Jesus brings fire. Preachers through the centuries have tried to pierce through this fire-bringing-Jesus using metaphors. Is this fire a metaphor for the fire of judgment, the fire rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah, rained down from heaven? (cf. Ge. 19:24). Or is this the fire of zeal that comes with the baptism of the Holy Spirit prophesied by John the Baptist, “… the one coming after me… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk. 3:16)? Or is this the fire of purification… “the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire?” (Lk. 3:17). Or, perhaps, the fire is enlightenment… the fire that burned in the hearts of the two on the road to Emmaus (cf. Lk. 24:32)?

While preachers certainly do use this fire as a metaphor for judgment, zeal, purification, and enlightenment, the situation is not nearly so inspirational. The phrase “cast fire on the earth” is not metaphor but idiom. In the Mediterranean culture of the day, the family home usually consisted of a house with one large room and an enclosed courtyard facing the street. The courtyard possessed two notable features: a large oven and an even larger pile of dung, drying there awaiting its use as fuel for the oven’s fire. The idiom “cast fire on the earth” was simply a stand-in for saying “light the fire in the oven.” It’s a replacement phrase, just like we would say “he passed away,” rather than saying “he died.” “Passing away” is an idiom for death. We are made to wonder, though, that if we think Jesus came to “light us up,” what does that make us?

Yes, you are right. That is exactly what Jesus came to set alight. He didn’t come to judge the world; it had already been judged. He didn’t come to make the world zealous; his zealousness would be sufficient. He didn’t come to purify except through death (of the sinner) and resurrection (of the New Creature in Christ). He didn’t come to save the righteous or the well but to save sinners and the ill—those the world deemed worthless, ready to be thrown on the dung heap.

Table Talk: Discuss your identification with this word from Paul, “Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am the foremost” (1Ti. 1:15).
Pray: Heavenly Father, reveal my sin to me that I may be confident that your Son came to save me. Amen

Luke 12:49-53 (54-56) English Standard Version

49 “I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 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.”

(54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so, it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?)