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Luk_12:49. Send fire on the earth.—The question is, what fire the Saviour here means. The answer that we have here to understand a fire of controversy, appears indeed to be the most admissible, but has, however, this difficulty, that then Luk_12:51 is really only a weak repetition of that which has been already said in Luk_12:49. If ðῦñ is entirely the same with ìÜ÷áéñá , Mat_10:34, and äéáìåñéóìüò , Luk_12:51, it cannot then be well conceived that the Saviour could have unconditionally wished the kindling of such a fire. On the other hand, there is not the least reason for here, with many of the fathers and some modern expositors, immediately understanding the fire of the Holy Spirit, for which âáëåῖí would certainly have been no very fitting expression. It is best, without doubt, to proceed from the general signification of the metaphorical expression, and to understand the extraordinary movement of mind which Christ should bring to pass when His Gospel should everywhere be proclaimed, comp. Luk_24:32. As fire has on the one hand a warming and purifying, but on the other a dissolving and destroying, force, not otherwise is it with the manifestation of Christ, of which the Gospel bears testimony. It is, however, by no means to be denied that the Saviour has in mind the latter rather than the former side of the fact. It does not, however, come into the fullest prominence until Luk_12:51. Division had already been effected by the Saviour’s advent, but the fire was not to blaze up in its full power until after His death and His exaltation.
Êáὶ ôß èÝëù åἰ ἤäç ἀíÞöèç ; The general interpretation (Kuinoel, Bretschneider, De Wette, who appeal to Mat_7:14): “How much I could wish that it were already kindled,” has the signification of åἰ against it. Better Schleiermacher: “And what more do I wish if it is even already kindled?” But it will best agree with the character of the discourse if we with Grotius and Meyer translate: “And what will I? Would that it were already kindled!” This wish, however, the Saviour does not cherish only because between now and the kindling of this fire lay His near and bitter Passion in the midst, which must first be endured (Meyer), but rather because, besides the harmful and ruinous, the salutary force of the fire also stands before His view, and because He knows that only through these flames can all impurity be purged away from the earth.
Luk_12:50. A baptism to be baptized with.—Over against the heavenly fire which He sends, stands the earthly water of the suffering which previously to that must roll entirely over Him.—To be baptized.—An image of the depth and intensity of this suffering, like a baptism performed by immersion. Comp. Mat_20:22; Joh_1:33.—How am I straitened, ðῶò óõíÝ÷ïìáé .—As far from being only a pressure of longing and desire (Euth. Zigab., De Wette) as from meaning merely, “oppressed by anxiety and fear” (Meyer and others); on the other hand the one must be joined with the other. Without doubt there is here a óõíï÷ὴ êáñäßáò , not less than Joh_12:27; 2Co_2:4, and whoever in this human reluctation of the Lord against His suffering finds any cause of offence, places himself in a Docetic position. But in the heart of the holy Son of Man such a shrinking back from suffering, and the wish that it might already have been overcome, could not arise without His feeling at the same time the pressure of a love which must be baptized with this baptism, only because it itself has willed it. A similar union of anxiety and longing we see in the woman, Joh_16:21, who when her hour comes is seized with fear and anguish, and yet in the midst of this fear feels love and inward longing soon to press her child to her heart.
Luk_12:51. Suppose ye.—Comp. Mat_10:34-36. It was only perplexity on the part of some expositors when they believed that here the language respecting the consequence of the Saviour’s manifestation was used exclusively ἐêâáôéêῶò , not ôåëéêῶò . On the other hand, we may say that the Saviour here speaks not of the highest and ultimate, but yet of a very essential purpose of His manifestation on earth, which, however, was in its turn to be a means for the attainment of a higher end, of a peace, namely, which could be attained through this strife alone. The division which the Saviour brought on earth was and is so general, that He in a certain sense could say of Himself that He establishes nothing less than ( ἀëë ̓ ἤ ) discord. This phenomenon is so far from being surprising and fortuitous, that, on the contrary, it has been foreseen and will be met, not as something good and desirable in itself, but as the only way in which He could erect His kingdom of peace here below upon an immovable foundation. An analogous representation, see Luk_2:34; Joh_9:39. Even because Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, it cannot but be that torches of strife and funeral pyres should be kindled by its fiery glow. When the Holy One of God comes into personal contact with an unholy world, a shock and strife is inevitable, and that not only against Him personally, but also among men themselves, inasmuch as these begin to distinguish themselves into adversaries and subjects of His kingdom.
