Jesus’ words in Luke 12.49 might come as a shock to some of our ears: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” Jesus wants to set the world ablaze. This shouldn’t shock us. John the Baptizer prepared us earlier for this. John told us that he came baptizing with water, but the one coming after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Lk 3.15-17). Jesus is the fire-baptizer.
The contrast between John and Jesus’ baptisms helps us to understand the nature of the fire that Jesus is talking about. John the Baptizer, son of Zechariah the priest, was born among the priestly sons of Aaron. Though his baptism is not at the Temple in Jerusalem, it is an Old Covenant washing nonetheless. The priests in the Old Covenant baptized with water when they prepared the animals to be placed in the fire on the bronze altar in the court of the Temple. Animals entered the fire as man’s representative to ascend and being incorporated into God’s own glory cloud. Through the mediation of animals, the worshiper drew near to God.
But it was through the mediation of animals. Old Covenant priests never entered the fire themselves. They only prepared the offering through washing. John, as an Old Covenant priest, prepared people through the baptism of water to be offered up in the baptism of fire promised in Jesus. Jesus himself was the first to be baptized with fire at the cross, and for this reason, his people can enter into the fire after him.
Jesus came to set the whole world on fire. This is not just any fire. This is altar fire. What does this fire do?
We tend to think of fire only in terms of destruction, especially when we hear Jesus speaking words such as this in the context of judgment. While destruction is one result of fire, it is not fire’s only purpose. Fire transforms. On the altar, fire transforms an animal through division, separating food from refuse. The smoke goes up to God. The meat, when not totally consumed in the fire and transformed into smoke, could be consumed by priests and worshipers. The ashes were carried outside the camp (cf. e.g., Lev 6.11).
Fire transforms through division. Jesus came to set fire to the world as an offering, turning some into food for God and others into ash to be discarded. Jesus goes on to say that his purpose is to bring division (Lk 12.51), and that the lines will be drawn even within families (Lk 12.52-53). Some will ascend into union and communion with God. Others will be cast out of the earth in an eternal hell.
This fire began in Jesus’ own baptism at the cross, and he came through it transformed. The fire burned up the old creation body so that it was raised a transformed body. The fire that began in Jesus’ baptism at the cross continues to burn throughout history. We see it on the heads of the disciples in Acts 2 when the church is baptized with the Holy Spirit. The church, enflamed by the Holy Spirit, is a fire that continues to burn in the world, dividing humanity between the old in-Adam-humans and the new in-Christ-humans. Jesus’ own body, the church, is that which divides, purifies, and transforms the world.
The church creates divisions. The most basic of these divisions is between those inside and those outside the church. Loyalty to Christ and his church is the division in humanity. This works itself out in various ways in the relationship of the church to the rest of the world. Our enemies may be vicious and violent or they may be docile and friendly. No matter their demeanor toward us, if they don’t join us, they are ash that will be discarded.
This world is on fire with an inextinguishable fire that will continue to burn until the last day when Christ Jesus presents the Father with a pure world. No one escapes the fire. We are either food for God or refuse to be thrown out of his world.
