Luke 12:49-53 (NIV) “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Jesus identifies two different things that His coming would bring to the earth. One was intentional, the other a side effect.
The intentional thing that Jesus came to bring was fire. That was actually a key part of His mission, as foreseen by John the Baptist: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Luke 3:16) Fire is purifying, and purifying the people of God was a key part of Jesus’ mission. Of course, He realized that the purifying would not begin until after the cross, after the resurrection, after His ascension into heaven, when He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell God’s people, purifying their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8-9). This imagery is also the source for the vision of flames of fire on the day of Pentecost that the disciples saw coming to rest on each of those gathered together on that day. It showed that the purifying fire had finally been kindled!
But Jesus also realized that His coming was going to have a regrettable consequence as well, not part of His mission, but unavoidable. His coming would necessarily divide the people of the world into two groups – not Jewish and gentile, which was based primarily on birth, but those who became God’s people through receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, and those who refused. And Jesus knew that those who refused to receive Him would not live at peace with those who did, as prefigured by the enmity of the Jewish leaders against Jesus.
Jesus knew that this division would even strike into the midst of families and households, dividing even close relatives. And, sadly, His prophecy was right on the money. All through the Christian era right down to the present day, parents have disowned their children for receiving Jesus and for living as His disciples, even going so far as to kill them for being infidels. And Christians all around the world have found themselves ostracized from their families because they refused to renounce their faith in Jesus. Again, this was not an intentional part of Jesus’ mission, but it is an inevitable consequence of Jesus’ coming into the world. Some will receive Him, and some will reject Him, resulting in division.
Father, the reality of these divisions among the families of the world no doubt saddens You, just as it saddened Jesus as He saw it ahead. Help those around the world who are having to face this kind of division to stand firm in You, so that those who would reject You see the firmness of their commitment, and open their minds and hearts to You as a result. Amen.