I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49)
The Jesus speaking to Peter in this verse bears little resemblance to the Jesus familiar to popular culture. This is not Hallmark Jesus. This is the Jesus who called the Pharisees vipers and blind guides, who overturned the tables of the move changers and drove them out of the temple with a whip. What does He mean by this? Jesus appears to be saying something quite different to Peter here than the angels said to those shepherds in the fields, who were watching their flocks on the night Jesus was born. These words are shocking, even frightening, especially when you consider their source. Jesus, God with us in human flesh,[1] the image of the invisible God through whom all things were created,[2] says that He is eager to burn the world with fire. Kyrie Eleison! These words call to mind judgment. They bring to mind Peter’s description of the Day of the Lord: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat: both the earth and the works that are in them will be burned up.[3] They remind us of John the Baptist, as he baptized people in the wilderness, pointing those whom he baptized toward the coming Christ, saying: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.[4]
But it isn’t just that Jesus wants to destroy the earth. If God wanted to destroy the earth and mankind, He could have done that immediately after the Fall and started over from scratch.[5] But He didn’t do that; He wanted to redeem His creation instead of throwing it in the garbage. In this verse, Jesus is expressing His eagerness to fulfill the divine plan of redemption He was sent to complete by God the Father. That plan includes fire: Fire on the Last Day, at the Second Advent of Jesus, burning up the elements to make way for a new heavens and a new earth; a lake of fire into which the defeated devil, along with all his angels, will be thrown to be punished for eternity.
But, before there can be a Second Advent, there must be a first one. Therefore, the plan included the telling of the good news that a savior would come to crush the head of the serpent who deceived Eve. The plan included God cultivating a nation out of whom this promised savior of mankind should come; planting them in their own land to flourish; pruning back the diseased branches so that it could grow and thrive. And it ultimately included God taking on human flesh, becoming a man, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; being crucified as the ransom for many, rising from the dead, and ascending back to His heavenly throne. This is the thing which Jesus refers when he says that He came to send fire on the earth, and He wishes it were already kindled.
Jesus is not eager for our destruction, like some bloodthirsty general laying siege to a fortified city. He wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.[6] This is the reason His second coming is, from our perspective, delayed. It means forgiveness, and faith, and life everlasting for more people.[7] Make no mistake; the One who made the promise is faithful. Christ is coming soon. For those who are connected to Christ, to His death and resurrection through baptism, Christ’s Second Advent is not a thing to be feared. It is something to be eagerly anticipated: For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.[8]
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