Title Division for Peace, August 29
division for peace
Luke 12:49-53
jesus fire
However, today's text is generally viewed as 'judgment' rather than the power of the Holy Spirit. First of all, if the Holy Spirit is the power to raise up life, judgment is an event that destroys it. If you are people who remember the traditions of Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed by pouring brimstone fire from heaven, they would have thought deeply about the meaning of judgment after hearing Jesus' words. Even now we think of the reward of hell in relation to fire. It is like entering the unquenchable fire.
However, it is difficult for us to think that Jesus, who said to love even our enemies, would have said that He would judge the world with fire. Did he see the evil in this world and say that in a preceptive way, but did he really want the world to be destroyed? When armed men sent by the chief priests and the elders of the people came to arrest Jesus, Peter struck the high priest's servant in the ear with a sword. Then Jesus said: “Do you not know that if I ask the Father, he can send more than twelve legions of angels at once?” (Matthew 26:53). He said that those who use the sword will perish by the sword. In this way, Jesus did not fight the evil of this world with evil, but rather dealt with it by carrying the cross. It seems a bit awkward that Jesus said that He would judge the world with fire.
In any case, the judgment of fire is basically right in that it is a standard that can prove the existence of God and His righteousness. If there is no judgment of God, there is no God. The absence of judgment means that the world operates mechanically only according to natural principles, so the place of God disappears. Even the parables of the kingdom of God that Jesus taught are not always focused on love. Things like the parable of the weeds and the parable of the virgin waiting for the bridegroom are about God's judgment. We Christians have been waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ who will judge the world from the earliest days to the present.
Thus, in the Christian faith, there is a tension between these two facts: God's love and judgment. How are two opposing events possible in one person? Is this contradiction impossible to overcome? This topic is the theodicy of systematic theology.
baptism of jesus
Today we are going to solve this problem in a way that follows the text rather than theologically. Jesus, who was going to judge with fire, then said, “I have to be baptized” (50). Fire and baptism have different meanings. What was Jesus thinking by tying different concepts together?
However, Jesus did not actually judge by falling brimstone from heaven, but rather chose to suffer and take up the cross. Jesus said it was the baptism he had to receive. We cannot confirm whether Jesus was conscious of the death of the cross at the moment when Jesus said these words, but it can be said that he was conscious of the fate of death that was approaching him. The way of suffering and the cross he would face as he fulfilled the mission he received from God was baptism. Jesus foresaw how difficult the road would be, and added: “Until I have gone through all these things, I do not know how painful my heart will be” (50).
Sometimes I also feel sorry for why this world is so unfair, and I often think that it would be good if a stronger force would come out and wipe it all out. Perhaps the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia is a historical event that made that idea a reality. Many say the church is corrupt. I hope that the people of the church will rise up and correct all the evil order in the church. Even now, the world powers, perhaps countries in a geopolitically precarious area like ours, will have a wild dream of finding a way to survive by increasing their military power. It may be partly necessary to cultivate this kind of power to prevent the chaos that will arise due to the immediate imbalance of power, but it may also be a politically correct choice, but according to today's text, it was not the right path. Jesus' way of seeing suffering and the cross as the baptism he had to bear was completely different from the way of this age when they used violence in the name of eradicating evil.
false peace
Here we can ask: Is such a choice Jesus really wise, and is it valid for us today as well? In this reality, where only military and economic power are exercised like a sword of justice, it may seem too religious and ideal to bear the sufferings and crosses on your own. No matter how it seems, we must obey the Bible's path in obedience. We must follow its teachings, not because we are a fundamentalist who believes in the Bible literally, but because we believe in its Word the truth that has not yet been fully revealed. If I could explain why in a little more detail, there are two things. One is passive and the other is active.
The negative reason we have to choose the way of Jesus lies in the fact that, first of all, the peace in this world maintained by force is not true. I do not intend to analyze all the loopholes in the peace that this world has to offer. This is because this is a phenomenon that is clearly visible to anyone who can look into individual lives and human history, even a little. Now, the two Koreas have been in a state of truce for more than 50 years, but no one thinks this is peace. Palestine, Chechnya, Tibet, Taiwan, Iraq, etc. All nations and nations, and confrontations between nations and nations, do not bring about peace. There are only young people who believe that money and material things make our lives peaceful. Nevertheless, we live in a vague expectation that we will be able to obtain true salvation by relying on such strength.
Instead of judging the world by force, the positive reason we have to follow the path of Jesus, who bears suffering and the cross on our own, is that true peace is possible there, and furthermore, that is the beginning of judgment on this world There is. In a word, the cross of Jesus is God's judgment on this world. Judgment here is not just a punishment as we think it is, but rather an event of salvation. It means that what is right and what is wrong is the event of salvation. This soon means: The crucifixion was the death of God through the collusion of human religious and political power. They killed the innocent Son of God because they did not conform to their religious and political ideology. However, God accomplished the ultimate peace that human religious and political power could not achieve by raising Jesus from the cross. Because peace with God is absolute peace for humans, we are the people of peace who have achieved peace with God through the cross and resurrection.
division for peace
But our peace is not just romantic and psychic, it is very specific and very positive. It is not about getting along without fighting others unconditionally, but about daringly confronting things that go against the ultimate peace. They are not pseudo-pacifists who are tricked by the times, but people who know how to break solidarity with false peace for the sake of true peace. So Jesus said: “Do you know that I have come to bring peace to the world? no. In fact, it has come to bring divisions” (52). Jesus was clearly aware of false peace. A peace that does not fight only formally, but hates deeply within, has nothing to do with Jesus.
This statement can be understood to mean that it is far better for a false peace to be broken than to remain loosely. Although Jesus gave an example of a family to teach the essence of peace, this example is also a practical situation. The peace in the home, maintained by the father's authoritarianism, often destroys rather than enriches our lives. Sometimes blood selfishness partially satisfies us, but in the end it doesn't make us creative in our worldview. What is the false peace we must break for true peace with God? What are the forces around us that keep us from making peace with God? It is not so simple to discern it, but it is possible for those who know peace with God. Once you have identified them, have the courage to cut ties with them.