Given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on August 15, 2004. The Scripture is from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 12, verses 49-56…

       Many of you probably remember me telling at various times about how I worked for our neighbor on his farm during most of my junior and senior high school years, and even, off-and-on, for some years after. You may also remember me telling how his farm had originally been mostly swamp ground until he ditched and drained it, and how it sat well off of the road with only a mile-long dirt lane leading back to it. So it only makes sense that access to the barns and equipment was almost impossible after a heavy rain, and needless to say, you did not want to be caught back there during a storm… you might not get out!

       Because of that… and the fact that teenagers will inherently find any excuse they can not to work anyway… anytime I might be in the field working and it started to sprinkle, I would head to the barn. Now, most of the time, the sprinkles would stop before I got there, and I would have to turn around and head back. Other times it might rain lightly until I’d made it home and found someplace else to go, but would quit before it actually was enough to even ‘settle the dust’, as it were. On those occasions, I always had to listen to Albert carry-on the next morning about ‘why didn’t I stay and get more done’, and I’d always answer, ‘it was raining when I left!’

       Fast-forward a few years… after I had left college and had married, I was ‘trying’ to act a little more responsible about some things, at least, and so when I would go out on occasion to help Albert and make a little extra money, I tended to take my responsibilities a bit more seriously. So it was, on one such occasion, that when a gentle rain started one day as I was disking up a field, I decided that it would probably stop soon, and just kept going.

Now, at this time, his big tractors were a pair of Farmall 450 semi-diesels with narrow front-ends, one of which I was using that day, and his two 12’ IH disks were of the old fold-and-unfold-type. Now, these were new enough that the fold was hydraulically operated, but the important point here is that they had no wheels… they did not lift off of the ground like modern disks.

I was working the field side-to-side right then, and was just about at the far end when the rain got heavier. ‘No problem’, I thought, ‘I’m still turning-up lots of dust.’ I kept going. The rain got heavier. ‘The tires aren’t slipping, and the disk is still working good… so what if I get a little wet!’ I kept going. I was about as far from the barn as I could get when… as Lloyd Bridges used to say on ‘Sea Hunt’… “And then I saw it!!!”

Coming over the tree line less than a quarter-mile away from me was a solid wall of water!! I started to the barn, but I didn’t get very far before it caught me! Even with the disk in the straight position it was all I could do to pull it… all of that freshly worked dirt was now one gigantic mud pie! My rear tires were spinning and throwing mud every which way as I crawled through, while the front ones weren’t even turning anymore, being so caked-up with mud… I was steering with my brakes!!! Steam was rolling off of the tractor’s transmission housing, hood, and muffler as the cold rain made contact with hot surfaces, but I felt like I was drenched through to my second or third layer of skin! And of course, you can’t back up with those kinds of disks, so once I did make it to the barn, I had to stop and unhook before I could pull the tractor in!

I’m not even going to tell you, right now, about how much fun I had getting my old truck out of that ‘dirt’ lane… I’ll save it for another time! Suffice it to say that, after that, I went back to being a little more cautious about staying out in the rain for too long a time!

In the last of today’s verses, Jesus starts out with what might sound like someone teaching ‘Meteorology 101… “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does… And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is.”

But… perhaps I’m getting a bit ahead of myself… because in the first of today’s verses He says, “I have come to bring fire on the earth!… Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.”

What does he mean by all of this? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I was always taught that Jesus was the Prince of Peace… and here He is telling everyone that, no, He was bringing division! What’s going on here?

The Wycliffe Bible Commentary tells us that, “Our Lord realized that his mission was divisive and disturbing. He saw clearly that the cross would be a point of controversy and argument, and wished that his lifting up had already been accomplished.” In saying “I have a baptism to be baptized with,” Christ was, of course, referring to his death. He felt that his power would be restricted until the work of the cross could be finished. And when He talked about division, He knew that Judaism was a family religion in which the people worshiped by households rather than as individuals, and foresaw that his claims would cut across family life, and… necessitate individual decisions.”

Meanwhile, the Life Application Commentary explains it this way… “Jesus promises peace, but it is not the kind of peace the world gives or tries to give. Peace on earth, universal peace, will not come until Jesus’ second coming when evil is destroyed and he reigns forever. Instead, Jesus’ first coming, and the time now as believers await his return, is a time of division between God’s forces and Satan’s forces. There is no middle ground with Jesus. Because he demands a response, intimate groups may be torn apart when some choose to follow him and others refuse to do so. Loyalties must be declared and commitments made, sometimes to the point of severing relationships with those who reject Jesus or who try to substitute him with someone else.

