Luke 12:49-56

This Sunday we read one of those “texts of terror” as the Biblical scholar and theologian Phyliis Trible might say. The reading is Luke 12:49-56.

Jesus uses rather scary imagery to make his point — fire, swords, division. Trust that he is exaggerating. But what is his strategy? You might look to Matthew 5:29-30 for another instance in which Jesus exaggerates (in a scary way) to make his point.

Remember the context here. Remember that through Jesus we are reconciled to God and each other. When might your faith put you at odds with family and friends? When might that be, not a competition or a division meant to destroy them, but a form of witness calling them to the higher things, to love, to peace, to Jesus?