Luke 12:49-53

The Future Will Not All Be Rosy (12:49-53).

As Jesus contemplates the thought of the punishments which will be inflicted on the various unfaithful servants, it carries His thought forward on to what now awaits the world in terms of the severe treatment that is coming on those who called themselves His people, but were even now being unfaithful, and of those who were mistreating them and leading them astray (the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees in general), faithless servants all. They too were to be afflicted (Luke 13:35; Luke 21:20), something which would in the end include the whole world (Luke 21:10). And He describes this in terms of ‘casting fire' on them. Yet at the same time He brings out that He Himself would go through great suffering for them in order that some of them might be ‘made straight', in order to deliver them from Satan's iron control (Luke 13:16). Some would bear the fire directly, but in the case of some He would take part of the fire on Himself, for the fire of His judgment, and the suffering He would endure, are here inextricably bound together.

This idea was contrary to the expectation of the Jewish people, although it should not have been for they had had plenty of warning. They probably thought that they had experienced their tribulation and looked forward into a future in which it was their hope that they would enjoy a world of peace and plenty. That was what many believed that the Messiah would introduce without them needing to do much about it. While it might all begin with a bloody encounter, in the end the Messiah would triumph, and then Israel would be exalted. But the last thing that most of them recognised or considered was the need for a change within themselves. In their view it was not they who needed to change, but the world situation. They were all right as they were. Let the Messiah rather concentrate on setting the world right. Then they could have ‘heavenly bliss' on earth and still be as they were, the only change being that they would be better off.

Yet it was the very need for Israel to change that had been brought home to Jesus from the very beginning. He had experienced rejection at Nazareth (Luke 4:16). He had experienced heart-numbing apathy in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum and recognised that it would occur elsewhere (Luke 10:10). He had come to recognise that this whole generation would on the whole not listen to His words (Luke 11:29), that the whole generation was asleep (Ephesians 5:14). And along with this He was aware of the enmity of Herod (Luke 9:9 Luke 13:31), and the plottings of the Scribes and Pharisees, and the growth of their hatred against Him (Luke 6:7; Luke 6:11; Luke 9:22; Luke 9:44; Luke 11:15) because they too would not receive His words. And so with this recognition had come the realisation that what was necessary was something that would shake up the world, something that would in fact split the world into two (Luke 12:1; Luke 12:51).

He thus saw it as necessary for Him to kindle a fire that would set the world alight, partly through His own suffering, and partly through what would follow. It was not to be a cosy fire. It was a fire that would bring division. For He recognised the division that would arise between those who would confess Him and those who would deny Him (Luke 12:8); between those who were His friends (Luke 12:4), and those who would seek to slay them (Luke 12:4); between those who received the gift of His Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13) so that the Holy Spirit would guide them when they needed Him (Luke 12:12), and those who blasphemed against the Holy Spirit by hardening their hearts against His word (Luke 12:10). And He knew that in danger of being included among these last were Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (Luke 10:13) and many others. And that later they would persecute His disciples because they did not want their apathy disturbing. Thus He had no illusions about what lay ahead, and it clearly disturbed Him deeply

‘I am come to cast fire on the earth.' This was a wake up call to His disciples. Did they really think that nothing was happening, and that He did not seem to be doing anything? Did they not see that He was already casting fire on the earth, for the unbelievers in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum had already been consigned to judgment, together with the cities whose dust they themselves had shaken from their feet. And they would soon see more. For He knew that what He was bringing would be earthshaking to the world, so that the world might be stirred from its apathy, and from the grip of Satan (Luke 13:16), and that this could only be through fire, both through the fire of His words, and through the fiery judgments that would accompany them. And in parallel with this fact was that He Himself must also be overwhelmed by suffering. It is this last that makes this whole idea in character with Jesus. The suffering for both comes because there is no other way, none will deny the sufferings in the world, but He wants them to see that He Himself will suffer most at the heart of it.

And what fire would He cast down? In context it would be a fire that would first consume Him as He bore the sin of others (Luke 12:50; Luke 17:25), it was a fire that would take the false sense of peace from the world (Luke 12:51), it was a fire that would divide men and women in their thinking (Luke 12:51), it was a fire of persecution that would affect those who followed Him (Luke 6:22; Luke 12:4; Luke 21:12; John 16:2), it was a fire that would soon engulf Galilee and Jerusalem in Roman flames (Luke 21:20), it was a fire that would bring nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and bring natural disasters (Luke 21:10). And this would only be the beginning of sorrows. It was the fires of Revelation that would result from His opening of the seven-sealed scroll, the scroll opened by the Lamb Who had been slain (Revelation 5 onwards). It was a fire that would determine the whole future of the world.