Micah also prophesied about these kinds of divisive conditions. Jesus explained the response to his call — conflict will arise between those who respond and those who do not. The reaction may be violent. In the early church, Jews who became Christians were excommunicated from the synagogues and often shunned by their families. Even today, the road is difficult for Jews or Muslims who turn to Christ. Their own family members become their worst enemies. Jesus did not come to make such divisions happen, yet his coming, his words, and his call inevitably will cause conflict between those who accept him and those who reject him.”

Just as a side note, isn’t that what we are seeing today in the Middle East and other parts of the world? How many times have we read where a number of Christian churches had been destroyed and the worshippers inside killed as religious fanatics tried to eliminate all traces of Christianity from their country, and indeed, the world! I remember my first thoughts were that, OK, if they want to truly make this a religious conflict, we’ll give it to them! But… then I realized that the Christian backbone in this country has probably grown far too weak to do anything about it! It is far easier to justify this conflict as righting an injustice than it would be to further the cause of Christianity! That would be a terribly ‘politically incorrect’ statement in our ‘enlightened’ society! Chalk one more up on Satan’s side of the board!

And yes, regardless of the ‘politically incorrectness’ of it, I believe that this is part of the division Jesus is talking about here… don’t get me wrong, I believe in being accepting and tolerant of others in many, many things. But Jesus told us that the only way to heaven was through Him, and if I believe that, I have to believe that no follower of Any other so-called faith will ever make it into heaven! For their sake, I hope I’m wrong, but that is what the strictest interpretation of the Word means to me!

But Jesus was also talking about a father accepting Him as Lord when a mother won’t… about a sister or daughter being baptized into salvation and being ostracized by the rest of her family… and even today… what about a Christian father and mother coming to grips with their children dropping away from their faith and accepting the axioms of the world! Because these are the kinds of things that do and will continue to happen each time Satan wins over one family member but not another.

And I believe that that is far more often the case… I think anyone who has ever been ‘introduced’ to Jesus believes that those ideals and concepts are correct! But Satan seduces them away from Christ by making them think how easy and desirable all of the ways of the world are! And each time, unless we can win them back, Satan chalks up one more for his side!

Now… to me, at least, all of this begs the question… ‘Just what is it that lets one person stay firm in their belief and another not… what is it that would split families apart and drive wedges between entire countries and races… just what is it that guides one person down a path that leads them to heaven while another chooses the road to hell?’

Maybe I can shed some light on that by reading from the 11^th chapter of Hebrews, beginning with verse 29…

“It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians followed, they were all drowned.

It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho seven days, and the walls came crashing down.

It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute did not die with all the others in her city who refused to obey God, for she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

…how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson…,  David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death.

…

“All of these people we have mentioned received God’s approval because of their faith…”  

Right there it is! Faith! And believe it or not, that brings me right back to what I started talking about today!

Jesus, “said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is.” Unlike today, most of the world at that time was dependent on agriculture for its existence, and so it was that practically everyone, probably from childhood, learned how to keep a weather-eye out, and how to interpret what they saw… their livelihood, and sometimes their very lives depended on it! And knowing and believing these things were not at all dependant on faith, but on observation and experience!

But Jesus shouts at them, saying, you… “Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” They had all of the facts in front of them! They had Jesus, Himself, right there among them! And yet, they were blind to all of it!

The Life Application Commentary says that, “Jesus was announcing an earthshaking event that would be much more important than the year’s crops — the coming of God’s kingdom. Like a rainstorm or a sunny day, there were signs that the kingdom would soon arrive. While people could successfully discern the signs of the weather by watching the sky and predicting fair weather or storms… …they were intentionally ignoring the signs of the times.”

And you know what? That is just as true today as it was two-thousand some years ago!!! The signs are still there! God is still there! Christ is still there! But the people are ignoring them!!! Ask the average citizen on any street in this country if they know who Jesus is and they can tell you! They’re not ignorant of His existence! But they choose to discount Him… to turn their back on Him… to ignore Him!!

And my friends, that is the challenge of Christianity today… as it has been for two-thousand-odd years… getting people to truly pay attention! Pay attention to not only Christ’s teachings, but also His desires… to pay attention to not only His desires, but also His commands… and to pay attention not just to all of these things… but to who He is, and what He did for each of us… sacrificed His life on the cross for our salvation!

Are you aware of Christ? Are you conscious of Him working in your life? Or are you just sort-of acknowledging that, yes, He’s there somewhere, but…

Because, if that’s how you see Christ… if He is not the center and focus of your life and all that you do… then it is you who are discounting Him… it is you who are ignoring Him… and it is you who lets them ‘chalk one more up for Satan’!