There are times when loyalty divides, especially in today’s world and in places where becoming a Christian is a capital offence, persecution, ostracism, and suffering. This is hard, in my personal experience and ministry. We may not all love the challenging and ‘unhappy truth’ of the Gospel, but as followers of Jesus Christ, we must acknowledge, obey, and proclaim them. Jesus’ death would force people to choose for or against Him and thus kindle the fire of division between those who follow Him and those who do not.

In the Gospel reading from Luke 12, Jesus expressed His concern that the disciples have no idea about His warning, the eventual outcome of His ministry and what that means for those who follow Him. The disciples, still waiting, missed the point as they still valued and anticipated the kingdom of God in earthly respect, love, riches, survival, and honour. 

In Luke 12, Jesus gave a quick summary of His ministry and its eventual end: a fire of cleansing judgment that spreads the good news and the baptism of his death to conquer death. Jesus’ statement is not without consequences, just as the Gospel’s effects can create division. The effects the Gospel has on anyone who follows Jesus suggest a warning from Jesus about our willingness to hear and see only what we want to. Throughout Jesus’ mission on earth, He focused on His kingdom priority. Jesus came from heaven to earth to show us the acceptable way to life, to redeem us from damnation, and to prepare as many as believe in Him for His Second Coming.

The kingdom of God ultimately establishes God’s peace on earth. The unhappy truth is that the proclamation and advance of the kingdom brings division. As Jesus announced the kingdom of God, calling for primary allegiance, this often split families, as some members believed and others did not. The acceptance and rejection of the Gospel proclamation are the basis of the division not only in the text but also in the church, family, and nations today. Jesus was rejected to the point of crucifixion on the cross.

Jesus said: “I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five 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 mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Lk 12: 49-53).

Again, this unhappy truth still makes sense with the angels’ thought on Christmas morning that Jesus had come as the Prince of Peace. Jesus’ active aliveness, the experience and spirituality of His physical presence in the world, is nothing but love, but this embodiment takes place amid a fallen, divided, and sinful world. Indeed, an unhappy truth with a happy future in and with Jesus Christ. Making peace is different and not the same as being friendly. Peace is not the absence of conflict, bearing in mind that Jesus gives genuine, lasting peace to those who follow Him. Jesus came as a breaker of the peace, as a threat to a dysfunctional family.

The concept of fire is applied in different ways throughout the Scripture. In Luke 12, Jesus associated fire with judgment and division. God’s fire will usually serve one of two primary purposes in people’s lives, depending on how they respond to Jesus’ kingdom proclamation (Deut 4:24; Jer 23:29; Heb 12:29). For those who accept His Word and follow Him, His fire will purify and refine them into what He wants them to be. However, for those who reject and defy Him, God’s fire will consume and destroy. God is a consuming fire, and through the fire of God’s judgment, everyone’s life and work will be tested (1 Cor 3:13-15). This difference will be the source of many divisions among people in this life, and for those who reject Jesus, it will be a basis of permanent separation from God in the life to come (Matt 10:34).

Beloved, how clear is your mission of proclaiming Jesus on earth to you? Are you bothered if you are rejected or accepted as proclaiming Jesus? Do faithful allies betray you? Are you faithful in the suffering to do the Master’s will? To faithfully proclaim Jesus, things will not always be rosy, but doing His will keeps us in peace as we look to His Second Coming. Please, join me to sing this hymn by Charles Wesley as we go forth proclaiming Jesus:

1 Forth in your name, O Lord, I go,
my daily labor to pursue,
determined only you to know
in all I think or speak or do.

2 The task your wisdom has assigned,
O let me cheerfully fulfill;
in all my works your presence find,
and prove your good and perfect will.

3 May I find you at my right hand;
your eyes see truly what I do.
I labor on at your command
and offer all my works to you.

4 Give me to bear your easy yoke
and ev’ry moment watch and pray
and still to things eternal look,
and hasten to your glorious day.

5 For you I joyously employ
whate’er you in grace have giv’n:
I run my daily course with joy
and closely walk with you to heav’n.