Yet it was His longing that both would come to a speedy fulfilment, both the fire and the suffering that He must face, and He looked forward to neither. He would be glad when they were over. He would no doubt feel the same when out of His own suffering as the slain Lamb He opened the seven seals which brought into train the whole of the future (Revelation 5).

Perhaps the words that now follow were the result of His contemplation of the failure of the Servants in His parable concerning the future. As He contemplated the faithless steward who had had to be decapitated, and the high level slave who had had to be given a sound beating, and the low level slave who had also had to be beaten, even if it was a milder beating, it may well have brought home to Him that they were a picture of what lay ahead for mankind. For whatever the level of their punishment all would be servants who had failed Him in the purpose that He had for them, and these servants were thus typical of the failure of the world, who would suffer tribulation in century after century. So what He would now say may well have been because He saw in them a picture of the world's failure, and especially of the failure of His people, and wanted to do something about it. By ‘beating' the people He hoped to bring them to their senses, to bring them to listen to His words.

For in the end that parable had been about the world as it awaits His coming, and its concentration had been on the failure of those given responsibility within it, whether secular or spiritual, to fulfil their responsibility. It was because of the recognition of this failure that He was aware of the steps that He must Himself take in order to minimise it. By casting down fire on the world, partly in the form of His words, and the words of His followers, and partly through the resulting judgments, and by Himself suffering for it to the very depths, He would hope to produce success from failure. For when God's judgments are in the world, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9 and see Isaiah 59:9)

Perhaps also the words that had followed the parable, ‘to whoever much is given, from him will be much required', further reminded Him of Israel's failure in their responsibility to the world. They had failed to move the world and so it was His responsibility as representing the new Israel to do so. He would not be a faithless servant.

But whatever it was something had moved Him to make this momentous declaration, this awesome pulling back of the curtain of the future, in order to bring home to them the great uncertainty of that future, both for his listeners and for the world, an uncertainty which would at least partly be due to Him. (It was, of course, uncertain from the world's viewpoint, not from His). And it was a declaration unlike any that He had made before (although He would later expand on it in chapter 21). For they were direct words of the judgment that was coming on the world as a result of His coming, even though it was a judgment tempered with mercy for those who responded. And it was a judgment which would result from His own actions.

Fire was an apt picture of the future. The fire of God would shortly come down on His disciples (Acts 2:1), Israel would shortly know the fire of judgment in their rebellion against Rome. His own people would experience the fire of persecution (1 Peter 4:12), the world would face continual fire (Revelation 8:5; Revelation 8:7; Revelation 8:10; Revelation 9:2; Revelation 9:17), and would in the end be destroyed by fire (2 Peter 3:7). The final Judgment would result in fire for all but His elect (Luke 3:17; Revelation 20:15). For the fire is His fire whether for righteousness or for judgment.

So Jesus declares that in order to give them a ‘wake-up' call, and in order to try to save them from this final failure, He would ‘cast fire' on them, a fire which would result in judgment on the majority and blessing on the few. This would partly be by means of His words and their effects (see here Jeremiah 5:14; Jeremiah 23:29). For like Moses His words would include blessings and cursings. In one sense His enlightening word would spread like wildfire throughout the world, dividing the world into those who heard it (and had their eyes opened and were turned from the power of Satan to God - Acts 26:18) and those who failed to do so and reacted against it, and experienced the fires of judgment. And yet there was a very real sense in which it would also be His powerful word that would bring about the judgments that would follow. The future of all depended on His word, whether of salvation or judgment.

Some hint of this has already come out in His words concerning Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum. These were powerful words which had themselves sealed the fate of those cities. But it would also occur through His future words, which while helping the righteous would seal the fate of the unrighteous. For through His words, which were effective in carrying out what they declared (Isaiah 55:11), He would bring some into salvation and others into suffering and judgment, and yet even this latter was so that some of them might escape the final Judgment. They were words which were pressing on His heart, and which were bursting to come out. And it was clearly something that He did not like the thought of.

In a sense these next verses can be compared with Luke 9:21. There out of the blue He had unexpectedly revealed an in-depth description of His own relationship with the Father, and what it could mean for His own. For a brief moment He had opened Heaven to us, and manifested the glory of both Father and Son. It has been called ‘the bolt from the Johannine blue' because of its similarity to the teaching of Jesus in John's Gospel. Here also out of the blue He opens Heaven and reveals a summary of the future and of how unpleasant it will be for Israel, and eventually for the world. It will be a future of fire. And what is most poignant is that it will be a future that would be brought about by Him, a future that must be understood in terms of Luke 13:5; Luke 13:34; Luke 17:22; Luke 19:27; Luke 19:42; Luke 21:6; Luke 21:10, even though out of it will come also the redeemed. As a Lamb Who has been slain He will open the scroll of the future (Revelation 5 onwards). We might call it ‘a bolt from the Revelation blue'.

