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August 15, 2010 Isaiah 5:1-7 Luke

12:49-56 “Divided by Jesus”


Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

Now large crowds had gathered around Jesus; and he said to them, “Boy, it’s good
to have all of you here with me today. I hope you’re here because you’ve heard
that we’re going to have a good time singing to the Lord and hearing about the
wonderful things God has done for each of us. Perhaps you’ve heard how I’ve
already made my 12 original disciples millionaires. I’m going to be telling you
about how easy it is to be a child of God, about how God wants each of you to be
happy, wealthy and wise, and I’m going to show you how you too can become a
member of my discipleship group for only a small monthly gift. Gather ‘round
now, and you’ll find just how easy it can be to walk this road of life when you’re a
member of my special Discipleship Club.”
Ridiculous to think Jesus would say something like that to this group of people
who’d collected around him for what we call in Luke, the Sermon on the Plain?
Yes, because Jesus didn’t say that kind of thing. Jesus said, “Do you think that I
have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From
now on five 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 her
daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
On the other hand, it’s not too difficult to believe that many in the crowd that had
gathered around Jesus would’ve heard about the sick whom Jesus made well, the
blind who could now see, the lame who could walk, and wanted that same healing
for themselves. Much like many Christians today, perhaps this crowd had come
not to find out about God the Father, not to listen to and discover who this
strange man Jesus was, but had come to have their needs met. They’d come out
of a desire to be helped. They’d come out of their hurt, out of their pain, out of
their sickness, maybe even out of their guilt.
That’s not bad or wrong. There was nothing improper with coming to Jesus out of
their needs, just as there’s nothing wrong today with coming to Jesus out of one’s
pain and desire for a better life. Coming to God in times of distress and anguish,
coming for help is probably the most common reason by far to become open to
God. That’s just how it works. When the doctor has given a diagnosis of cancer,
when a child has been injured in a car accident, when a spouse has asked for a
divorce, when the lifetime job has moved to Mexico, when the world has crowded
in around – those are the times when people turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for help.
Those are times when many people return to the church, or turn to the church for
the first time with their pain and misery.
Jesus is saying in this passage, however, that there’s more to being a part of the
family of God than having one’s pain alleviated. There’s more to being a follower

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of Jesus than being in church when things are tough at home – though again,
there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that there’s more to it than that.
It’s like the physical attraction between males and females. The guy sees this
very attractive young lady across the room and he decides it would be nice to
know more about her. The young lady sees this good looking guy coming toward
her and she thinks, “I hope he’s walking towards me.” Looks get the hormones
flowing. The physical appearance is the initial magnet that attracts men and
women towards one another.
But if a relationship stays at the physical appearance level, it’s not going to last.
Marriages that don’t move from the level of “I think she’s got a beautiful body,” or
“I think he’s a real hunk,” to “She’s a beautiful person,” or “He’s a wonderful
man,” if a relationship or a marriage doesn’t move to that level, there’s little hope
that the relationship will last, or last happily. Physical appearance alone isn’t
enough to hold a couple together through the tough times that come to all
relationships.
So it is with those who come to Christ for help in their times of distress. They can
and will be helped by Jesus, and by the church. But if the relationship doesn’t
move beyond the “met needs” basis, if a person doesn’t understand that there’s
more to being a disciple of Jesus Christ than receiving from God, then the
relationship isn’t going to deepen into a true loving commitment to Jesus Christ.
I believe this is why Jesus said what he did here in the Sermon on the Plain. He
said something similar a couple of chapters later. In Luke 14, Jesus says,
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brother and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does
not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” There’s a cost, even a
high cost, to being Jesus’ disciples.
Before we look further at this idea of the divided household and hating one’s
family, understand that Jesus isn’t literally saying that we’re to hate family, and
be divided from those whom we love the most. Who would be able to do such a
thing? Who would want to hate all those whom they love, or in return, could love
a God who asked us to hate those we love the most? What we have here is a
Semitic expression, a colloquialism, meaning “to turn away from.” The saying has
none of the emotion we experience when we say today, “I hate you!” Jesus is
telling the crowd that they’re “to turn away from” their loved ones they’ve
depended upon in the past, and instead, depend upon God. Jesus is telling them
that when they do this there’s at least a chance that those whom they love will
turn against them. Then – then they’ll be asked to choose obedience to God over
family unity. Not an easy decision.
But we’re not literally commanded to hate family. If that was the case, then these
passages would cancel out all the calls to love, to care, to nourish, especially
one’s own family as recorded in 1 Timothy 5:8, found throughout both

