Lectionary Year C
August 19, 2001
Luke 12:49-56

Context

Step IV - Context

A. Primitive Christianity

(JFC) Early Christians knew the element of fire to be potentially destructive, especially as Jesus seems to employ the idea in these sentiments. The only footnote for these verses in The New Oxford Annotated Bible . . . says, "Fire, a symbol of judgment (Mt. 3:11; 7:19; Mk. 9:48; Lk. 3:16)." Or, did they think he was referring to the fire's refining facilities? Luke 3:16 quotes John the Baptist, "He (the expected Messiah) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Danker states that "Jesus aims to refine Israel so that they might present proper offerings to the Lord. Symbolic of this refining fire-like tongues which were distributed among the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:3). The Greek word for 'distributed' in Acts 2:3 is the same word rendered 'divided' in Luke 12:52. Evidently Luke views the fire as an expression of God's activity, resulting in changed attitudes on the part of some and hostility on the part of others." Furthermore, Luke states that Jesus did intend to bring peace, Luke 2:14 and 19:38. Also, like generations of their ancestors, first century Christians valued families. They were essential for economic reasons as well as for emotional support and stability, etc. When Jesus prophecies family divisions, primitive Christians must have been alarmed. Surely they realized that families have discord, disagreements, differences of opinions and conflicts. Yet, when Jesus, in the context of this text, makes such rather specific expectations, hearers/readers must get concerned, even if he had recently, earlier in the chapter, said worry is unnecessary. Reading the weather-signs must have been a common occurrence for so many then were in agricultural vocations. Also, reading the signs of the times would have been a popular habit, especially for those expecting Jesus' return to be imminent. In Mark 10:38, Jesus asks James and John whether they can suffer a baptism the likes of the one through he is going to have to suffer during his passion. Midway through John 12, verse 27, Jesus is predicting his demise and tells some inquisitive Greeks, "Now I am deeply troubled, and I don't know what to say." (CEV translation) He was not keeping his suffering a secret. And, he was involving his followers and others in it, as well. The Gospel of Thomas clarifies that plan, "Whoever is near me is near the fire; whoever is distant from me is distant from the kingdom."

B. Old Testament and Judaism

(JFC) Psalm 78:21 reports out of a God "full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his (God's) anger mounted against Israel." Also, Malachi 3:2b-3 describes fire as a purifier and a refiner. Leviticus 13:52 and Numbers 13:23 describe fire as a means of purification. And Danker expands this issue of fire by referring to the entirety of Malachi 3 and 4 as "the background against which the Lord's words are to be understood." And/But, Isaiah 11:6-9 and 65:25 speak of the Messianic age as a time of peace, "The Peaceable Kingdom". Then, referring to verse 49b, Plummer (ICC) cites the Septuagint version of Daniel 7:7, the final phrase of which reads, "would we have remained and settled ourselves beyond Jordan." My copy of the Septuagint footnotes the subjunctive verb, "Gr. and if we had." Verse 50's allusion to our Lord's passion "is (in Plummer's mind) a common one (a metaphor) in O. T. Ps. 69:2f and 14f; 42:7; 124:4f and Is. 43:2." Plummer also finds Job's 3:24, "sighing" and "groaning" similar to Jesus' exclamations as he anticipates his passion. Also, Jesus' prediction of diamerismo,n, reminds Plummer of Micah 7:12 and I add the verses before and after that one, too, and Ezekiel 48:29 but check the whole paragraph where this verse is located. Of course Micah 7:6 is the most widely mentioned for the family members' divisions. Later, in the eighth book of The Sibylline Oracles, prophesying the destruction of the world's kingdoms, in line 84, we read a familiar scenario, "Neither will parents be friendly to children nor children to parents."

C. Hellenistic World

(JFC) These Greek-thinking and -speaking philosophers would surely enjoy discussing the symbolism of such things in this pericope as Jesus' (definitely figurative) baptism, the signs of the weather elements' meanings and their alternatives and the interpretation of "the present time," as Jesus called it. The divisions in the households Jesus pictures for the future eventualities must have disturbed these Greeks who valued hospitality certainly beginning in their homes, even and especially since they were dispersed from their homelands. If they thought Jesus were scolding the disciples and/or the crowd, they might have taken exception to such a tactic, but if he were merely exercising some authority which they might emulate, they might have approved of such an approach. They favored authority as long as it was theirs to implement. Then, too, they might wonder about the ignorance of those Jesus addressed, re: their "not knowing how to interpret . . ." Not knowing was a definite no-no for Hellenists.

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