His momentous words were as follows:

“I have come to cast fire on the earth,

And how I wish it was already kindled.”

“And I have a baptism (‘an overwhelming') to be baptised with,

And how am I straitened (afflicted) till it be accomplished!”

Do you think that I am come to bring peace on the earth?

I tell you No, but rather division.

For there shall from now on be five in a house,

Divided three against two, and two against three,

They will be divided father against son, and son against father,

Mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother,

Mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

We can see at once that there is something very ominous about these words. Notice how their significance is almost tearing Him apart. ‘How I wish it was already kindled -- how I am afflicted until it be accomplished.' Note also the contrast of the first as only being ‘kindled', for the fire will burn long into the future, and the second as being ‘accomplished', that is, as something that will succeed and be fulfilled in His lifetime.

And it is also deeply significant that the fire that He has come to cast on earth, is paralleled with the overwhelming suffering that He Himself is going to endure. If He must bring suffering and judgment on the world, as He must, they must be made to recognise that it is from the travail of His own soul (Isaiah 53:11). He too will endure great suffering on behalf of the world. For it is through both these means that He seeks to bring salvation to all in the world who will respond. That is precisely the significance of the final verses in the group (Luke 12:51). They indicate that some will respond and others will not. And it will be His fire that will be what causes the division between them.

So His way ahead is to bring fire down on the world, and for Himself to experience it by Himself enduring fiery trial, a concoction which will bring salvation to those who believe in Him. It is not a cosy view, but one of salvation through suffering, first His and then theirs, (both for believers - Colossians 1:24, and for unbelievers) and will later be vividly portrayed in terms of ‘the suffering Lamb as it had been slain' Who will open the seals of the scroll which contains the world's destiny of suffering (Revelation 5:1 onwards). And He cannot wait until it has begun (has been kindled) for it is through this process that the world's redemption will finally be worked out.

Putting it briefly in one sentence we could see Him as saying, ‘You have heard what I said about the servants who will fail Me, and how they will suffer. Do not think that suffering is only for them, and that you will escape suffering, nor that I have come to bring you peace and an easy time. For I am rather bringing you into something which is going to put you too through much anguish and will rend you in two. And yet remember as it does so, that I have suffered too along with you, and for your sakes, and that its purpose is to make you consider righteousness and truth and partake of the benefit of My suffering. For it is when God's judgments are in the earth that the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9)'.

Let us analyse the passage further:

a “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it was already kindled!” (Luke 12:49).

b “And I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how I am straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50).

c “Do you think that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, No, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).

b “For there shall be from now on five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three” (Luke 12:52).

a “They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law” (Luke 12:53).

Central to the interpretation of the above is ‘c', which must determine the overall trend of the whole passage. It declares that Jesus has come not to bring peace but division, and that their whole conception of the Messiah has, up to now, been wrong. Thus we would expect to find reference to both lack of peace and division throughout the verses. Certainly both are apparent in the second half, and thus in view of this we would expect to find in the first part the cause of this lack of peace and of division, an answer to why they will be so divided and why there will be no peace. This makes it clear that the fire that is cast on the earth, and the baptism with which He must be baptised are what in some way must bring all this about. That must be the first basis of any interpretation.

The second point that we need to take into account is that the order of the phrases probably suggests that the casting of fire which begins to affect the world precedes or parallels the ‘baptism', the overwhelming suffering that He is to experience, rather than follows it. And nothing is more certain than that the seeds of Israel's suffering commenced almost immediately, being already foreshadowed in Luke 13:1, which is the firstfruit of suffering, and had indeed been already guaranteed by the declarations on the apathetic cities, and the apathetic current generation, and will be guaranteed from now on (Luke 10:10; Luke 11:29). With these pointers in view we will now consider the passage in more depth.

The first thing to recognise is the passion behind both ideas. There is a depth of feeling here that indicates deep emotion. ‘How I wish it were already kindled, how I am afflicted until it is accomplished.' He is foreseeing two things, which must in some way be related, that are tearing at His very heart, and He longs that they were behind Him. It gives Him no pleasure to cast fire on the earth. We will look initially at the first in its Scriptural background.