I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! (Luke 12:49 NLT)This is a side of Jesus we do not see often. We always think of Jesus as a peacemaker, ready to make people feel better.
In fact, the world’s view of Jesus is totally opposite this. The world’s picture of Jesus is a milktoast that allows people to do pretty much whatever they want.
The idea of a Jesus who is actually causing division is one we have trouble seeing.
The Bible talks enough about not causing division that we get to thinking that all division is wrong. It isn’t. Division in the body is wrong. Division in the body is never right.
But Jesus divides in a different way. You don’t have to look very hard to see this.
Hollywood is full of the division Jesus causes. He calls us to God, Hollywood calls us to glorification of self. He calls us to morality, Hollywood calls us to hedonism. He calls us to holiness, Hollywood calls us to debauchery.
You see that division in the world at large, too. Jesus calls us to God through himself. Islam calls people to a false god through a false prophet. The world becomes angry at the call of Jesus and tries its best to stamp it out. Countries all over the world outlaw Christianity only to find it growing even stronger.
In 1 Peter 2:8, the apostle Peter writes: He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. This means that just by being himself and carrying out his mandate from God, Jesus becomes divisive.
He is like a stone that sits in the road that people try to ignore and end up falling over. And then those who are too ignorant to see the stone and acknowledge it for what it is, get mad.
The mad takes several different forms. Some try to outlaw Jesus and all of his teachings. Some try to lessen what he had to say and put him in a category with a bunch of others they claim are like him. Some take him and try to make him into a poster boy for their cause. Some try to bend him to their wishes. Some ignore him altogether.
But they all trip over him because he is there no matter what anybody may say or do. His influence is all through the world and will continue to be until he comes again.
Jesus is real, and one day as Philippians 2:9-11 says, all will know it. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
He will be acknowledged by all the world one day, but for too many it will be too late.
The world is already burning for Jesus. Those who know it and accept it are purified by the fire. It makes them that much holier. Those who do not are burned up in the fire.
As Hebrews 12:29 says, our God is a devouring fire. And the fire that devours is Jesus, the Great Divider.
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