Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2016
Jeremiah 23:23-29, Luke 12:49-56
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
May the grace and peace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
There are so many unresolved questions in this world that are still in argument between people. So I am going to ask you some of the questions. Who thinks that Tomato is a fruit? Then, who thinks that Tomato is a vegetable? As you can see, this is a very hard question to answer and this is still at stake among the scientists and cooks. Let me ask you another one. Who thinks that egg comes before chicken? Who thinks that chicken comes before egg? It seems like an easy question, but we fall deeper into dilemma the more we think about it.
We all have different opinions on certain issues and easily take a side and like to argue with those on the opposite side. We like to group ourselves and others according to gender, race, political issues, education level, economic level and so on. Knowing that you belong to a certain group could make you feel safe and secure. This is okay since it is a natural way of how human beings live in a society… but the problem is that we sometimes tend to carry hostility toward the other group who has different opinions and interests. Presidential election in both United States and South Korea are coming soon and there is a huge disagreement between Republican and Democrat, Conservative and Liberal parties. People slander and make fun of the opposite presidential candidate and show their feelings of hatred toward the people who support the candidate.
This is just one of many examples of division in one nation, and there are many other factors which can bring such divisions between nations, communities, relationships and even within of our own mind.
The Gospel text we read today is known as one of the hardest text to interpret and preach. Jesus says, "I came to bring fire to the earth…” and then, he goes, “do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”
This could have been the most troubling statement of Jesus to the hearers both back in Jesus’ time and today as well. Did Jesus not come to bring peace? Was Jesus not the Savior and Prince of Peace? What does that mean? And what did Jesus intend to point out in this strong statement and how can we apply it to our life? Let’s take a look at it.
As you read the four Gospels, you would understand that Jesus’ coming on the earth had created much conflict and division within families, communities and religious institutions. Imagine that we are living in Jesus’ time 2000 years ago and we are one of Jewish religious leaders, how would you react to Jesus’ ministry? What would you respond to Jesus who looked like a poor ordinary young man and called himself the Son of God? How would you feel if he pointed his finger toward you in front of everyone and called you as a hypocrite and brood of vipers? What would you do if he came in to the temple, overturned the tables and tried to raise disturbance? We must have felt furious and upset toward that young man and tried to do something to make him stop whatever he was doing.
Sometimes we easily criticize that the people in Jesus’ time who didn’t believe in Jesus have lack of faith. But if we try to put ourselves in their shoes or imagine that Jesus Christ came to this world in our time, today, we would not be able to criticize their faith so easily, since we won’t be any different from them.
Indeed, Jesus brought turbulence and division within families, communities, and among nations 2000 years ago and Jesus has been the person who was the cause of such turbulence and division throughout the history since then.
Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” What does this mean? What kind of fire did Jesus bring?
Fire has various biblical images in the Bible. It can represent the presence of God such as pillar of fire in Exodus (13:17-22) and the tongues of flame in Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). It can also represent eschatological judgment in Revelation (20:7-10). Fire also represents purification like a refiner purifies silver or gold by fire in Zachariah (13:9) and Malachi (3:2-3). But we don’t need to necessarily divide sharply between the possibilities of various images of fire, because the fire itself carries various characteristics such as light and heat. I believe that the fire could also mean the Holy Spirit, and in that sense, we can also interpret this part of the text as speaking of God’s presence.
We can also make an interesting connection with what John the Baptist said. John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit. And he continued on by saying, “He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire." John’s understanding of the Messiah’s work was a work of judgment that distinguishes the wheat from the chaff. So when John was providing water baptism, the baptism of repentance, he was inviting and urging people to repent so that they can be prepared for the coming of Jesus who brings judgment and purification.
But our focus today is on division. Let’s come back to the text where Jesus said he came to bring division not peace. What does that truly mean? I would like to invite each one of you to think deeply about this phrase. Are the divisions natural and necessary in our life?
When our sinful nature meets the truth of God, it resists accepting it. And none of us is an exception. We all carry our sinful nature, but there are two kinds of reaction that reveals when the Truth of God shines us. The ones who are satisfied in the darkness does not desire to come out to the light, but there are ones who strongly desire to come out of the darkness respond to the light and lament their situation hoping that they can someday walk into the light. This is evident in the Bible. Even the people who met Jesus 2000 years ago, there were people who hated the Word of Truth that came out from the mouth of Jesus and wanted to stop it, whereas there were people who desired to listen to the Word of Jesus wherever he went.