Luk_12:52. Five in one house.—Here also is the mention of the uneven number five peculiar to Luke, as in the statement of the number of sparrows, Luk_12:6. When three stand against two and two against three, it is so much the more difficult to bring them together again. The holiest bonds are torn asunder, and as well in the male as also in the female sex does our Lord count friends and enemies, who on account of Him oppose one another. “Non additur gener, nam hic aliam constituit familiam.” Bengel. For the whole representation, compare the prophetical utterance, Mic_7:6. Only when the Saviour appears as the Prince of Peace can the disharmony between the three on the one hand and the two on the other hand be lastingly over.
Luk_12:54. And He said also to the people.—Luke justly remarks that here the address of the Saviour to the disciples breaks off. What now follows is more adapted to the mixed throng of His listeners, among whom there were found also enemies and those of Pharisaical views. According to Mat_16:1 seq., the Saviour directed the next following censure very particularly against the Pharisees and Sadducees; the expressions, however, in the two Evangelists are more or less different. If we are disposed to demonstrate the connection with the previous section, we may find it in this, that the Saviour now proceeds to the statement of the source from which so much discord and misunderstanding flow as He had just described; namely, the failure to recognize the signs of the times, which unequivocally enough pointed to the Messianic kingdom.
A cloud.—The cloud which rose out of the west, on the side of the sea, was regarded as the sign of approaching rain, see 1Ki_18:44, while the south wind was considered as a sign of heat to be expected, Job_37:17. The here-mentioned êáýóåí is undoubtedly that glowing heat which was produced in Palestine by the south wind. In the LXX = ÷ָãִéí . In most mournful contrast with the sound intelligence of these weather-prophets, which in daily life at once decides ( åὐèÝùò ), and whose prophecies also commonly are fulfilled, stands the general blindness in reference to that which was infinitely more momentous and quite as easy to discover.
Luk_12:56. Ye hypocrites.—We cannot mistake the fact that here towards the end, the discourse again visibly inclines towards its point of departure. Very fittingly could the Saviour address the people in a mass thus, if we consider how deeply the leaven of the Pharisees had already penetrated into their minds. Since they were capable of distinguishing the face of the sky as well as that of the earth (Joh_4:35), it could only be from a lack of good-will that they left wholly unnoticed the rain and the vital warmth which in these days had been imparted, in the kingdom of God. What lies nearest to the heart of man his understanding judges best; but since the advent of a spiritual kingdom of God was to them essentially indifferent, they do not account it even worth the trouble of giving heed to these signs in the moral world, which so convincingly afforded proof that the fulness of the time had arrived. The Saviour, on the other hand, will have His contemporaries become meteorologists in the spiritual sphere, and therefore He afterwards also rebukes them that they did not know the time of their visitation, Luk_19:44.
Luk_12:57. Of your own selves, ἀö ̓ ἑáõôῶí , Luk_21:30. There was lacking to them, as appears from what precedes, the gift necessary for clearly distinguishing in the spiritual sphere what was right ( êñßíåéí , secernere). When they discerned the face of the sky and the earth (Luk_12:56), they did this indeed ἀö ̓ ἑáõôῶí , independently, without any necessity that it should first have been told them by another. So did it beseem them in other relations also to apply the standard of a natural science of truth and duty, without always first awaiting the inspiration of their spiritual guides.—Luk_12:58-59 the Saviour makes a special case in which they could apply such a êñßóéò ἀö ̓ ἐáõôῶí , while He leaves it to their own understanding and conscience themselves to make a profitable application of the here-given rules to much higher and weightier concerns.
