35 “Be dressed, ready for service, and have your lamps shining. 36 Be like servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding party. When he comes and knocks, the servants immediately open the door for him. 37 They will be blessed when their master comes home, because he sees that they were watching for him. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and tell the servants to sit at the table, and he will serve them. 38 Those servants will be blessed when he comes in and finds them still waiting, even if it is midnight or later.
39 “Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, he would not allow the thief to enter his house. 40 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at a time when you don’t expect him!”
41 Peter said, “Lord, did you tell this story to us or to all people?”
42 The Lord said, “Who is the wise and trusted servant that the master trusts to give the other servants their food at the right time? 43 When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed. 44 I tell you the truth, the master will choose that servant to take care of everything he owns. 45 But suppose the servant thinks to himself, ‘My master will not come back soon,’ and he begins to beat the other servants, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master will come when that servant is not ready and is not expecting him. Then the master will cut him in pieces and send him away to be with the others who don’t obey.
47 “The servant who knows what his master wants but is not ready, or who does not do what the master wants, will be beaten with many blows! 48 But the servant who does not know what his master wants and does things that should be punished will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one trusted with much, much more will be expected.
49 “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning! 50 I have a baptism to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over. 51 Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it. 52 From now on, a family with five people will be divided, 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.”
54 Then Jesus said to the people, “When you see clouds coming up in the west, you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it happens. 55 When you feel the wind begin to blow from the south, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it happens. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to understand the appearance of the earth and sky. Why don’t you understand what is happening now?
57 “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? 58 If your enemy is taking you to court, try hard to settle it on the way. If you don’t, your enemy might take you to the judge, and the judge might turn you over to the officer, and the officer might throw you into jail. 59 I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid everything you owe.”
Read Luke 12:35-59 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Part way through Jesus’ ministry, the gospel of Luke describes Jesus sharing with His disciples one of the reasons He came to the earth. In this description of why He came, I am surprised by Jesus’ words, because in many ways, they seem very “un-Godlike”.
Luke tells us that Jesus said: “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning! I have a baptism to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over. Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it. From now on, a family with five people will be 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 daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (v. 49-53)
When we think of Jesus, and specifically about the mission He came to this earth to accomplish, more often than not, we think of Jesus being someone who unites people together. There are other passages in the gospels that suggest this, however the big distinction between those passages and this one is that Jesus came to unite “God’s people”, wherever they happen to be, but while Jesus is uniting God’s people, He is separating God’s people from those who are not God’s.
This passage draws our attention to the reality that Jesus Christ is the most divisive, controversial person to have ever set foot on the earth. While He is clearly one of the most famous historical figures, He also inspires the most conflict. There are people living today who believe He was God who became a Man, other people living today who think He was nothing special, and even some who believe that He never existed.
By simply being present on earth and living out God’s mission for His life, Jesus divided those living in that century into people who believed He was sent by God and those who thought He was a raving lunatic sinner who was empowered by Satan.
The dividing nature of Jesus continues today. Jesus doesn’t want to divide God’s people, but He knows that God’s people must ideologically separate themselves from those who are not God’s, and the best place to make this division relates to Jesus Himself – and who we believe Him to be.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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