Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Video

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15C)

August 17, 2025

Text: Luke 12:49-56

            Fire from heaven.  The wrath of God.  “I came to cast fire on the earth” says Jesus, “and would that it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49; ESV).

            The fire that rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:24).  The fire and hail of the Egyptian plague (Ex. 9:23-24).  The fire of the LORD that fell and consumed Elijah’s burnt offering, with the wood and the stones and the very water in the trenches around the altar… divine judgment on the prophets of Baal, resulting in their humiliation and slaughter (1 Kings 18:38-40).  How about the fire from heaven that, not once, but twice, and nearly three times, consumed the captain and his fifty men sent by Israel’s king to capture Elijah?  And the third was only spared because he feared the LORD and begged the prophet for mercy (2 Kings 1:11-16).

            Fire from heaven.  The wrath of God.  “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God,” Moses preaches (Duet. 4:24).

            The Lord Jesus Christ is God in human flesh.  That is to say, He is a consuming fire.  Yet He does not consume His own human nature.  Isn’t that a mystery!?  God in our weak flesh, yet our weak flesh still lives?  Nor does He consume His mother Mary when He is conceived in her womb.  Like the flame of fire in the bush on Horeb.  The bush was burning, yet it was not consumed (Ex. 3:2).  What was that flame?  What was that fire?  The presence of the LORD God Himself.  Never mind the bush… the flame should rightly have consumed Moses.  A sinner on holy ground.  But it didn’t.  And this is the key to understanding what our Lord means when He says to us this day, “I came to cast fire on the earth.”  The fire of God’s wrath and judgment?  Absolutely.  The fire that is the very presence of God on earth?  Yes.  Fire that will burn us to smithereens?  Hellfire that will torment us for all eternity?  Well, that is the question, isn’t it.  Is that all the fire does?  Destroy?  Why does the fire obliterate Sodom, but leave the bush, Moses, Mary… the flesh of God’s Son… unharmed? 

            What would Jesus accomplish with His fire?  James and John, those Sons of Thunder, wanted to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans who did not receive Jesus (Luke 9:54).  But what was Jesus’ response?  He rebuked them (v. 55).  They didn’t understand what Jesus would accomplish with His fire.  We, too, as we look around us in this dying and degenerate world, can be tempted to wish God would blast those sinners to hell with His fire.  It’s this longing for justice within us.  But then, if we’re honest, we’d have to recognize that God blasting sinners to hell would necessarily include His blasting each and every one of us.  So, do we understand what Jesus would accomplish with His fire?

            Where is it, specifically, that Jesus casts this fire upon the earth?  Golgotha.  The cross.  Do you see what happens there?  Jesus directs the fire of God’s wrath away from sinners, away from us… upon Himself, suspended between heaven and earth.  “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished” (12:50).  He is talking about His Baptism by fire, His Baptism in blood, His suffering and death.  That is the fulfillment of His Baptism in the Jordan.  He is talking about the blessed and holy cross.  There, He drains the cup of God’s wrath to the very dregs (Ps. 75:8).  There, He makes atonement for all our sins, and the sins of the whole world.  With burning lips, He pleads for our forgiveness (Luke 23:34).  Parched, He thirsts for our salvation (John 19:28).  Forsaken of God, He suffers our damnation (Matt. 27:46).  And in His death, what happens to the fire?  It is quenched.  God’s justice is satisfied.  His wrath is spent.  And you are saved. 

            This is why you want, always, to be found in Christ.  This is why you must ever and always abide in Christ.  Because, in Christ, the Judgment is done.  Your debt is paid in full.  There is no more wrath to suffer.  “It is finished” (John 19:30).

            Now they lay our Lord into a tomb, like so many scattered ashes and smothered coals.  But what happens on the Third Day?  You know it.  As the first rays of sunlight creep over the horizon, the tomb is revealed to be empty.  The fire once again blazes forth.  The stone is rolled away.  Light overcomes the darkness.  Death itself has been consumed by the flesh and blood of God.  Christ is risen.  Jesus lives. 