There cannot be peace among these two groups. But if we insist on peace and unity, then it will only bring a superficial peace that only shows unity on the surface. There will always be underlying complaints and disharmony among the people. In other words, the discord and division is already there. Jesus does not bring division and fight into peaceful relationships, but rather, Jesus enlightens the hidden inner division with the light of Truth and makes it reveal itself. First, Jesus reveals the chain of fight and the festering wounds of the division which puts us into an uncomfortable and painful state, but soon binds us up and heals us to bring the true unity and peace among us. This is just like healing our human body—you need to cut off the rotting part in order to completely heal the rest of your body.
Then, how is our inner state? Isn’t there an endless division even inside our hearts? Just as God, in Genesis, divided light and darkness by creating light among chaos, there will be a conflict inside our hearts when the light of Truth shines on our dark sinful nature. Have you ever felt guilty or painful after hearing a sermon? By hearing and learning God’s Word, we will at last realize our sins and weaknesses, and continue on to fight with our sinful natures so that we can become more and more like Jesus and carry the heart that God wants. Therefore this division and chaos is necessary for the true peace and security that comes afterwards.
It tells us in verse 50, how distressed Jesus was until he had to receive the baptism of suffering on the cross. Then as followers of Jesus, shouldn’t we continue to experience the endless conflicts within us to fight our past habits and sinful natures to finally win the race?
I want us to look back whether or not the purpose of our religious life has been for our own peace and security. Let us look back whether or not the happiness of ourselves and the happiness of our own family have become the most important thing at some point. Do you come to the church because you have some spare time or because you don’t have much to do other than coming to the church? Or maybe the other way around, do you ever choose not to come to the church according to your busy schedule or simply because you don’t feel like coming? Do we have the same fear that the Jewish people had? They feared that they will be cut off from God if they do not keep the Sabbath or show up in the Temple for certain seasons. I want us to question ourselves whether or not we are fighting within ourselves to obey the Ten Commandments by keeping the Sabbath holy. And this is only one of the many inner conflicts we have and will have as we live as followers of Jesus.
Like I briefly mentioned earlier, fire can also mean the Holy Spirit. Why did the Bible express the Holy Spirit as fire? What does fire do? It burns. It has to continuously burn something to keep the fire alive. It applies the same way to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can only abide and be alive inside us by continuously burning up and consuming us. This is just like what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians, “Do not quench the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit moves, comes and goes like the wind. Then, what do we burn in ourselves to have the Holy Spirit remain inside of us? It is our ego that we don’t want to put God as priority. It is our sinful natures that we put ourselves on the throne and feed ourselves according to our greed. It is our thoughts and it is our own will that we need to continue to burn and let the Holy Spirit consume.
Let us examine deeper inside of us. In verse 56, Jesus called the people as hypocrites by saying, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the signs of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” What is hypocrite? In Greek culture, this word was commonly used of actors on stage who performed under a mask. When this word was applied in the New Testaments, it meant a two-faced person whose profession did not match their practice.
Let’s clearly face ourselves. Are we hypocrites? This may hurt our feelings, but we are hypocrites. We say that we are followers of Jesus and we say that we believe in God, but how much are we practicing and showing our faith in our everyday lives? We say that we love God, but how often do we feel God’s love and act for the love of God? For instance, how much time are we using from each day to pray and read the Bible? How much are we practically helping, comforting, and encouraging others in the name of our Lord?
Jesus again says, “You know how to interpret the signs of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” Just like we always check every day’s weather, how often do we try to interpret our present time? There are times of peace and there are times of division. There are times of forgiveness and maintained unity and there are times of exposed false and reformation of the wrong doing.
However, so many churches of this age don’t tell us how miserable sinners we are but only celebrate the blind peace and try to cover the reality with sweet words and funny jokes. They don’t tell us directly that we are hypocrites. But we are hypocrites including myself and all of us. If you look closely at the Bible, it doesn’t tell us that we are the center of this world. God is always at the center. We have to admit this and we have to come down from the center and make every effort to place God to be our center and to be the highest place in our life.
When you do that, finally, our division and war inside of us will end and God will be the head of our life. Then we will be given the true peace, the peace that Jesus gives us that will never be shaken whatsoever.