Luk_12:58. For as.— ÃÜñ here introduces the statement of the special case, by the delineation of which the Saviour more particularly explains His meaning. Comp. Mat_5:25-26. He presupposes that they are with their adversary ( ἀíôßäéêïò ) on the way to their legitimate ruler ( ἅñ÷ùí ), as appears from Luk_12:59, because a controversy had arisen about an unpaid debt; and if they now should persevere even to the end in the way of litigation, the consequences were very easy to be foreseen. The adversary with whom one cannot reconcile himself drags ( êáôáóýñῃ ) the debtor before the righteous judge ( êñéôÞò ), and he, after he has ascertained the claim of debt to be well established, delivers the accused to the bailiff, who throws him into prison ( ðñÜêôùñ , exactor, executor, a legally appointed functionary of the Roman tribunals, whom Matthew has designated only in general as ὑðçñÝôçò ). And there must one remain, until even the very last and least portion of the debt in its last item is paid. Matthew mentions ôὸí ἔó÷áôïí êïäñÜíôçí , Luke still more strongly ôὸí ἔó÷ . ëåðôüí . The last farthing equals half a quadrant.—How much mischief, therefore, does one prevent, and how fully he acts in his own interest, when he comes to terms with such an ἀíôßäéêïò , enters into a satisfactory compromise before the last decisive step is taken! Äὸò ἐñãáóßáí , a Latinism, perhaps as a Roman formula of law sufficiently familiar to Theophilus.
The Saviour, therefore, here urges His hearers in their own interest to placableness, and will have them by such a conduct show that they are in a condition ἀö ̓ ἑáõôῶí to êñßíåéí ôὸ äßêáéïí . Considered by itself alone the admonition has, therefore, the same intention as in the parallel passage in Matthew, only with the distinction that with Luke the juridical form of the process is brought out somewhat more in detail. If one inquires now in what connection this exhortation, Luk_12:57-59, stands with the previous verses, Luk_12:54-56, we acknowledge that we have not found in one of the interpreters an answer perfectly satisfactory to us. The thread connecting the different parts of Luke 12 becomes looser in proportion as the chapter hastens towards its end. In general, we may say that the Saviour here urges His hearers no longer to allow themselves to be so much led in their judgment by others as they had hitherto done, in consequence of which they also did not recognize the signs of the times, Luk_12:54-56, but to see more with their own eyes. This His meaning He elucidates by an example, Luk_12:58-59; but neither in the letter nor the spirit of His words is a single proof contained that this example must be interpreted as a parable, and that He wishes thereby to admonish them to repent betimes, “because the Messianic decision is so near, that they may not be exposed to the judgment of Gehenna.” (Meyer.) It is wholly arbitrary to see in the ἀíôßäéêïò an allusion to the devil (Euth. Zigab.), to the poor (Michaelis), God (Meyer), or even to the law (Olshausen), and in the öõëáêÞ to see a representation of Gehenna. Nothing but the craving to find in Luk_12:57-59 a congruous conclusion to a well-connected discourse has here put the expositors on a false track. The Saviour, however, presents not a single proof for the opinion that He here is urging them on allegorically to repentance, and according to the representation of Mat_5:25, this saying has an entirely different sense. It is, without doubt, better, in case of necessity, to give up making out the connection which undoubtedly exists (Kuinoel, De Wette), which we, moreover, have by no means done, than to find under the simple sense of the words a deeper significance which no one amongst the first hearers, without a more particular intimation of the Saviour, could have found therein.
2. In this whole utterance of our Lord, as far as it stands in direct relation to His own personality and kingdom, we see a striking revelation on the one hand of His truly human, on the other hand His truly Divine, nature. With a genuinely human feeling He shrinks back from His suffering and longs for the beginning of the conflict. But with Divine knowledge He calculates at the same time the consequences of the combat, and utters forth the indispensable necessity of His baptism of suffering, if the fire were really to be kindled upon earth.
3. Already more than once have we heard the Saviour speak with heavy-heartedness and deep feeling of His approaching Passion, but here is the first revelation of this genuinely human reluctance to enter upon the approaching conflict, which afterwards returns in heightened measure, Joh_12:27; Mat_26:38. This inner sorrow and pressure of love also constitutes a part of His hidden history of suffering.
4. It is one of the strongest arguments for the entirely unique significance of the personal manifestation of our Lord, that He calls forth such a discord in the sphere of humanity. The strongest sympathy or antipathy does He arouse, but in no case apathy. So much strife and blood the Gospel could never have caused, had not men been deeply persuaded on both sides that here there was to do with the Highest and Holiest.