            And now, a conflagration.  The fire spreads as the Gospel is proclaimed.  First by the angels.  Then by the women (oh, the blessed, faithful women who first visited the tomb).  Then by Peter and thunderous John (this is the fire God wants you to spread, John).  The risen Lord Himself appearing to Mary.  Igniting hearts on the road to Emmaus as He opens the Scriptures to those buried in grief.  Then, the Day of Pentecost, and a mighty, rushing wind.  Fire from heaven on the heads of the disciples.  The Holy Spirit, opening lips.  And the fire spreads as the Word of the Lord grows, to this day, casting its heat and light into every corner of the world.

            Now, it is not a tame fire, understand.  It is still fire… the same fire that destroyed Sodom.  But it is also the pillar of fire leading Israel safely through the barren wilderness.  It is the same fire that consumed Elijah’s sacrifice, consigning false prophets to the slaughter.  And it is the same fire that consumed the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world.  What does fire do?  It destroys, to be sure.  We’re well aware of that, here, in the hot, dry Idaho summer.  But it doesn’t only destroy.  What else does it do?  It warms.  It enlightens.  It purifies. 

            Oh, it does destroy.  That is the warning for all those outside of Christ, as well as for us, who walk in danger all the way… danger of falling into temptation… danger of forsaking our faith… danger of denying Christ and the Gospel.  Fire destroys.  It hurts, and even kills, when we don’t hold it in reverence.  When we pretend it doesn’t exist, or that it can’t harm us, in any case.  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God!” (Ps. 14:1), and it is the fool, likewise, who plays with the divine fire, or ignores it to his own peril.  The Day is coming when those outside of Christ will be winnowed and burned like chaff (Luke 3:17), cast out where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48).

            But, so also, fire warms and enlightens.  Again, the Emmaus disciples’ hearts were burning within them as Jesus opened up the Scriptures to them along the way.  That is an admonition to us to be constantly with Jesus in His Word, warmed and enlightened next to the holy fire.  St. Paul reminds Pastor Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim. 1:6).  That is, to busy himself with the ministry of the Word bestowed upon him at his ordination.  “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” we pray with the Psalmist, King David (Ps. 119:105).  So we should always shine the light of God’s Word before us, as we go on our way in this world, toward the next. 

            And it purifies, this fire.  By the preaching of God’s Law and Gospel, it destroys the old Adam in us, and brings us to new life.  It shatters our hearts of stone, and gives us new, beating hearts of flesh.  As God tells us through the Prophet Jeremiah: “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jer.23:29).  Likewise, St. Peter tells us that our very faith… the faith bestowed on us by the Spirit in God’s Word…  the faith that receives Christ and His righteousness… our very faith is like gold refined in the fire.  How so?  The various trials we have to suffer now, for a little while… like family members and friends rejecting us on account of Christ and the Gospel, as many of you know all too well… like the heat of persecution suffered by so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world… like the attacks of Satan in body and soul… these various trials melt us down, why?  So that all that is not faith, all that is not Christ, can be skimmed away (1 Peter 1:6-9).  Our fallen flesh.  Our sin.  Our impurities.  Our idolatries.  All of these are purged in fire… not in such a way that we make atonement for them (only Christ can do that, and He has!), but so that Christ is all that remains to us.  And He is all we need, for He is our life and salvation. 

            Christ.  Man only needs Jesus Christ.  When we are in Christ, we are safe from the fire of God’s wrath, because He took it for us (the cross!).  And now the fire is transformed into that which warms us, enlightens us, and purifies us.  So, we want ever and always to be found in Christ.  We, too, have a Baptism to be baptized with, don’t we?  Baptized into Christ.  Baptized in His blood.  Baptized into His death, and so into His life.  Baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 

            And now, we’re like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, engulfed in the midst of the burning, fiery furnace, but unharmed, and unbound… alive… safe in the sheltering presence of the very Son of God. 

            Our Lord Jesus came to cast fire on the earth.  What would He accomplish by it?  The end of God’s righteous wrath over sin.  The redemption and purification of the whole world.  Our eternal life and salvation.  The flashpoint of divine fire is the cross of Jesus Christ.  Our God is a consuming fire.  By His coming into our flesh, He consumes our sin and death.  Now, let us, therefore… engulfed in His Baptism, hearts aglow with His Word, returning from the altar like lions breathing fire, terrible to the devil (as St. John Chrysostom said)… be wholly consumed with Him.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.