Sunday 15 August 2010

Background

This passage does not sit well with the gentle and peaceableJesus of popular imagination. While there is much in the teachingof Jesus and the stories in the Gospels about him that iscompassionate and reassuring, his words here point to thedisturbing impact of his mission and reveal his sense ofimpatience, foreboding and frustration.

Jesus intends his teaching to purify and destroy like fire. Evenclose relatives will be sharply divided in their response to it.But it is not happening! People listen but his words are notgetting home. They do not share his sense of urgency.

So the passage ends with the complaint that people can forecast theweather but are incapable of understanding the times they areliving in. "Hypocrite" here, as often in the Gospels, means notsomeone who is consciously putting on an act, but simply someonewhose intelligent response to the demands of everyday lifecontrasts with their failure to respond to the deeper realities oflife.

Baptism - immersion in water - is used metaphorically in verse 50for a testing and potentially fatal experience which Jesus expectsto undergo as a result of his work. He does not expect confrontinghis contemporaries, as he does here, to leave him unscathed.Whether or not at this stage he anticipated actual crucifixion,with hindsight we immediately think of it as the fulfilment of hiswords.

This week's theme is 'A Renewing God'. Today's passage provokesreflection on how renewal comes about. What is old and discreditedmust be cleared away. What resists reform has to be overcome.Change can be painful. It is easier not to be disturbed!

Sometimes change is vigorously resisted. Renewal can be costly forthose who seek to bring it about as well as for those challenged totake sides with them. But the need for it may be urgent.

To Ponder

Why do you think Jesus felt his work wasurgent?

Where is renewal needed today, and at whatcost?

How can we read the signs of the times today?