Sermon Text: Luke 12:49–53
Date: August 17, 2025
Event: Proper 15, Year C
Luke 12:49–53 (EHV)
“I came to throw fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already ignited. 50But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is finished! 51Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52Yes, from now on there will be five divided in one household: three against two, and two against three. 53They 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 her mother-in-law.”
How Does Jesus Divide Us?
There are seemingly endless ways to divide people. Even if we take our relatively small sample size gathered here this morning, there are plenty of division opportunities, even among us who would seem to have a lot in common. In some ways, you are self-divided today. Are you sitting closer to the front or the back? Are you sitting on the left or right side of the church? And then we can get more granular. We could divide our group by age, by gender, by music preferences, by net worth, by favorite food, by least favorite food, by ethnicity or family heritage—the list goes on and on and on.
But the place where we find unity is in Jesus, right? We are here this morning because we believe that Jesus is our Savior from sin and see value in being surrounded by his Word on a Sunday morning. The truth of Jesus’ objective forgiveness means that he is the one element that binds all of humanity together: every person on the face of the planet is someone for whom Jesus died.
And so perhaps it’s a bit disorienting to hear Jesus speak as he does in our Gospel this morning. Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. We often think of Jesus as the peacemaker, but here he claims the opposite role. He brings division rather than unity, conflict rather than peace.
Taken out of context, we could go wild making up reasons for this, putting all sorts of words into Jesus’ mouth. But let’s take this morning to understand what Jesus is saying and why he’s saying it, as we ponder in what ways Jesus divides us and in what ways he unifies us and brings us peace.
Let’s begin with how Jesus does, in fact, bring peace on the earth. The peace that Jesus brings is not primarily between individual people, but between sinful human beings and our just God. God’s demands for us were pretty clear: perfection. There was no wiggle room for us. God’s expectations have never been and never will be that we simply try our best, that we do more good than bad, or that we stand out from the crowd with our good, generous, genuine behavior. No, perfection was and is the only acceptable standard.
That means that you and I, who have not been perfect or even close to it, have a real problem. We actually have a peace problem, because our sin puts us in conflict, sets us at war with God. And whether you’ve ever been in a fight or not, you can understand the principle that you probably shouldn’t seek out conflict with someone unless you’re sure you can win. This would apply to nations at war or students dealing with bullies.
Yet, our sin means that you and I have picked a fight with the almighty creator of the universe. This is a poor strategy that will not end well. We’ve entered into a conflict that we absolutely will lose. And that loss is catastrophic; it is eternal. The apostle Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and that death isn’t just the physical death that we think of when we hear that word—as horrendous and heartbreaking as that is. No, the death that comes about as a result of our sin is eternal death, which is not merely the separation of the soul from the body but the separation of the person from the blessings of God forever. And this is something that no living human being has ever experienced. For as troublesome as our days might be, for as much sorrow and stress as a person might endure in this life, they’ve never truly experienced total separation from God and his providence. That will be hell in its most gruesome reality—suffering without relief, forever.
This, of course, was not ok with God. His love for us was so great that, even though this is what we deserved, he couldn’t sit idly by and let that happen to his beloved human race. So he promised a Savior to rescue us, and then followed through on that promise. Jesus, true God from eternity, took on our human nature in time to live in our place. Everything about Jesus’ work for us is substitutionary. He tags in for us under God’s law—and kept it perfectly. And then at the cross, he tags in for us as sinners; he endures that hell, that separation from God that we deserved, for us. As he takes our place, the payment is made, and God’s justice is satisfied; hell will never be something we need to endure.
That’s why we can say with the apostle Paul that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). The conflict is over because Jesus made this peace. Jesus’ perfection has been credited to our accounts to give us the perfect track record that God demanded. This is the peace promised to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:14) and the peace that Jesus assured his disciples about on Maundy Thursday evening (John 14:27) and throughout his appearance to them after he rose from the dead (Luke 24:36, John 20:19, etc.).
This then brings us back around to Jesus’ startling statement in our Gospel for this morning: Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. How does Jesus divide us? He tells us that, at the last day, he will divide all mankind into two groups—sheep and goats, that is, believers and unbelievers. And this is the division that he’s getting at here. Jesus acknowledges that not every human being will flock to him; people will reject him. We saw that play out during his earthly ministry, and the same thing happens even today when his Word is shared. Faith in Jesus serves as a way to divide the human race—those who cling to him as Savior and those who do not.
And this division is not just a label, not just a little factoid about someone that makes them different from someone else. No, our trust in Jesus as Savior and all the knock-on effects that has will set us at odds with people—even dear members of our own families. Jesus doesn’t want Christians to live with the delusion that because we have peace with God, we should expect an easy-going life now, a life of constant peace and harmony. No, far from it, actually.
Jesus divides us because some trust and value what he’s done, while others do not. Some agree that placing a high value on our eternal well-being is of the utmost importance, while others find that whole concept to be utter nonsense. Some will accept, understand, and even encourage the life that a Christian faith calls us to live in thanksgiving to our God, while others will be appalled that we wouldn’t support a particular worldly cause or follow in their sin-laden path.
Where does that leave us? Yes, from now on there will be five divided in one household: 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 her mother-in-law.” Maybe you have this dynamic in your own family—one divided along differing faith lines, or faith vs. no faith. Even if you don’t have that exact scenario in your family, you know what it is to be an outcast from the world because of your faith in Jesus. And while we certainly do not want to exacerbate the division by being obnoxious, petty, or judgmental, we also recognize that even if we are perfectly speaking about our faith or living our faith with gentleness and respect as the apostle Peter directs us (1 Peter 3:15-16), we’re going to upset someone.
And what does Jesus say to that? “So be it.” He gives us this warning so that we don’t misinterpret these divisions, to assume that because someone is mad at us, that we’re doing something wrong, that because someone is offended by our faith, we need to course-correct. Quite the opposite, actually. He gives us this heads up to know what to expect and then ensure that we do not compromise on our faith to make peace in the here and now.
Because that’s the temptation, right? If my faith puts me at odds with others, then I might want to sideline or even jetison my faith to make that relationship whole again. It’s a different expression of the same principle we dealt with over the last few weeks, considering the value of earthly wealth vs. heavenly treasure. Any trade that would have us hand over our eternal security in exchange for some temporal blessings or ease of life is indeed a poor, poor trade.
So what is the Christian to do? Hold fast to your Savior. Do not look down on others who do not hold your faith, but seek opportunities to share the gospel with them. But at the same time, recognize that your faith is not likely to be something that unifies, but rather that divides. To cling to Jesus as Savior means admitting something about yourself that no one really wants to admit—that we are sinners who deserve hell. To have a Savior, we must have needed to be saved, and that is an unpleasant thought for anyone.
But even as you face divisions because of your faith, know that you have unity where it really matters. You have peace with God through Jesus’ work in your place. That means that you are a child of God and a citizen of heaven. That peace will endure through eternity. Know that divisions are here and will continue to be present, but value our unity in the peace Jesus won for us. Amen.
