Conversation Points for Luke 12:49-56

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• The last few weeks/chapters have been an extended warning on the coming judgment, a decidedly Adventy feel in the middle of summer. This passage is the beginning of the conclusion of this section of Jesus’ teachings. There is an ironic truth to Jesus teachings’, the one who comes to bring peace will also bring inevitable division.
• Greek syntax orders words in a sentence by importance, with the first and last words holding the most weight. In the Greek, verse 49 literally translates “Fire I came to cast on the earth!” It evokes John the Baptist’s pronouncement in Luke 3:16, “[Jesus] will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Though in Acts, we see that the “consuming” fire of judgment is actually the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit.
• As Simeon had predicted, Jesus’ presence would bring division and conflict before it would bring peace, and Jesus himself would be the first casualty of the division. Luke 2:34-35, “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
• This passage reminds me of a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes.”
• In Israel, the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the desert to the south control the weather. Winds out of the west bring moisture and rain, whereas winds from the south bring hot, dry desert air.

Works Sourced:
Culpepper, R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.