Great Plains Daily Devotional for 8/15/2022

Luke 12:49-56

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be 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 her daughter-in-law
    and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain,’ 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?

These are harsher words than we are typically used to hearing from Jesus.  Many of us prefer gentle Jesus with loving words or gentle rebukes.  We, of course, have the story of Jesus flipping the tables in the temple, but here is another example of Jesus losing his temper with the Jewish people.

Read the passage above for a second time.  We often wonder how our "gentle Jesus" could have riled the Jewish people enough for them to put him on a cross to die.

Jesus made them uncomfortable, he spoke the truth in ways that cut to the heart of their wrongdoings.  And then, he asked them to believe he was the son of God and to forget what they knew and follow him in a new way.  

Tell us about a time that God pushed you in a new direction through personal discomfort or discomfort in your faith.  Share your story on our Facebook page. 

Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19
Jeremiah 23:23-29 and Psalm 82
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56