On any Sunday, this would be a difficult passage to wrestle with. But, while the text itself may not feel like a good fit with baptism, our celebration of this sacrament actually helps us interpret these words from Jesus. What happens when we commit ourselves to God before all others? What happens in our world when we love everyone, even those the world tells us to hate?
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What a great, uplifting text for us on a day we celebrate baptism. Jesus comes not to bring peace. Instead his coming heralds division. Just what we need to hear on a day when we celebrate new life and our unity in the body of Christ.
What in the world does this have to do with the message that Jesus brought? Why would God come down, offering us relationship, teaching us to love each other, and then tell us he is bringing division and conflict into the world?
Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe there is some sort of translation error here. Let’s take a look at Jesus’ ministry to see what we can learn. Surely everything always went smoothly in the ministry of the Son of God.
After his baptism and his time in the wilderness, Jesus returned to Nazareth. He went to worship in the synagogue and when the scroll was handed to him, he read the words of the prophet.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,After hearing this scripture and his words about the text, the people who knew his family, who had known him his whole life, took him to a cliff to stone him.
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
As Jesus went through the countryside healing and teaching, many celebrated and praised God. But others grumbled and questioned him.
As Jesus taught a new relationship with God and with each other, his fame spread. But at the same time, others were plotting against him.
It seems that not everyone was as excited about Jesus’ message of love and relationship. Some people followed him while others turned away. Some listened to his teachings and found hope. Others heard his words and got angry. And some heard a challenge to the ruling powers in his teaching and wanted to put a stop to it.
How is it that some heard good news while others did not?
Perhaps some people felt guilty rather than relieved. Perhaps some realized that Jesus was right and that their actions weren’t motivated by love. Perhaps some people were simply afraid.
Whatever the reason, not everyone heard Jesus’ words as good news. And so there was conflict and division. Not because Jesus wanted it. Not because that was his goal. But because some people were always going to reject his teaching.
For those of us that have been baptized, we have become a part of the body of Christ and therefore we participate in that same ministry that he started. We preach a message of love for God and love for others. We do our best to live out the love for everyone that Jesus modeled.
And just as in Jesus’ time, there are some who hear this message as good news and some that do not.
As we discussed last week, when we follow Jesus, we become citizens of God’s kingdom. This is where we owe our primary allegiance - to God as known to us in Jesus. Just as there are those who will hear the good news of God’s love for us and at best be unmoved, there are those that will see our allegiance to God as a threat to their power.
It is not that division is the goal; it is not that Jesus wanted to create conflict. But he knew, just as we do, that there are always going to be those that at best ignore and at worst feel threatened by our inclusion in God’s kingdom.
This is the point of Jesus’ final words in this section. Jesus points out that we are good at reading the signs of the weather. He uses the folk wisdom of their day. We have our own today. “Red skies at night; sailors delight. Red skies in morning; sailors take warning.” He is using this as a caution for all of us.
In general, people know how to interpret things, but we fail to understand each other. People see someone acting differently than them or what they consider the norm, and the first instinct tends to be to judge them. Rather than showing them mercy and love just as God shows us, we sometimes let the fact that someone is different cause division between us and them. Rather than seeing the opportunity to help someone in need, we judge them for their situation.
We see this over and over in Jesus’ ministry. He helps those in need and there is always someone questioning him. Sometimes it is outsiders and sometimes it is those closest to him. So of course he knew that following his teaching would cause division among people. It is about human nature, not his divine plan.
And that is really important for us to remember. It is not that Jesus wants to cause division. It is not that Jesus is seeking to sow discord between his followers and others. He would obviously prefer for everyone to hear the call to love God and love each other and then have us simply do that. But he knows that is something we humans have a difficult time with. If you ever want to get a group of people really upset, tell them they are supposed to love their neighbors. Then tell them there are no limits on who their neighbors are. And then to top it all off, use the most unlikely example you can think of to show them exactly who it is they are called to love.
The division isn’t his goal. Jesus wants us to be unified, to be one. He shows us over and over again what it means to live as a member of God’s kingdom and to love others, even the most unlikely ones we can think of. So the division isn’t the goal.
I think, instead, that we sometimes take this text and figure, “well if everybody else hates what we are doing, we must be doing the right thing, because Jesus said he came to bring conflict.” But just because there is division and conflict doesn’t mean that at all. Jesus is making a statement about the human condition, not God’s holy kingdom. Just because there is division, just because we are on the opposite side of others in our society, it doesn’t necessarily mean we are on God’s side.
If we look to the previous chapter about this part of Jesus’ teaching, we find that today's teaching takes place after a dinner with a group of Pharisees and scribes. They question him for not following the Law as found in their scriptures, namely for not washing his hands before dinner as the Law commands. Jesus becomes irate with them and tells them how terrible it is for them to be more concerned about the Law than with justice and the love of God.
After leaving the dinner, he offers several warnings for those gathered around him about the dangers of hypocrisy and greed and worry, culminating in the words we read here today. He wants his followers to know that the way ahead will not be easy. A kingdom built on love and mercy will always be seen as a threat to some.
And so we read these words still today. We continue to hear Jesus’ call today. We join ourselves to his body through baptism, marking ourselves as part of his kingdom. And in doing so, we heed his call to love others. Through baptism we become citizens of God’s kingdom first and citizens of whatever earthly kingdom we may live in second.
And so we live in a world beyond the walls of the church building. And as we live in that world, I want us to ponder what it means to be united together in one body. I want us to consider both Jesus’ words today as well as his call for us to love those around us.
Have you encountered division and conflict due to your faith?
Was it because you sought to love all those you encounter?
Was it because you showed mercy?
Was it because you helped someone in need?
Was it because you were living out Jesus’ call to love God and love your neighbor?
I pray that we will continue to be such examples of God’s love and mercy in the world.
I pray that the world will continue to know us by our love.
I pray that any divisions we may encounter are because of our love for others.