“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
54He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. 55And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Translation: "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to be baptized, and how I am being held together until it might be brought to completion. Do you think that I came to give peace in the earth? No, I say to you, but division. For from now on, five in one household will be divided, three upon two, and two upon three. They will be divided father upon son and son upon father, mother upon daughter and daughter upon mother, mother-in-law upon her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law upon mother-in-law.
But he said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising upon west, you immediately say that rain is coming, and it comes to be so. And when a south wind blows, you say that a scorching heat will be, and it comes to be. Hypocrites. You know how to interpret the face of the earth and of heaven, but how do you not interpret this present time (kairos)?"
Background and situation: Verses 51-53 are from Q and parallel Matthew 10:34-36. The rest of the passage appears to be Lukan, although 12:49 and 12:54-56 resemble some passages that appear in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas.
Jesus has been speaking to some combination of disciples and crowds ever since 12:1. In that same verse, he had issued a warning about "the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy." This concern will come into play in this week's lection.
Fire and water: The lection begins abruptly: "I came to cast fire upon the earth." Fire is a clear image of judgment. It burns, destroys, cleanses, and purifies. As the prophet Malachi had said, "For he is like a refiner’s fire (Mal 3:2)." (See also Paul's discussion in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 wherein he argues that whatever is built on Christ survives the purifying fire and everything else is burned up.)
To the image of fire is added the image of water: "But I have a baptism to be baptized." Water does not burn, but, like fire, it also destroys, cleanses and purifies. Fire is quicker, but, given enough time, water can decompose virtually anything.
Both the images of fire and water are associated with the Holy Spirit--earlier in Luke, John the Baptist had said, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (3:16)"--and both fire and water are images of transformation.
First, the old or "impure" is destroyed, either through burning up (fire) or decomposition (water), out of which is borne something new. Fire without transformation--that is, fire strictly used for punishment--is rejected (9:55).
The baptism Jesus refers to here appears to be his death. Since 9:51, he has been on his way to Jerusalem to be "lifted up," a clear, though here positively-phrased reference to his crucifixion. (The fourth gospel uses the same expression.) Out of this baptism of destruction will emerge the transformation of resurrection.
This is how life works. One might say that the entirety of human life is marked by the pattern of death and resurrection, the death of the old and the birth of the new. As Paul said in Romans 6: "We are buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that, as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
As the critical time of death and resurrection approaches, the level of stress and anxiety increases. Jesus speaks of desire that the fire already be lit, and says he is having a difficult time holding himself together (sunexo) as the crisis draws near and "until it might be brought to completion," heos hotou teleesthe. Stress and anxiety will generate division even within families.
Yes, Jesus did come to bring peace--1:79, 2:14, 7:50, 8:48, 10:5--but peace is not truly won unless it can integrate and transform its opposite. Death and destruction are not defeated by fighting against it, but by subsuming it, taking it within, then being annihilated, and created new again. (See Jesus Christ, resurrection of.)
Luke is likely also speaking to his own audience, c. AD 85. By that time, the new Jesus movement had disrupted any number of families. Letters survive today of Roman families complaining that their children had run off to join some group called "Christians." Prior to that, no doubt some Jewish families also felt division within them over some family members' loyalty to Jesus.
But he said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising upon west, you immediately say that rain is coming, and it comes to be so. And when a south wind blows, you say that a scorching heat will be, and it comes to be. Hypocrites. You know how to interpret the face of the earth and of heaven, but how do you not interpret this present time (kairos)?"
In a nifty parallel to his mention of fire and water, Jesus, for the first time since verse 21, now speaks explicitly to the crowds and comments on peoples' ability to read meteorological indicators regarding coming rain (water) or coming heat (fire).
The signs in clouds and winds could indeed spell trouble. Clouds rising from the west, from the Mediterranean, sometimes brought intense rain with significant local flooding. Likewise, wind from the south, from the Negev desert, could sometimes raise temperatures thirty degrees in an hour.
Hypocrites!: Jesus spits out the word "hypocrite." This section began (12:1) with Jesus warning about the pharisees and "their hypocrisy." He had excoriated the pharisees for being outwardly impeccable but inwardly "full of greed and wickedness" (11:39), for being punctilious about law, but forgetting "justice and love of God" (11:42), and for angling for respect and position, while being "unmarked graves" (11:44).
The pharisees, in other words, are known for outward cleanliness, religious observance, and heirarchical self-promotion, yet, really, they are filled with greed, support injustice, and don't love God.
Worse, the crowds have let themselves be influenced by the pharisees, Jesus says. Indeed, pharisees are "unmarked graves" which others walk over unwittingly and are affected by them (11:44). The people are assuming the categories offered by the pharisees without thinking very much about it.
Hurling the word "hypocrites" is like a slap in the face designed to snap somebody out of it. Stop it, the slap says, and get with reality. You do quite well at reading meteorological signs, Jesus says, so why can you not read the signs of "this time"? Division in the family is an indicator of social crisis (Micah 7:6). The increase of stress, anxiety, and division is all antecedent to the breaking in of God.
How do you not know to interpret "this present time?" Jesus asks. Greek has two words for time--chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to "chronological time," i.e. everyday, run-of-the-mill time. Kairos, the word for "time" used here, refers to the inbreaking of God--"God's time," you might say, which is present right now, and calls for a response right now.
Unfortunately, the lection stops at 12:56. In the next verse, Jesus exhorts the crowds to "judge for yourselves what is just" (12:57). In other words, don't let the pharisees do your thinking for you. Think for yourselves!
Image: Fire and Water, Len Cicio
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