Jeremiah 23:23-29, Luke 12:49-56
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
May the grace and peace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
There are so many unresolved questions in this world that are still in argument between people. So I am going to ask you some of the questions. Who thinks that Tomato is a fruit? Then, who thinks that Tomato is a vegetable? As you can see, this is a very hard question to answer and this is still at stake among the scientists and cooks. Let me ask you another one. Who thinks that egg comes before chicken? Who thinks that chicken comes before egg? It seems like an easy question, but we fall deeper into dilemma the more we think about it.
We all have different opinions on certain issues and easily take a side and like to argue with those on the opposite side. We like to group ourselves and others according to gender, race, political issues, education level, economic level and so on. Knowing that you belong to a certain group could make you feel safe and secure. This is okay since it is a natural way of how human beings live in a society… but the problem is that we sometimes tend to carry hostility toward the other group who has different opinions and interests. Presidential election in both United States and South Korea are coming soon and there is a huge disagreement between Republican and Democrat, Conservative and Liberal parties. People slander and make fun of the opposite presidential candidate and show their feelings of hatred toward the people who support the candidate.
This is just one of many examples of division in one nation, and there are many other factors which can bring such divisions between nations, communities, relationships and even within of our own mind.
The Gospel text we read today is known as one of the hardest text to interpret and preach. Jesus says, "I came to bring fire to the earth…” and then, he goes, “do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”
This could have been the most troubling statement of Jesus to the hearers both back in Jesus’ time and today as well. Did Jesus not come to bring peace? Was Jesus not the Savior and Prince of Peace? What does that mean? And what did Jesus intend to point out in this strong statement and how can we apply it to our life? Let’s take a look at it.
As you read the four Gospels, you would understand that Jesus’ coming on the earth had created much conflict and division within families, communities and religious institutions. Imagine that we are living in Jesus’ time 2000 years ago and we are one of Jewish religious leaders, how would you react to Jesus’ ministry? What would you respond to Jesus who looked like a poor ordinary young man and called himself the Son of God? How would you feel if he pointed his finger toward you in front of everyone and called you as a hypocrite and brood of vipers? What would you do if he came in to the temple, overturned the tables and tried to raise disturbance? We must have felt furious and upset toward that young man and tried to do something to make him stop whatever he was doing.
Sometimes we easily criticize that the people in Jesus’ time who didn’t believe in Jesus have lack of faith. But if we try to put ourselves in their shoes or imagine that Jesus Christ came to this world in our time, today, we would not be able to criticize their faith so easily, since we won’t be any different from them.
Indeed, Jesus brought turbulence and division within families, communities, and among nations 2000 years ago and Jesus has been the person who was the cause of such turbulence and division throughout the history since then.
Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” What does this mean? What kind of fire did Jesus bring?
Fire has various biblical images in the Bible. It can represent the presence of God such as pillar of fire in Exodus (13:17-22) and the tongues of flame in Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). It can also represent eschatological judgment in Revelation (20:7-10). Fire also represents purification like a refiner purifies silver or gold by fire in Zachariah (13:9) and Malachi (3:2-3). But we don’t need to necessarily divide sharply between the possibilities of various images of fire, because the fire itself carries various characteristics such as light and heat. I believe that the fire could also mean the Holy Spirit, and in that sense, we can also interpret this part of the text as speaking of God’s presence.
We can also make an interesting connection with what John the Baptist said. John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit. And he continued on by saying, “He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire." John’s understanding of the Messiah’s work was a work of judgment that distinguishes the wheat from the chaff. So when John was providing water baptism, the baptism of repentance, he was inviting and urging people to repent so that they can be prepared for the coming of Jesus who brings judgment and purification.
But our focus today is on division. Let’s come back to the text where Jesus said he came to bring division not peace. What does that truly mean? I would like to invite each one of you to think deeply about this phrase. Are the divisions natural and necessary in our life?
When our sinful nature meets the truth of God, it resists accepting it. And none of us is an exception. We all carry our sinful nature, but there are two kinds of reaction that reveals when the Truth of God shines us. The ones who are satisfied in the darkness does not desire to come out to the light, but there are ones who strongly desire to come out of the darkness respond to the light and lament their situation hoping that they can someday walk into the light. This is evident in the Bible. Even the people who met Jesus 2000 years ago, there were people who hated the Word of Truth that came out from the mouth of Jesus and wanted to stop it, whereas there were people who desired to listen to the Word of Jesus wherever he went.
