Christ and Division

Professor Higgins was training a common girl, Eliza Doolittle, to be a lady in a shop in My Fair Lady movie. The Professor took Eliza to his mother’s box in an elite horse race as a trial run. He had instructed Elisha to stick to two topics: one’s health and the weather. Months later, Professor Higgins was in his mother’s house, arguing with Elisha Doolittle about how she should return to him. Now, the mother strictly instructed the Professor to stick with talking about their health and the weather.

We live in a politically, socially, philosophically, and religiously divided world. Children “cancel” parents, and vice versa. We discuss sports and health at family gatherings but avoid politics and religion, fearing fights.

The Lord Jesus was aware of religion separating people and instructed his disciples to prepare. As they followed him, their families might disown them, and their spouses might leave them. Those were the realities. In India, this is true even now – when Hindus become Christians, their families kick them from their family homes and do not include them in their wills. Some even lose jobs. Other cultures face varied degrees of ostracizing as people accept Jesus as their Lord.

Jesus wanted the disciples to know he was bringing a revolution, which would result in divisions. He spoke of his revolution with two parallel lines (“Poetic Parallelism”).  

“I have come to toss fire on the land; how I wish it were already blazing.”

“I have a baptism to be baptized with; how I long for it to be finished.” (Luke 12:49–50)

A fire represented both destruction and purification – a thorny bush was destroyed by fire, but gold was purified by fire. Jesus’s arrival was the beginning of purifying his people. The latter phrase – “How I wish it were already blazing” – supports that view. Before the land (Israel) could be purified, Jesus must undergo another baptism, referencing his death and resurrection. That, too, he wished had already finished.

At the time of his conversation with the disciples, both events were in the future – he hadn’t died and resurrected, and the land itself hadn’t been set ablaze (by the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues). Both would happen soon from the time of this conversation and when they do, divisions will happen.

“You think I have come to give peace to the land. No! I say to you: I have come to bring divisions. In a five-person house, three will be divided against the two and the two against the three. The father will be divided against the son and the son against the father. The mother will be divided against the daughter and the daughter against the mother. The mother-in-law will be divided against the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law.” (12:51–53)

The five family members were a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, and a daughter-in-law (the son’s wife). But three will be of one faith and two of the other, dividing three against two. For example, the father and mother would remain YHWH believers, but the son, his wife, and his sister (their daughter) would be Christ followers. The two parents will be against the three children, and vice versa. Jesus’s coming, purifying, and cleansing of the nation of Israel would result in divisions. The disciples were to be prepared for that.

Similarly, we shouldn’t be surprised that our family and workmates hate us for being Christ followers. He didn’t bring peace but division.