In Jesus Holy Name August 14, 2016
Luke 12:49,51
“The Harsh Words of Jesus”
People want peace and harmony. We want peace and harmony for our families, for our communities and for our world. Personal security and national security are big issues in our communities. The events in San Bernardino, Orlando, Nice, France. Americans are worried.
Remember the words from the old Coca Cola commercial…. “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” Oh, how we wish it were true. . You know how it goes.
I'd like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills
For peace through out the land
(That's the song I hear)
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
Just 2 weeks ago our sermon was on Jesus the Good Shepherd who searches for and saves the lost sinner. (John 11) We like that picture. People want to believe that Jesus is patiently waiting for them to make up their minds. They feel quite comfortable indefinitely postponing repentance, baptism, commitment, forgiveness, faith. They think Jesus is the Good Shepherd who must wait for them. Any time they want they can repent, get saved, and the angels in heaven will rejoice.
That’s what we want Jesus to say and do. Instead he continues, “No, I tell you, I have come to bring fire on the earth. Not peace, but division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three ....”
We’re looking for love, peace, grace and mercy. And so the words of the Beatitudes ring in our ears.
Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
This is always a difficult passage. I really didn’t want to preach on it. Our tendency as Lutheran preachers is to just preach on the Gospel or Epistle lesson.. If we don’t like the tone of the Gospel lesson…. Then look at the Epistle…. If that doesn’t suit…. You begin to think to yourself… well maybe I should be doing a sermon series on the O.T characters.
Then I realized that I could not isolate these few verses. This passage is a reality check for the disciples. Maybe it was only a few months ago that Jesus and the disciples were walking along a road moving to a different village when a young man approached Jesus and said: “I will follow you were ever you go.” Jesus said…. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head….” Are you sure you want to make that commitment?
This passage is both a rare glimpse into the mind of Jesus. Peace, his peace, does not mean the absence of conflict, discord and division. Not even families will be spared the disharmony that results when a person opts for Christian discipleship. A commitment to believe in Jesus. A commitment to put into practice his words. A commitment to give up discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness, sexual immorality. A commitment to change your Sunday morning activities and start attending Sunday Worship. Well, these things will cause conflict.
Classic story from the bible. (read John 11:1-6)
John’s in prison. He knows Jesus is his cousin. He knows the miracles Jesus is doing. He knows his death may be imminent. He is asking a human question… “have I wasted my life?” Are you the Messiah? Jesus answered… You must decide if I am God. It happens again in John 22 with the Pharisees who are asking for a sign. (read…..which miracle?)
Judgment is coming because there is “evil in the world”. Ultimate judgment will be based on your relationship with Jesus. Listen to the words of Revelation 12:17 (read)
Yes the world is experiencing a “cosmic” war between God the Creator and the demonic forces of evil.
What are the next chapters in Luke talking about? 13 -repent… healing of a woman on the Sabbath….Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites… then in verse 22….the door to heaven is narrow. No one comes into the Father’s presence except through faith in Jesus.
There is no escaping God’s judgment. But, before that, there is no escaping each individual making a decision.
These words of Jesus follow the parable of the rich fool who built bigger barns, to keep his bountiful harvest for himself….and he died that very night. What was the rich man’s problem? He thought he was in charge of his life and gave no credit to his creator…
I’m talking about the Living God, who created the universe with it elegant solar systems and exploding fireballs….. (this past Friday evening…hiked to the hills west of Fresno to watch the shooting meteorite shower.) This the God who fashion all matter out of nothing. Each pebble, water droplet, dirt clod, and snowflake composed of trillions of tiny “electrons” orbiting tiny “planets” atomic nuclei, and all their endless spinning powered by His energy. Evidently, God has gone to a lot of trouble creating us…
Since the Fall of Adam and Eve…. We human beings have 2 natures…Our godly conscience pulls in one direction, urging us to strive toward honesty, patience, kindness, courage, and unselfishness, while the fallen inner nature, that Paul calls the “old Adam”, pulls us with thoughts and feelings toward anger, selfishness, lust, greed, resentment, and envy.” (quote from How Evil Works David Kupelian p. 85) That’s why the rich farmer built bigger barns…he forgot who his provider was.
