Separated and United
Text: Luke 12:49-56
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
By faith Abraham was separated out from his family in Ur, leaving them behind to seek the land that the Lord would show him; being parted from the city of Ur and those who worshipped the moon. By faith Moses left the household of Pharoah, choosing to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin and the wealth of the Egyptian palace, adopted son against his adopted royal family. By faith the Israelites were separated out from the Egyptians as they walked through the divided Red Sea, the children of Abraham safely reaching the other side and the highest-ranking Egyptian officers and soldiers sunk to the bottom of the deep. By faith Rahab and her family bade farewell to their friends, family, and neighbors when they gave shelter to the Israelites spies and their home of Jericho fell, making their stand with the people that the true God had chosen. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—all separated and sifted out from the world and the multitude of unbelievers, even though it meant division, sword, imprisonment, and hardship.
The cloud of witnesses we heard about today in our reading from Hebrews brings sharp clarity to Jesus’ words in the Gospel reading today: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” For that’s what happens when the light appears; it cleaves the darkness. That’s what happens with the truth arrives; it outs the lies. That’s what happens when Jesus shows up: the kingdom of God is shown to be in sharp contrast with the kingdom of this world.
Sometimes it happens in grandiose ways, like the splitting of the Red Sea or at Pentecost, with the divided tongues of fire over the heads of Jesus’ faithful disciples, marking them as His own. Other times it will appear as a war of words, truth versus falsehood, like the true prophet Jeremiah versus the false prophets who speak smooth, popular, but ultimately untrue prophecies about Israel’s greatness. Still other times it will be in the tension found in the lives of those who put their faith in Jesus versus those who fear, love, and trust in the things of this world, even at the family level. Jesus says plainly, now that the Truth is out in the open and walking among us: “From now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” It’s not comfortable, but then again, a life that puts its hope in things unseen rather than walking by sight—that is, a life of faith—is not always comfortable. Just ask the cloud of witnesses in our reading from Hebrews today.
And yet, it’s what our Lord and God Himself has carried for us. Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, endured the cross, despising the shame, bearing the weight of division that comes when truth and light appear. His own family decried Him as insane, seeking to restrain Him. He came to His own people and His own did not receive Him. And yet, for the joy set before Him, the joy of redeeming those who have received Him in faith, He did not flinch. He bore the cross, the agony, the separation—even crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—so that we would never be separated from Him. The division of sin that kept us apart from eternal life would be removed.
That’s what this ultimately is all about: Jesus’ cross. That’s where the line is drawn in the sand. It’s all about whether it’s His cross that is the source of hope or something else. It all began at the cross. That’s why Jesus, right after talking about the division that His cross will bring, starts speaking about interpreting the times. “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 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?” Interpret the times, O believer, but not as the unbelieving world does. For you have been given to see that this quickly passing age is ending. You do not know when precisely, but you do know that the end is coming. It’s been on its way ever since Jesus’ crucifixion, ever since that cross divided light from dark. His resurrection was the first blossom of the life the world to come. Yours is coming too.
And as we interpret the times through faith and the Word of God, we live in hope—hope for things not yet seen. We live in the hope of life eternal. We live in the unity that the Church has in the Truth, in Jesus, in what He has promised. We live with each other in forgiveness, forgiving one another as we ourselves have had our trespasses forgiven. We live in the communion of all believers in the body of Christ, united to Him and one another in the confession of the true faith and in receiving His body and blood. We live bonded together in one Lord, one faith, one Baptism. And that extends not only to those we can see here today. It extends to the entire Church on earth, with believers we know who live far away and with those we know we will never meet, and yet have godly love for. We’re united with those who are at rest, who live with Jesus beyond this valley of sorrow, with saints departed and with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. And in that oneness that surpasses our superficial differences, like appearance or status or zip code or any small worldly affiliation, we have deeper unity as we behold what God has promised, something better for us: a city and home and kingdom that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. We look to that, still not seen, so that the faithful cloud of witness, who are united to us in Jesus, should not be made perfect apart from us.
And you can rest assured that you are made perfect. Not because of who you are or what you are or what you do, but because of your Savior. In Jesus, you are perfected in His own grace, His holiness, His purity and love and joy, given as a gift, received by faith. Yes, you will be different in this world. You will stand out. You will be separated out from the multitude of unbelievers, as you were in your baptism, as you are every time you confess the truth of the Creeds, every time you say Amen with all your heart. You are separated from the world, but you are united to Christ and His Church. You are in the world, but not of it. You belong to Someone greater. You’re united with saints and angels and all the blessed. You are surrounded by the cloud of witnesses, and in this Communion of faith, you are never alone. In the name of Jesus, who makes us one. Amen.
