The Work of Moving Through
Today is the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time and this is a tough passage. This is a really wild thing for Jesus to say, but it’s clear, to me, that Jesus is getting really agitated.
I know this is just so obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway, these chapter markings and headings were not part of the original manuscripts of these passages. Additionally, the folks who made the lectionary divided it up this way so that we’d only read this short bit of Luke today, but this passage sits in the middle of a much bigger context. So, I would suggest you grab a bible and open it up to this passage so that you can see this whole scene.
Chapter 12 starts with some heavy stuff. Jesus is talking to the disciples (in v. 8, approximately) about acknowledging him before others and not to worry about what to say because the Holy Spirit will guide them, when this random guy speaks up from the crowd and, completely off topic, asks Jesus to arbitrate this dispute with his brother over their inheritance. So then Jesus goes on about not worrying about possessions. He starts talking about striving for the kingdom and not getting caught up too much in the things that will pass away—he says to be mindful of where you put your heart, for there your treasure lies. He’s concerned that these hearers understand that they are not to get distracted, lazy, or lose sight of what matters. He says, “This very night your life could be demanded of you.” And then, to all of that, in v.41, Peter speaks up and is like, “wait, are you talking to us or the crowd?” It’s no wonder then that Jesus starts to use some stronger language.
So then, in v. 42 things are starting to heat up and Jesus tells a story of a master who left the house, but could return at any point. He warns that the slave who keeps working while the master is away will be rewarded, and the one who slacks off while the master is away will be punished. He ends this story by telling this crowd that, in v. 48: “from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
And that’s when this thing really lights up, which are the verses that the lectionary gave us today, starting in v. 49. But before we go there, I want to point out one more thing.
Looking back through this scene that begins in v.1, Jesus is going back and forth between his disciples and the crowds. In v. 54 Jesus goes back to speaking to the crowds. And it’s at this point that I wonder if he’s actually speaking directly to that guy who called out about the inheritance dispute with his brother in v. 1. Verse 56-57 are what make me think this could be the case, where Jesus says, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”
So here’s one take on what I think it all means.
I don’t believe that Jesus is coming on this scene and making a prescriptive command to division. I think he’s being descriptive, for what happens when the work of the kingdom, the work of peace is truly done. If you think of Jesus as being aggravated and speaking directly to Peter’s question and to this guy who called out from the crowd, then I think Jesus is effectively telling them and this whole crowd that divisions are going to be a part of life. This little bit between these brother is just the beginning of what will happen once people really start living into the kingdom and paying attention to what matters and what lasts. I think he’s telling them that there will be discrepancies between them about what is important, but conflict and death are not to be avoided. In fact they just might be a sign that the truth is close by and that love is at stake.
Because striving for the kingdom, the pursuit of what is True, what will last, the path to true peace is through, not around. And walking through (whatever it is), without worry for provisions, without worry for simply keeping people happy—whatever that through is, is full of conflict.
Jesus is telling this crowd and his disciples to be willing to risk conflict, to do the hard work of doing what is right at any cost, even to the point of division between family and friends. But there’s one check on this movement towards and through conflict that I want to make sure is said, which is a quote from the writer and conflict facilitator Preston Hemphill. In their book What It Takes to Heal, they write that “boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously.” There are some situations when speaking up, and doing the work will cause us harm. I don’t believe these are the kinds of things that Jesus says not to worry about.
My great-grandmother and great-grandfather stopped speaking to my grandma for something like 10 years because they didn’t approve of her choice in a husband—he was Assemblies of God and they were German Lutherans. My parents were on the verge of that level of division with me when I chose to get married to my wife, but because the distance between where I could love them and myself was narrow, we collectively, decided to brave the conflict, have the hard conversations, apologize and speak with vulnerability so that the cycle of division could be broken.
I’m not saying that my marriage or my grandparents’ marriage were of the stuff of the kingdom of God, necessarily, but in each case the party unwilling to move and threatening the division was caught up in ego, culture, the rules, what other people would think, tradition, and ultimately their own stubborn ideas of what was right and wrong with an unwillingness to break. And so I wonder if these are the kinds of distractions of which Jesus speaks. The kinds of things that pull us from the kingdom of God. These are big things. They are not small, which, I believe, is why we can get so lost in them that we lose sight of the love, the truth, and of the God who sits right in front of us.
Divisions will happen when conviction is present, when truth is defended, and when love is at stake. But Jesus is clear, our attention should be fixed. We are to remain steadfast in our work towards the Kingdom of God, even if that means moving towards conflict and division.