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Testaments. Further, to hate one’s own life is not a call for self-loathing, to regard
oneself as a worm, to toss oneself on the trash heap of the world. We haven’t
been given that right to judge ourselves. In the letter to the Colossians, “rigor of
devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body”1 are considered valueless
for followers of Christ. If we truly hate ourselves, in the modern sense of the word
hate, then we’ve failed to see ourselves as “good” as God sees us as good,
because we’re part of God’s creation. Despite our sins, despite our failings,
despite all our problems, God loved us so much that He sent His only son into this
world so that we might not perish but have everlasting life. We aren’t to “hate”
ourselves, nor are we to hate others – no matter what they’ve done to us.
What does Jesus mean then when he uses the word hate in this passage? What’s
Jesus saying when he tells us that he has come to bring division to our house?
Simply this. We’re to love God more than we love anyone or anything else. We’re
to love God more than we love our parents, our children, our spouse. We’re to
love God even more than we love our self. God is to be first, even before those
whom we love more than anything else in the world. If we love our parents or our
children or our spouse more than we can describe, Jesus is saying that we should
love God even more than that.
Make no mistake about this, Jesus was warning those who were listening to him,
and Jesus warns us today as well, that there’s a price to be paid for following Him,
for loving Him this much, a price to be paid at least from the world’s point of view.
Why else would Jesus talk about our need to carry the cross except to say that
we’ll face difficulties in living Christian lives?
But remember, to talk about carrying the cross of Christ is to talk about being
Christ’s follower from the world’s point of view. From God’s point of view, Jesus
says in Mt 11, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy
burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Ralph Wood, writing in The Christian Century, tells of “A Baptist preacher named
Warren Carr who taught him the gladness and liberty of Christian vocation.
[Wood talks specifically about being called to be a minister, but since we’re all
called to minister in the name of Jesus Christ, what he says about being a pastor
applies to all whom Jesus calls to be His followers.] This Baptist preacher, Carr,
spoke of his consternation at colleagues who, in familiar evangelical fashion,
would speak of their ‘surrender to preach.’ [Have you heard of those who’ve said,
‘I gave up everything to follow Jesus?’] They implied that their calling meant
giving up a higher and better life for something lower and less worthy. It’s as if
their heart had been set on a truly interesting career, which they surrendered for
the dull work of the gospel. Carr said his own calling to Christian ministry came in
exactly the reverse order. Once he discovered God’s incalculable grace in
1 1. Colossians 2:18-23
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sending ‘Christ Jesus…into the world to save sinners,’ Carr chased after God as
hard as he could, plucking at God’s elbow and asking for the honor of a calling so
splendid, and one so unlikely for a sinner like himself.”2 So too for all Christians.
Though the world may view us as sacrificing, in truth, being a Christian is far
better than anything the world has to offer.
Jesus tells us that being his disciple has a price, and that price is to depend not
upon our families, not upon our work, not even – or better – especially not upon
ourselves. We’re to depend upon Jesus Christ. In so doing, we’re also to give up
our possessions. From the world’s point of view, this is terrible, unheard of,
unthinkable. But who needs a mansion on the hilltop when we have been
promised a mansion in glory? Who needs more and more money, more and more
things that can be gone in a moment, when it’s the love of Jesus Christ that we all
need in our hearts?
Jesus warns those who’ve begun walking with him on the road that from the
world’s point of view much will be required of them. They need to stop and count
the cost of what it will mean for them to become his disciples. We know
Christians throughout the ages have been killed, discriminated against, shunned,
abused, and suffered all sorts of trials when they’ve picked up the cross of Jesus.
But the rewards are well worth the cost – the cost even of a divided household.
The Holy Spirit within us, bringing peace and joy and love is worth more than all
the treasure on earth. The freedom from guilt that comes only by the grace of
God is better than all the psychiatrist coaches in the world, as important as
psychiatry is. The joy that comes in walking through the baptismal waters to
become a follower of Jesus Christ is a joy that can’t be described, can’t be
measured. The meaning and thanksgiving that comes in sharing Christ is
something the world can’t come close to offering.
We are called to be Christ’s disciples, to turn away from the things of this world,
the things we often hold most dear and instead depend upon the love of God. The
world will make it difficult to follow Christ because by following Jesus we call into
question the world’s values. But the reward of knowing Jesus and having God’s
Spirit in our heart is far greater than anything the world has to offer, as great as
the world’s offerings may be.

2 2. Wood, Ralph C., “First in sin, first in service,” The Christian Century, August
30–September 6, 1995, p. 811.
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