question to us by implication: are you willing to suffer the consequences as he did? Are you willing to suffer division from your fellow man, persecution and even death for him?

Why would we be willing?

You might be thinking at this point that this sounds heroic and noble, but why would anyone want to follow Jesus to the cross? Why would anyone want to suffer division and persecution? The answer can only come this morning from our second reading, Hebrews 11 and 12.

In this passage, we read of the so-called ‘heroes of faith’. It starts positively: through faith, Gideon and David conquered kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, and so on. But then we hear these words: ‘Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated…wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth’.

Why? Why would anyone suffer in this way? The answer for them is the same as the answer for us, as it was the same for Christ. What does the passage go on to say?

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the same, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’ Hebrews 12:1-2

Friends, that is the answer: through faith – that is trust in the promises of God, belief in the reality of that which is unseen yet nevertheless promised – we believe that, though we may die for and with Christ, nevertheless we will rise to a better life, that there is an indescribable and indestructible joy that is set before us if only we will look to Jesus and not take our gaze away from him.

This, we are told by implication, is an even greater spiritual accomplishment than conquering kingdoms, enforcing justice, and stopping the mouths of lions: to suffer with, and in the manner of, Christ: with faith, with trust in the promises of God, and with joyful expectation of what is to come on the other side of our sorrow.

What sacrifice is God calling you to make for Christ? What death is he asking you to die for the joy that is to come?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.