There cannot be peace among these two groups. But if we insist on peace and unity, then it will only bring a superficial peace that only shows unity on the surface. There will always be underlying complaints and disharmony among the people. In other words, the discord and division is already there. Jesus does not bring division and fight into peaceful relationships, but rather, Jesus enlightens the hidden inner division with the light of Truth and makes it reveal itself. First, Jesus reveals the chain of fight and the festering wounds of the division which puts us into an uncomfortable and painful state, but soon binds us up and heals us to bring the true unity and peace among us. This is just like healing our human body—you need to cut off the rotting part in order to completely heal the rest of your body.
Then, how is our inner state? Isn’t there an endless division even inside our hearts? Just as God, in Genesis, divided light and darkness by creating light among chaos, there will be a conflict inside our hearts when the light of Truth shines on our dark sinful nature. Have you ever felt guilty or painful after hearing a sermon? By hearing and learning God’s Word, we will at last realize our sins and weaknesses, and continue on to fight with our sinful natures so that we can become more and more like Jesus and carry the heart that God wants. Therefore this division and chaos is necessary for the true peace and security that comes afterwards.
It tells us in verse 50, how distressed Jesus was until he had to receive the baptism of suffering on the cross. Then as followers of Jesus, shouldn’t we continue to experience the endless conflicts within us to fight our past habits and sinful natures to finally win the race?
I want us to look back whether or not the purpose of our religious life has been for our own peace and security. Let us look back whether or not the happiness of ourselves and the happiness of our own family have become the most important thing at some point. Do you come to the church because you have some spare time or because you don’t have much to do other than coming to the church? Or maybe the other way around, do you ever choose not to come to the church according to your busy schedule or simply because you don’t feel like coming? Do we have the same fear that the Jewish people had? They feared that they will be cut off from God if they do not keep the Sabbath or show up in the Temple for certain seasons. I want us to question ourselves whether or not we are fighting within ourselves to obey the Ten Commandments by keeping the Sabbath holy. And this is only one of the many inner conflicts we have and will have as we live as followers of Jesus.
Like I briefly mentioned earlier, fire can also mean the Holy Spirit. Why did the Bible express the Holy Spirit as fire? What does fire do? It burns. It has to continuously burn something to keep the fire alive. It applies the same way to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can only abide and be alive inside us by continuously burning up and consuming us. This is just like what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians, “Do not quench the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit moves, comes and goes like the wind. Then, what do we burn in ourselves to have the Holy Spirit remain inside of us? It is our ego that we don’t want to put God as priority. It is our sinful natures that we put ourselves on the throne and feed ourselves according to our greed. It is our thoughts and it is our own will that we need to continue to burn and let the Holy Spirit consume.
Let us examine deeper inside of us. In verse 56, Jesus called the people as hypocrites by saying, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the signs of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” What is hypocrite? In Greek culture, this word was commonly used of actors on stage who performed under a mask. When this word was applied in the New Testaments, it meant a two-faced person whose profession did not match their practice.
Let’s clearly face ourselves. Are we hypocrites? This may hurt our feelings, but we are hypocrites. We say that we are followers of Jesus and we say that we believe in God, but how much are we practicing and showing our faith in our everyday lives? We say that we love God, but how often do we feel God’s love and act for the love of God? For instance, how much time are we using from each day to pray and read the Bible? How much are we practically helping, comforting, and encouraging others in the name of our Lord?
Jesus again says, “You know how to interpret the signs of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” Just like we always check every day’s weather, how often do we try to interpret our present time? There are times of peace and there are times of division. There are times of forgiveness and maintained unity and there are times of exposed false and reformation of the wrong doing.
However, so many churches of this age don’t tell us how miserable sinners we are but only celebrate the blind peace and try to cover the reality with sweet words and funny jokes. They don’t tell us directly that we are hypocrites. But we are hypocrites including myself and all of us. If you look closely at the Bible, it doesn’t tell us that we are the center of this world. God is always at the center. We have to admit this and we have to come down from the center and make every effort to place God to be our center and to be the highest place in our life.
When you do that, finally, our division and war inside of us will end and God will be the head of our life. Then we will be given the true peace, the peace that Jesus gives us that will never be shaken whatsoever.