Remember the story of the Indian chief and his young son? One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.’
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’
The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’ The Evil wolf or the Good Wolf is fed daily by the choices we make with our thoughts.
It's possible that people don't always understand the Savior or see Him for the Person He really is and was. Look at the contrast in reactions to His birth. Shepherds came and worshipped Him and a short time later a king tried to kill Him. Jesus healed a man who had been born blind and rather than rejoicing at the Savior's work, the leaders of the synagogue kicked the man out of his church.
Jesus raised a friend named Lazarus from the dead which caused gladness among many who were happy to be reunited with the ex-deceased. But Scripture says there were also those who immediately began to hatch murder plots to get rid of Jesus and Lazarus. Shortly before His death Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem. Great crowds welcomed Him, proclaiming Him to be the Son of David. Still, not more than five days later, crowds were calling for His crucifixion. There is a cost to discipleship. Billy Graham has said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.
But by the year 500, Jesus' church had become the official religion of the Roman Empire and Jesus' Persona was changed. Now He Who once had no place to lay His head now had glittering churches and cathedrals. Before the calendar rolled over to the year 1000, Jesus had been changed again. The second millennium had the people thinking the Prince of Peace wanted them to take up the sword and march off to Israel to try and wrest the Holy Land from the forces of Islam which had conquered and forcibly converted the country.
Scripture speaks of the Lord reaching out to the sick, the sinner, the sorrowful, to the lost, the lonely, the leprous. By 1500, Jesus was presented as One Who had become so angry with humankind, so unapproachable that if someone went to Him in prayer, he did so with fear. Jesus had once said "come unto me if you are weary and burdened" but the common man was taught it would be far better, far safer, far wiser for him pray to a saint of the church or the Lord's Own mother, Mary. Even Luther had that problem, and often prayed to St. Anne the patron saint of miners, until he discover the Grace of God in Romans and the words of Paul in Ephesians. “By grace you are saved, a gift of God, not by your works….”
Today Jesus, His holiness and is message is minimized; His humanity maximized. His miracles are explained away or dismissed entirely. His commitment to saving the world almost forgotten. For many, the unchanging Jesus of Scripture has been replaced by a do-it-yourself-deity who is made and unmade according to your own specifications.
When contemporary disciples think about Jesus, we feel more comfortable seeing Him as Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is a Jesus Who loves everybody. He reaches out to everybody. He never judges or refuses anything to anybody because God is good. This Jesus is a fine Fellow, a good Guy whose heart is so big He absolutely has to supply anything His people want.
Most certainly such a Jesus would never send anyone to hell. Because hell is such a bad place, good Jesus is almost obligated to let everyone into heaven. How could He not? Yes, our age has made Jesus into a non-descript good Guy who asks for nothing, wants nothing other than to serve us.
Oh wait. Jesus told his disciples. “I have come not to be served but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28
Very seldom are people the people you think they are, including Jesus. By that I mean Jesus is not the Person most people think He is. He isn't now; He never has been. We say Jesus was an easy going good Guy. Amazingly, the religious and political leaders of His day had Jesus crucified because He was too dangerous to let live. Jesus was too dangerous to let live.
Jesus was a good and gentle Guy. Was He? He said: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
Jesus regarded the coming of the kingdom of God as a time of judgment. His word of judgment was meant to help people take seriously the consequences of their choices -- either for or against God. Our response to the judgments of God has serious repercussions, both for the present and the future. Jesus states that even family loyalties would be challenged on the basis of whether people accepted the kingdom of God or not
The love of God compels us to choose who will be first in our lives. To place any relationship (or anything else) above God is a form of idolatry. Jesus challenges his disciples to examine who they love first and foremost. A true disciple loves God above all else and is willing to forsake all for Jesus Christ. Jesus insists that his disciples give him the loyalty which is only due to God, a loyalty which is higher than spouse or kin. It is possible that family and friends can become our enemies, if the thought of them keeps us from doing what we know God wants us to do. Does the love of Jesus Christ compel you to put God first in all you do (2 Corinthians 5:14)?
