(Isaiah 5:1-7; Ps. 80:1-2, 8-18; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56)
Some time ago, somewhere or other, I read about a sermon which was titled, “Things I Wish Jesus Had Never Said.” And I remember thinking, What a great idea! Some of you might feel the same, and could probably come up with some suggestions (I’ve got a few of my own.) But it wasn’t until this past week that I actually did a Google search for that sermon, because I thought the gospel reading that we heard today might be on the list.
But I was frustrated in my quest for an answer to that question; because what the search turned up was, not a single sermon, but dozens with that title (including more than one sermon series), by preachers from a wide variety of denominations, over a number of years. So evidently it wasn’t just me who thought “Things I Wish Jesus Had Never Said” was a great idea; and, clergy being just as prone to thievery as anyone else, there’s a whole bunch who saw that title and thought, Oh boy! I can go to town on this one.
Today’s gospel is actually full of things I wish Jesus hadn’t said. And, in all honesty, I also wish the lectionary hadn’t put this text in front of us on the occasion of my first sermon in a month, I’d rather come back talking about the lilies of the field. But when the Bible presents us with words we don’t like, or don’t understand, that’s exactly where we need to put our best attention.
Most of the things in today’s passage that I wish Jesus hadn’t said go in one particular direction: Jesus sowing division, making trouble. I came to bring fire to the earth. Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? And we can be forgiven for thinking, well, actually, yes; but Jesus says: No, I tell you, but rather division! This is not the kind of thing we’re used to hearing from this man. And Jesus tells us further that this division will be of the most personal, painful kind: son against father, mother against daughter, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. And there’s another layer to this in-your-face: in these specific examples Jesus is quoting the prophet Micah, which his hearers would have recognized; so this is Jesus’ way of saying, If you thought I’ve come here to just let you off the hook of what you wish someone had never said, you’re mistaken.
So. How are we to understand these words, which we wish Jesus had never said? How does this square with the Jesus we know and love, whose way we want to follow? What is our Lord Jesus Christ teaching us here?
In this cycle of the lectionary, for the last eight weeks, we’ve been hearing from the gospel of Luke, from the long section that begins in chapter 9 with these words: “When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The phrase “s et his face to go” literally translates as “hardened his face to go”. Jesus knows he has to go to Jerusalem – he knows it is there and only there, the seat of worldly power for his people, that he can fulfill his mission – and he knows that it will end up costing him his life. So it’s no wonder he has to “harden his face” to this task. And the gravity of what he’s heading for, the bitter nature of the struggle, the life and death stakes – all of that’s in the air for the next nine chapters of the gospel (that’s how long in Luke’s telling that it takes Jesus to get to Jerusalem.) And every now and then in that stretch, some of the awareness of that reality filters out into language like we heard today.
Jesus’ mission, his life-work, was to proclaim the presence of the kingdom of God: the presence, in this life here and now, of the infinitely powerful Creator of the universe who for some unfathomable reason loves every single one of us. That’s the good news, that’s what we love to hear Jesus talk about, and to see him live it out. We heard Jesus express this in a particular way in the gospel reading last week (in words we are very glad Jesus said): “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” That’s Luke chapter 12 verse 32, which you could put on a refrigerator magnet and issue to every Christian at baptism, for one thing because it establishes the context in which we should put all the things we wish Jesus had never said.
But Jesus does say those things; because for some equally unfathomable reason we live in a broken world. We all know this: a world that’s gone wrong: a world in which it seems to be part of human nature that most of the time we ignore the kingdom that Jesus says it is God’s good pleasure to give us. Out of the infinite number of examples that occur every day, I’ll pick one from the gospel reading we heard a couple of weeks ago. Jesus is speaking to a crowd, and one of them says to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” And Jesus answers, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And immediately he turns to the crowd and says, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Now, the man has asked Jesus what seems to be a normal question. Inheritance – transferring property from one generation to the next – is something that everybody experiences some way or other, it’s codified in law or custom in every human society, and evidently there’s a problem that’s come up between this man and his brother. But Jesus sees in his request the brokenness of this world, here in the form of greed, rearing its ugly little head. Jesus sees it, and he calls it out, names that brokenness, to the people who are there to witness it (and to the man himself): Take care! Be on your guard! Greed is among us, and comes in many shapes and sizes.
This is Jesus bringing fire to the earth. This is Jesus bringing division, rather than peace. This is Jesus naming the places where there is division: where we are creating it.
Yes, there are things we wish Jesus had never said. But what that really means is that there are things we wish he didn’t have to say. But he did have to say them. And we know he did. Because they’re the truth.
And this is the teaching: it is our call as Christians to follow Jesus in this way: to recognize those places where the world is broken, where it’s gone wrong, to name them, and to go there: to bring the love of God there: God who alone can heal. It’s precisely in this that we are the Body of Christ. This is why throughout the gospels Jesus is constantly telling people: Take care! Be on your guard! Stay awake! Watch! Be alert! Be wise as serpents! We are disciples of Christ so that we can be apostles: sent out into this broken world to do God’s work. And thanks be to God for the things we wish Jesus had never said.