Jesus The Cause Of Division
JESUS THE CAUSE OF DIVISION
LUKE 12:49-59
Ultimately Jesus brings peace, but in so doing, he divides people into those who are for and those who are against him.
Verses 49-53. The words again must be taken in their context. It is a fact that Christ brought peace, peace between man and God, “peace that passes understanding,” peace between man and man, for those who applied his teaching and lived in the blessed light of it. It is also a fact that socially Christ sets man at variance with man. A binding and a demanding loyalty challenges some old allegiance. A new-born love clashes with old affection, and divides one person from another. Fire (12:49) both burns and purifies. “He who is near me is near the fire,” runs a saying of Christ, reported by Origen. Fire can never be disregarded. It cannot be approached without due calculation. Neither can Christ.
12:54-59. There is a clear division here. These words are addressed to the crowds. They were alert enough for the signs of the weather. The wind out of the west rolled in such water-laden clouds from the Mediterranean as Elijah’s servant saw (1 Kings 18:44-45). Out of the Arabian Desert the south and west wind brought the scorching heat. Worldly wise in such matters of simple observation and common prudence, they shut their eyes to “the signs of the times.” Hence the designation used: “hypocrites.” There was pretence, the blindness of obstinacy and pride. Like a man doggedly determined to push a bad or a hopeless case to the last arbitrament of the law-courts (12:57-58), instead of seeking a just and reasonable accommodation out of court, the people were blundering on towards the disaster which lay ahead.
The signs of the coming Great Rebellion of AD 66–70 multiply in the New Testament. This warning is one of them. Wilfully blind, the Jewish people refused to heed the voice of prudence, and beat their nation to pieces against the iron wall of Rome. Among the few who survived in liberty were Christians who heeded such words as these.
Notes 12:50: “constrained”—see the other use of this word in the New Testament—2 Corinthians 5:14; on the picture of baptism, see Mark 10:38, and the language of Psalm 18:16; 42:7; 124:4-5. 12:58: “the officer”—lit. “the exactor.” 12:59: the coin was the Jewish lepton, the smallest coin in circulation.