5. The recognition of the signs of the times is one of the most sacred obligations which our Saviour imposes on all those who wish to be capable of passing an independent judgment on the concerns of His kingdom. However, the blindness of His contemporaries still shows itself continually under all manner of forms. Men who in the sphere of the natural life display a singular measure of sound understanding, are, and that in large numbers, dulness and unreceptiveness itself, when it comes to the distinguishing of light and darkness, truth and illusion, from one another in the spiritual sphere. A sad proof of the power which the corruption of the sinful heart exercises upon the darkened understanding. See Rom_1:18; Eph_4:18.
Starke:—Canstein:—When the Gospel is preached in right earnest, it is as if a conflagration breaks out, which every one runs to quench, and thereby is faith proved.—Quesnel:—Jesus had ever His suffering before His eyes; His love to the cross shames the effeminacy and delicacy of Christians, who are so unwilling to suffer.—Three against two; so was it in Abraham’s house: Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac against Hagar and Ishmael.—There is hardly a house in which the evil are not mingled with the good and the good with the evil.—Brentius:—Between the kingdom of Christ and of Satan no peace exists, not even in eternity; let no one, therefore, give himself any fruitless trouble to bring it about.—Bibl. Wirt.:—Man, discern the time of grace, which to discern is indeed not difficult.—The proving of spiritual things is a duty even of the simple.—Cramer:—It is better to compose matters of controversy by friendly dealing and brotherly reconciliation, than by the sharp law and sentence of the judge, 1Co_6:7—In hell there is no payment possible, therefore the plague of the same will have no end.
Heubner:—If all reforming and heating of people’s heads is wrong and illegal, then Christianity would be the most illegal of anything; but everything depends upon whether the revolutionizing and incendiarism comes from selfishness or from God.—Even he who is already resolved to duty feels, nevertheless, shrinking of heart till the conflict is fought out.—When tempests approach thee, strengthen thyself in Jesus.—What is great and noble requires severe conflict.—The false judging of Jesus is our own fault.—Ehrenberg:—Fire as the power: 1. Of separating; 2. of consuming; 3. of warming.—Tholuck:—“Of what fire does Christ speak here? Is it that which has just now been kindled in the Evangelical Church?” With reference to the separation of the Lutheran from the United Church (in the second volume of his Sermons, p. 412 seq.).—Schenkel:—The controversy which Christ has brought upon earth, how we have: 1. To wish for it; 2. to fear it; 3. to endure it.—T. Muller:—The destroying might of Christianity: 1. In the outer; 2. in the inner, world.
Footnotes:
[Luk_12:49.— Ôß èÝëù åἰ ἤäç ἀíÞöèç ; Van Oosterzee takes it thus: What do I wish? Would that it were already kindled! This gives essentially the same sense as the rendering proposed above, but, as Bleek and Meyer remark, it is a less natural turn of expression. The use of åἰ for ὅôå , when the object of the wish is less confidently expected, or known not to exist, is sufficiently well established. I will cite one example, adduced by Meyer from Sir_23:14 : èåëÞóåéò åß ìὴ ἐãåííÞèçò .—C. C. S.]
[Luk_12:50.—Norton translates this: “what a weight is on me till it be accomplished!”; which, though paraphrastic, appears to express the sense very exactly.—C. C. S.]
Luk_12:53.—According to the most probable reading, that of Lachmann and Tischendorf, äéáìåñéóèÞóïíôáé , with B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] T., U., cursives, Schid., Vulgate, Copt., Itala, and several fathers. The singular of the Recepta was spontaneously suggested by the immediately following substantives. Symmetry, however, requires the verb. [In allusion to Tischendorf’s and Lachmann’s joining äéáìåñéóèÞóïíôáé with the previous clause.—C. C. S.]
[Luk_12:54.—That is, the usual cloud brought by the prevailing west or northwest wind.—C. C. S.] The original ôÞí appears to have been inadvertently omitted in A., B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., Ä ., and cursives, on account of the preceding ἴäç TE. (Meyer.)