Peace on Earth?  No!

Luke 12:49-59

We are in Luke 12 this morning, but before I read that passage I want to read this beautiful passage from chapter two.

^8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ^9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ^10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ^11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ^12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ^13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ^14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

Now, compare that passage with this one from Luke 12:49.

^49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ^50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! ^51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ^52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ^53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

It doesn’t take a genius to spot the difference, does it? In chapter two the angels predict that Jesus will bring peace to the world. I would guess that at least one-fourth of all your Christmas cards have “peace on earth” or “peace” on the front. But in chapter 12 Jesus explicitly stated that he did not come to bring peace. Which passage is correct? Is Jesus the Prince of peace or is he a divisive person?

This is what is known as an apparent contradiction and skeptics love this kind of thing. They think that they can destroy the Bible by pointing out these inconsistencies. “See, the Bible even disagrees with itself. It can’t be trusted!” Skeptics solve this apparent dilemma by throwing out the whole Bible.

Liberal scholars have a different solution—they only cut out the confusing or offensive parts. In the past I have told you about the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal scholars, each of whom cast a vote about the reliability of the gospels. They classified each verse into a color-coded ranking.

red: Jesus undoubtedly said this or something very like it.

pink: Jesus probably said something like this.

gray: Jesus did not say this, but the ideas contained in it are close to his own.

black: Jesus did not say this.

Here is how the Jesus Seminar color-coded this passage.

^49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ^50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! ^51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ^52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ^53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Skeptics throw out the whole Bible and liberals cut out more than half of it, but we evangelicals believe the whole Bible, so we have to have a way to reconcile this apparent contradiction. By the way, don’t be afraid to admit such apparent contradictions because there are many of them. The Bible is also filled with paradoxes and mysteries that we will never fully understand, but that does not mean it is false or we should give up on the pursuit of truth. On the contrary, it should motivate us to seek out the truth.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth and first coming of Christ, but why did he come? Imagine this scenario. We are meeting here for worship and we begin to hear several helicopters overhead. Suddenly, two dozen men dressed in black suits and sunglasses storm into the auditorium. Several more men come to the front of the stage and grab one of these microphones and announce: “Ladies and gentleman—the President of the United States, George W. Bush.” What would be racing through your mind at that moment? My biggest question would be, “Why? Why did he come here?” We would wait until he would say, “Greetings, I have come to…” We’d be listening very carefully right then, don’t you think? This is the same kind of response we should have when we read verses 49 and 51. Any time Jesus says, “I have come to…”, you’d better listen carefully, because what he says next is very important. His response answers the Christmas question—“Why did he come?”

Jesus had many “I have come” statements. For example:

Matthew 5:17

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Matthew 10:34

34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Matthew 10:35

35 For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—

Mark 1:38

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

John 5:43

43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me

John 6:38

38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

John 9:39

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

John 10:10

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 12:46

46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

But in this passage we have two answers: “I have come to bring fire on the earth”, and “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” Furthermore, this fire and division he is bringing is causing him great distress. We mentioned this two weeks ago in the message on worry. Jesus was greatly distressed. What does that mean? He was perfect and without sin, so it cannot mean that he was worried. It cannot mean that he was afraid and it cannot mean that he was doubting, but yet he was distressed. When we are distressed it is usually associated with worry, fear or doubt—or all three. But the distress Jesus was feeling was unique to him and was due to the coming cross.

The cross was less than a year away and loomed large in the heart of Jesus. Was he distressed because he was thinking about the physical suffering he was to endure? If you watch The Passion of the Christ film you would think the cross was only about physical pain, but the physical pain was just the beginning. Jesus said he was distressed because of his coming baptism. We know he had been baptized by John almost three years prior to this statement, so it cannot be a water baptism he had in mind. Like in water baptism, the word “baptism” means immersion. So Jesus was saying that he has an immersion that awaited him. He knew he was going to be immersed into the wrath and judgment of his Father.

I have heard husbands joke that if they did not do such and such that their wives wanted, that they would have to face her wrath. But it is not only wives who vent their wrath and fury. Many wives know the damage done by an angry husband. Children know what it is like to have their parent’s wrath poured out on them in anger. All of us have had people become angry with us. Everyone here has felt this wrath, and when we have been at fault, we know the guilt and shame that go with it. Now, multiply that feeling an almost infinite number of times and you begin to see what Jesus faced on the cross. He was literally baptized into the wrath of God. He was immersed into the swirling, choking waters of his Father’s wrath. That was the baptism Jesus was expecting. Can you see why he would have been greatly distressed?

This baptism into God’s wrath is what the Bible calls the atonement. If a man who commits cold-blooded murder is found not guilty, we are rightly angered at the lack of justice. God is infinitely just and must punish sins. Listen to how Paul explains it in Romans chapter three.

