The Long Division of God's Word

“I have a baptism to be baptized 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.” Luke 12:50-51 (ESV) At the heart of these hard words from Jesus comes the truth of God’s act to save. Today at International Lutheran Church, we delve into the division that Jesus speaks of as it reveals the very depth to which God has gone to bring us back to Himself.

While long division is hard and mathematics might not be everyone’s favorite subject in school, we are regularly faced with the challenges that division brings. As we begin the process of seeing how numbers are related and how they can repeat patterns and how they can be represented in an endless number of different ways, the real challenge comes in keeping them straight as well as learning that some things just can’t be divided evenly or fairly. Two years ago now, I worked with my two sisters to settle our parent’s estate. We were reminded of the challenge of division through the words of our father’s investment manager. “While we will do our best, there will be some discrepancies. Some things just can’t be divided by three!” Yes, division is hard. It is also hard on the people and communities that undergo division, be that the reality of personal separation at death or the national and personal separation that happens so often in life. Just this weekend we were reminded of the long division of Asia and the leftover math from WWII that still has not been forgotten. Especially here in Korea we are reminded of this painful history as we live along the most militarized border in all the world and of all history. Hadrian’s Wall was only a few feet high, meant to keep out the marauding Celtic tribes. The DMZ is in an entirely different category.

But we don’t have to go to the DMZ to find division. We can just look at our own families and our own households. Here we can find fathers that don’t talk to their sons and sons that don’t talk to their fathers. We witness the sad reality of our day where daughters and mothers are divided or the division between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that can so easily spring up. And neither should we smooth over or skip the hard saying of Jesus in this part of the travel narrative in Luke’s Gospel. “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51 ESV) These are hard words. There is no way to sugarcoat them. Jesus Himself brings division. But before we despair into the vaporous imaginations of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the emptiness of our own modern-day “prophets” and gurus of prosperity and peace where there is no peace, we need to hear the words that Jesus speaks immediately before this. The division that He speaks of is something that will even touch Him. He will be “baptized with a baptism” and endure the fire of God’s judgement upon all our sinfulness and division.

That the Father and the Son were “divided” not only points to the divisions within our human households, but even of that heavenly household. The Father and the Son are estranged from each other on the cross. This is why the cross remains such a divisive image and yet central to our faith and hope. Jesus endures the fire and storm of God’s wrath which God spoke of through the prophets, like Jeremiah. Jesus would be the very “Hammer of God” and at the same time the Rock which would be broken to pieces by that hammer. Our faith in Jesus is more than just some sentimental wish that we hope will improve our lives a little bit. No, He is the very cover and shield that can save us from the wrath of God upon all our sin. His division wins for us a unification not possible here and now.

This does not mean we should stoke animosity for animosity’s sake. We should do all we humanly can with the use of God’s Word and promise to work out our differences and find ways to come together and support one another. This is why we are called to forgive one another and not hold on to a grudge. We are to turn away from our desire to seek revenge and reconcile with one another. That divisions remain are a sign and testimony that we are not in heaven yet, just as God’s Word reveals! We still need to press on toward the goal for which Christ has called us heavenward.

Jesus’ Words are also a passionate invitation for us to remember the baptism that we have been baptized with and the peace that we now have with God and with one another. This Word and promise of God’s love and forgiveness stokes a flame in us to share this Good News with others in the face of the long division that still affects us. Yes, the long division of God’s Word moves us to live out the faith of our baptism that we have been baptized into so that others too would believe and trust in Him.

Pastor Carl