Tenth Sunday After Pentecost. August 17, 2025.

Lucas 12:49-56

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

Fire, division, hypocrites! These are harsh words to hear from Jesus in today’s Gospel. To understand their meaning, we must place ourselves with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. Time is short, opposition is intensifying, the cross is approaching, and many still fail to understand the urgency of his message.

From the beginning of his proclamation, Jesus has faced the opposition and rejection of the Jewish leadership, yet, he continues his proclamation and “has set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51). This journey to the religious and political center of Israel is a point of no return. He knows it would lead to his execution, having already told his disciples, “The Son of Man [He himself] must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes and be killed . . .” (9,51). It is in this context of intense, anxious movement toward the fulfillment of his mission that he exclaims, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (12,49).

In Jewish thought, fire is a powerful symbol of God’s presence. God was in the burning bush that Moses saw in the wilderness. Out of this fire, God said to Moses, “I am who I AM... I am the Eternal.” At the temple, the priests were commanded to keep a continuous fire on the altar of sacrifices as a sign of God’s presence among the people of Israel, “A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out” (Lev 6,13). Fire represents life, light, joy, judgment, purification and the unquenchable life of God.  This is the fire that Jesus brings to the earth, the dawning of God’s Kingdom which brings life and light and purifies the corruption and contamination on earth. 

Jesus knows that God’s fire cannot be fully kindled until he fulfills his mission, which he calls “his baptism”. “I have a baptism with which to be baptized,” Jesus says, “and what stress I am under until it is completed!” (12,50). Jesus is not speaking of the Jordan’s water, but using a powerful death-resurrection metaphor for his overwhelming immersion into his upcoming suffering and death on the cross.  His commitment is absolute, his “baptism on the cross” will ignite the fire of God on earth. Jesus’ wish for God’s presence on earth implied his execution and he knew it!

Just as Jesus wished, after his death and resurrection, God’s fire descended at Pentecost on the first community of disciples. Luke tells us in Acts that “. . .divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages [about God] . . .” (Acts 2,3-4). From that day, the disciples began to spread the fire of God throughout the world.

Sisters and brothers, the fire Jesus kindled is now our sacred gift, imparted through the Holy Spirit. This divine flame illuminates our minds, renews our hearts, and empowers us to be bearers of light and hope. At our baptism, a spark of this divine fire was entrusted to us. We are now called to be that fire in the world. We are the tender glow that warms and lights up the hearts of people living in need, darkness, pain and suffering.

Jesus is not a promoter of discord for its own sake, but a proclaimer of a truth so radical that it forces a choice. Following him in the first centuries was so disruptive that it meant breaking with family traditions and practices which were not in accordance with his message. When our faith leads us to challenge injustice, reject materialism, or stand for the marginalized, we will inevitably come into conflict with the world’s values or even our family’ values. So let us not be surprised when living Jesus’ Gospel creates tensions.

Jesus’ harshest word, “hypocrites!”, is reserved for the crowd and their spiritual blindness. Jesus marvels that they have the ability to read the signs in the sky to predict the weather, yet they are unable to read the signs of the times—to recognize that God’s decisive moment standing right in front of them in his very person, Jesus himself. He urges them to wake up, to see what truly matters, and to convert before it is too late.

Sisters and brothers, Jesus’ call echoes into our own time, calling us to ask ourselves the same question: What are the clear signs in the 21st century that we see every day but fail to truly discern? Some evident signs are the cries of the poor and those suffering among wars, the groaning of our planet, divisions between people. These remind us of God’s urgent call to action.   Are we able to read “the signs of our times”? Are we willing to embrace a faith that is transformative? Amen.