“How am I straitened!”

Watchfulness. Stripes. Division. Make peace betimes.

(The Gospel History, Section 100)

I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if it is already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: for there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. They shall be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law.

Commentary by J. R. Dummelow

Lk 12:49–53. The strife that the gospel will produce. In different connexions in Mt.

Lk 12:49. A paradox. The Prince of Peace comes to bring strife and bloodshed, fire and sword, into the world, because only through war can lasting peace be attained. Some, however, understand by fire, the fire of Christian love.

What will I, etc.] i.e. ‘how much I wish that it were already kindled!’ (Theophylact). Other translations: ‘What more have I to desire, if it be already kindled?’ (Plummer). ‘What do I desire? Would that it were already kindled!’ (Origen).

Lk 12:50. A baptism] i.e. Christ’s Passion. Straitened] i.e. afflicted, oppressed.

Lk 12:51–53 > Mt 10:34–36. These vv. occur in a somewhat different form and in a different connexion [than] Lk 12:51–53.

Lk 12:51 > Mt 10:34. Think not, etc.] Christ could not expect that His claim to absolute dominion over the soul of man and all human institutions, would be accepted without a bitter struggle. But knowing such a struggle to be necessary for the establishment of peace with God and of permanent peace on earth, He deliberately willed it. ‘The sword’ stands for persecution, and for all kinds of social and domestic dissensions.

“How am I straitened!”

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VI Book IV Poem LIV)

While the Disciples pondered, with fixed gaze
Upon the Master’s countenance, a change
Arrested them; the aspect sweet they knew,
Of their beloved Teacher, passed; in place,
A prophet’s gaze, far-seeing, pained, constrained,
Aloof from present, held by things to come,
Met the bewilder’d men, whose tim’rous heart
Froze at a terror not perceived of them.
Then spake the Lord, in accents how remote:—

“A burden’s laid on Me! The men I love,
Who go their easy way in careless peace,
Lo, I behold them in consuming flames!
And who hath cast the brand? I, even I,
Bring burnings to Mine own! Consider her,
The mother who regards her suffering babe,
How glad she’d bear his pain! And would not I
Endure pangs as of fire that I might save?

“It may not be; through fire they needs must come,
And what will I an’t be already lit?
Searchings of fire shall try My servant’s heart—
Is he indeed fulfilling all his part?—
The fire of hate enkindled shall consume
All common joys of life, yea, life itself
For them called by My Name! These things bring I
On them who love Me, have left all for Me!
Think ye I come to shed My peace on earth?
I tell you, nay: division’s curse shall fall
On every household where My Name is named:
Be five souls in a house? See them take sides,
Two are for Me, and three be sore against,
Three be for Me, and two afflict the three;
And never hour but, as it drags, dispute
And sick contention wear the spirit out.
Think ye that mother’s love must daughter prize?
I tell you, nay; mother her daughter hates,
Daughter against her mother needs must rise
For My sake and the Gospel’s. Sire and son
No more of one accord take pleasant way;
There is, the son more than his father loves,
There is, the zealous father shall hold fast
More than the son of his loins; behold, they strive:
And I—this is My doing! Where was peace,
The sword and conflagrations come of Me!
Behold the baptism I must needs go through
In them that love Me!”

These words so dreadful

Fall on their hearts as drops of molten lead
From the dear lips of Christ: what think the men?
Will they, too, go away and save themselves?
With shrinking heart see they the perilous state
Of them that follow Christ? They loved the Lord;
And he who loves fears not his own distress
Nor takes precautions for his own estate:
His thoughts fly forth to shield his well-beloved,—
A panoply about the dear one’s head,
What recks he if the arrow smites himself?
So they who loved the Lord shrank from that pain,
The hot baptism of fire which should befall
Him—more to each than his own soul or sense!
Wherefore, no terror did Christ’s words convey,
But quicken’d love the more. Did Jesus see
Love in their eyes, and was He thereby cheered?

St. Luke xii. 49–53.

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