^25 God presented him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ^26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Do you see? Past sins were forgiven but left unpunished. The sins of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and millions more were not punished. If God did not punish them he would not be just. That is why Paul said God is “just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” If you have faith in Christ, God declares you innocent because his son paid the penalty. Jesus absorbed the wrath of God so that we did not have to.

This is the peace that the angels spoke of in Luke 2. Let’s read that passage again. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Peace does not come to the earth. Many have assumed this to mean peace in the most literal sense, as in an end to all wars. Of course there will be peace in every sense of the word in the new heaven and earth, but peace does not come to the earth, but rather peace comes to individuals—to those who receive God’s favor—those who have faith in Jesus. God does bring peace! This passage is clear about that, but we still have not answered the apparent contradiction with Luke 12. Does Jesus bring peace and division? Yes, he does bring both peace and division. There is no contradiction between these two passages because both are equally true. But we still need to answer how it is that a man of peace would bring division.

It all goes back to the baptism he mentioned—the immersion into the pool of God’s liquid wrath. Since Jesus has made such an amazing sacrifice for us, he has the right to demand our clear choice—will we follow Christ or will we turn our back on him? Sometimes when we choose to follow Christ it means we turn our back on other people. Or as one commentator put it, “reconciliation to God can mean separation from people.”[1] Peace with God can lead to an absence of peace with some people. This is most clearly recognizable is countries where Christians are routinely persecuted. In a Muslim country, becoming a Christian is an automatic excommunication from your entire family. Fathers are divided against their sons. Mothers are divided against their daughters. Sometimes, the closer the relationship before Christ the greater the division after Christ. Let’s say I was a Muslim and had a good relationship with my father. After I become a Christian, the degree of separation between us will be in relation to the degree of closeness we once shared. Faith in Jesus brings division. It is not his desire to divide families into painful factions, but it is an inevitable consequence of following him 

I hope you see it is the depth and meaning of his sacrifice which causes this division. If Jesus were merely a prophet then he would not be divisive. If Jesus taught that there are many paths to God, then we would not have to choose him over another set of beliefs. After all, I’m not going to ruin my relationship with the members of my family over an optional set of beliefs. I am not going to destroy all of my relationships because of one man’s opinion. But Jesus wasn’t just giving his opinion. Jesus was not merely a traveling teacher. Jesus was the incarnate son of God who was baptized into the wrath of God as a payment for our sins and then rose from the grave to prove his claims. You cannot be wishy-washy about Jesus—you are either for him or you’re against him. If you have to choose between being reconciled to God or reconciled to your family, though it is painful, you must choose to be reconciled to God.

I know many of you have experienced this painful division in your own families. I have never heard of Christian conversions leading to attempted murders, as they are in other countries, but I have heard far too many sad stories of family division. And of course the holidays have a way of accentuating these family divisions. If a family member dislikes you because of your faith, that person tends to avoid you most of the year, but when family gatherings cause your paths to cross, the tension in the relationship is unavoidable.

Let me say a few things to those of you with family division caused by your faith. First, please make sure it is your faith in Christ that is causing the division and not your unloving attitudes. Many Christians have abrasive personalities or judgmental attitudes which divide them from other people. Then they have the gall to claim that their family is persecuting them because of their bold stand for Jesus Christ. Let’s face it—all of us have quirky personalities. Each of us is judgmental at times. It is quite possible that a division in your family is not Jesus’ doing but your own lack of love.

Most of you probably heard what happened with the tobacco building. I called the realtor and asked him to inquire whether or not the owners would consider a partial donation as part of the payment. Later that day the realtor called back and told me what the owner said: “organized religion is a scourge upon mankind.” Not exactly the kind of reaction we were looking for. If I had been on my toes I would have said, “Well, tell the owner our religion is not very organized.” Wouldn’t you like to know what happened to this man to cause him to form such an opinion? Experience tells me that his opinions were probably formed in the context of hypocritical Christians. This man may be hyper-sensitive and easily offended, but there is a good chance he was harmed by someone claiming to be a Christian. Fellow Christians, we need to see that when we do this we become the chief tool of Satan. Satan does not have to blind such people to the truth of the gospel, he just has to open their eyes to our gross hypocrisy. If you think you may have offended a family member, please consider an apology. Go the extra mile. If they truly don’t think you caused an offense, then you are no worse off for trying.

Unnecessary division is never the Lord’s will, but do not be afraid of family division that comes from the gospel shared in love. Jesus came to bring life and peace to those who have faith in him, but he also came to bring division. This is not a contradiction. This is not division for the sake of division, but the inevitable division that flows out of a heart and life devoted to Christ. When you experience this division, perhaps in the next two weeks, tell the Lord about it. Jesus knows first hand what division and rejection feels like. He is no stranger to suffering and separation. His suffering ended with his painful baptism and glorious resurrection, but it began with the birth of the God-man and Christ child—Jesus.

Rich Maurer

December 18, 2005