Blessedly Provocative--August 19, 2025

Blessedly Provocative--August 19, 2025

[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." (Luke 12:51-53)

The bottom line is that Jesus doesn't particularly care what is popular or polls well with the right demographic group.  Jesus is clear about the trajectory he is on in the world, and while he welcomes any and all to be a part of his Kingdom movement, he knows that some will follow... and some will not.  The line between those who want to participate in the Jesus movement and those who walk away does not algin with a national boundary, a language barrier, or a tax bracket; it runs even through families to divide folks under the same roof.  Jesus has not come to stoke a war between countries, a riot between ethnic groups, or a class conflict between rich and poor--he has come to embody what it looks like for God to reign. And that will rearrange all of our lives in different ways.  Some folks will just decide they don't want to have their boats rocked, and Jesus will not force them onto his.  So... there will be divisions.

Now to be clear, that's not the same as saying that Jesus' goal is to make people hate each other.  Jesus doesn't intend to split up families or wreck homes. He isn't trying to add more misery or conflict into the world (although we should probably note that these verse, which many of us heard in worship on Sunday, do not make Jesus a likely candidate for "family values," whatever that phrase means).  Rather, Jesus is headed in a certain direction, and he is not taking votes, polls, or suggestions about changing course to something less radical.  Because he will not compel people to do what he says, there will be unavoidable fractures. Because Jesus refuses to be a tyrant, a bully, or an authoritarian ruling by fiat, there will be disagreement and discord between those who dare to live the Jesus way and those who would rather stay stuck in the tired old "Me and My Group First" mindset. Jesus is just being honest as he speaks to us, who are his disciples, so that we know that there may well be a cost to following in his footsteps.

What could be so controversial about Jesus that it splits up households and brings division? Well, to be honest, just about everything Jesus does is provocative in some way--we are just so used to sanding the rough edges off and coloring biblical scenes in soft pastel colors that we might not recognize how scandalously Jesus moves through the gospels.  In his inaugural sermon in his hometown (see Luke 4), after pleasantly reading from the book of Isaiah and announcing, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," Jesus proceeds to rile up his own neighbors, friends, and family enough that they want to throw him off a cliff because he dares to suggest that God's mercy includes outsiders and foreigners and not only them--how's that for starters?  He forgives the sins of a man brought to him on a mat by from friends, and the Respectable Religious Leaders just about have a conniption because he claims to have divine authority to forgive sins.  He invites himself over the notorious tax collector Zacchaeus' house and goes to dinner parties full of "tax collectors and sinners," only to get scowls from the well-behaved community leaders for associating with "those people." Even when he heals people, he upsets the guardians of morality and piety when he cures people on sabbath days.  And both the large crowds and his inner circle of disciples grumble when he insists that he is headed toward a cross, rather than leading the charge to conquer and crucify his enemies.  Once you start to actually pay attention, Jesus doesn't go very far at all in the gospels before upsetting the next person, from his words to his actions.

And Jesus' movement becomes even more controversial once his would-be followers realize the implications for their own lives.  It might sound relatively harmless to hear Jesus say, "Blessed are the poor," as long as he never follows it up with anything that affects MY pocketbook. But as soon as Jesus starts telling his followers to sell their possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and trust that they will have "treasure in heaven," (as many of us heard him say just a few Sundays ago from Luke 12:33), people back away.  It might not be offensive to hear, "Blessed are the peacemakers," until Jesus clarifies that with "love your enemies, and go good to those who persecute you" and it becomes clear that this discipleship stuff will make people call you "weak" or a "loser."  You might be excited to follow when Jesus is handing out free bread and fish, but when he follows it up with, "Now take up your cross," a lot of folks start looking for an off-ramp.  This is the source of Jesus' kind of divisiveness--it's not Jesus being a jerk, but rather Jesus being clear about what his way of life in the world will look like, and what it will cost.  Jesus' way in the world is scandalous, to be sure--but it is blessedly provocative.

And if I think about it, I suppose in that light I wouldn't want a version of Jesus that doesn't create that sort of division.  I wouldn't want a Jesus who was about to welcome the outcasts until he found out it would offend someone else and then backed down. I wouldn't want a Messiah who intended to say, "The greatest must be the servant of all," but then learned it wasn't polling well and decided to ditch the towel and basin in favor of boastful arrogance.  I wouldn't want a Savior who rejected the scandal of the cross because he found out it was unpopular compared to the Conquering Christ platform. We need a Jesus who is clear enough about the character of God's Reign to be divisive, so that we know he won't water down God's peculiar goodness when it becomes controversial.

Maybe the question we have been avoiding is this: when Jesus lays out his agenda in the world--a new kind of beloved community where the last are put first, the lowly are lifted up, the hungry are fed, old debts are cancelled, and the Spirit brings abundance all around--will we still follow him, or will we find ourselves walking our own way? When we see that Jesus' way in the world will challenge us, stretch us, provoke us, and almost certainly push us out of our comfort zones, will we still want to stick with him... or will we be the ones who call Jesus "too divisive" and parting ways with him?

The way we answer that question tells us a good bit about the direction to point our feet today.

Lord Jesus, enable us to keep following you even when it is challenging, and conform our wills and hearts to yours.