The cup worth drinking.

I never liked division.

It always pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to take sides.

As a young adult, I was about as tolerant as one could be.  I often capitulated to wickedness, attempting to lay a foundation on which I could build another hollow relationship.

I tried to keep my integrity intact by regarding my choices to be in the interest of peace. After all, Jesus Christ Himself was the champion of peace…wasn’t He?  Based on everything I’d heard, I just assumed He never passed up any opportunity to assemble the Temple leadership together and grind out a consensus to satisfy His people’s behavior!

This warped perspective of Christ’s earthly mission to God’s people is widely embraced in the secular community—even in some Christian circles.

[εἰρήνη; peace, harmony, order]

And, of course, Jesus is also on record as having said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” [Matt. 5:9]  So how does His disciple square this sentence with passages that appear to contradict it?  For example:

“Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth?  I tell you, no, but rather division.  For from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.  They will be divided, father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”  [Lk. 12:51-53]

These verses in Luke’s gospel account, along with parallel passages recorded in Matt 10:34-36, clearly record Jesus informing His disciples that deep-seated, life-long relationships and strong personal bonds of partiality would heavily influence their decisions whether or not to obey Him.

So I have to wonder if any of them felt offended, as if no one had the right to demand that they employ bias in making tough decisions.  After all, this was family.  How could they live in peace and harmony under such intolerable conditions?

It must have been a tough row to hoe.

A more comforting premise would suggest that the conflicts Jesus envisioned were of a trivial nature, referring to common family squabbles.  He did, However, preface this unsettling passage with two sentences which appear to reflect some level of personal anguish:

“I came to pour fire upon the Earth, and how I wish it were already set on fire!  And I have a ritual washing to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”  [Lk. 12:49-50]

It’s very possible many of His disciples had no idea what He was talking about here.  But, a 21st Century inductive Bible student is able understand His words “fire upon the Earth” not as a direct reference to His second coming, but rather, completely in the context of an historical conversation which was highly relevant to His following three sentences.  [see: Lk. 12:51-53 above]

[What’s an “inductive Bible student?”  see: Inductive Study? Sounds Like a Plan.]

If he can’t, then he might not make the connection and diminish the impact of what He said—such as,

Jesus didn’t really mean He was going to cause division in families.

Fire isn’t just an agent of extermination.  It’s also critical to the refining process of metals, something most ancient Palestinians were familiar with.  Placing raw metal ore into a fire was the only way to separate the pure metal from the impurities which contaminated it.  The God Incarnate man, Jesus Christ, proliferated the fire by which His people are purified [or refined] even to this day.

So it appears that He really did mean exactly what He said.

On the other hand, Jesus taught His disciples that “peace,” in its authentic sense, is realized only through a committed lifestyle conducive to God’s vision of purity in conduct.  If I attempt to make peace without a clear understanding of what that actually means, I’m probably just fanning the flames of pride and  ignorance.

Conversely, if I’m really a Biblical peacemaker, I’ll have my priorities in line.

I’ll drink the cup of subservience from my Master Refiner drawn from the spigot of free will.