Luke 12:49-53 does not picture the gentle Jesus that we find elsewhere in the Gospel. Jesus demands a decision for or against him and warns us that it will cause division. At his birth in this Gospel the angels sang "Peace on earth." Here Jesus astonishes us with, "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division."
He begins with the startling image, "I came to cast fire on the earth." In prayer destruction, then refining came to mind. I thought of the pictures I had often seen of the open furnaces in the steel mills. I can almost feel the heat just looking at such pictures. I found out it takes about 1,600 degree heat to separate the impurities from the iron to make steel.
The intense fire of God's blazing love burns away all the impurities in us and makes us holy. Those who are not burning with God's love cannot stand being near us. The decision for Jesus that opens us to God's fiery love divides us from those who decide against Jesus.
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