Thomas J Parlette
“Did I Hear That Right?”
Luke 12: 49-56
8/14/22
How do you measure popularity? These days, lots of people measure popularity by social media followers. But that’s not always an authentic measure. There are companies out there that will sell large blocks of followers to those who wish to boost their twitter followers and appear more popular than they really are.
And this isn’t really a new thing. Back in 300 BC, there was a performer named Philemon – not the one from the New Testament, a different one – who hired audience members to laugh loudly at his jokes. The paid laughers were so effective that Philemon routinely beat out his competitors in local comedy competitions.
Shakespeare did the same thing in the 1600’s, paying audience members to respond with laughter, cheers and clapping to his plays.
In the 1800’s, theater managers in Paris paid select audience members to clap, laugh or weep at appropriate points in the show. And in the 1950’s, the first “laugh track” was created. It was a recorded loop of pre-taped audience laughter that was played at appropriate spots in the show to convince audiences that shows were funnier than they actually were.(1)
There’s even a company in Los Angeles that provides fake crowds of adoring fans and paparazzi for a price. The company is called Crowds on Demand. And if you really want to spend some money, they can provide a luxury car and bottles of champagne, and drive you to the swankiest shopping districts in L.A. - the full celebrity experience. Their website claims that they hire “top notch professional talent with significant acting experience for our crowds.”(2)
In the beginning of Luke 12, we hear that Jesus’ popularity had become so great that he and his disciples were being followed by a crowd of thousands of people. And I’m sure he didn’t pay any of them. The crowd was so boisterous that Jesus and the disciples were in danger of getting trampled.
I imagine that the disciples must have been feeling pretty good about their decision to follow Jesus, seeing as how his ministry was becoming so influential. Only Jesus understood that they were following him, not to a throne or a new political movement, but to his death on the cross. From popularity to shame and suffering and persecution. In a short time, that crowd of thousands would be lining the streets of Jerusalem and loudly demanding his death at the hands of the Roman government.
So Luke 12 is basically one long teaching on how to disengage from the world’s attractions, from its values, from its popularity contests. Jesus is trying to warn his disciples that they can’t count on the crowd’s approval for long. He knows he will be leaving them soon, and they will suffer greatly as they try to carry on his mission without him. They will pay a price for following him, so they’d better be prepared for it. But he can also see how the holy spirit, his Spirit living in them, will lead them to change the world.
Many leaders and churches gauge the success of their ministry on its popularity – they measure their success and health on the numbers. But Jesus did things differently. Jesus gauged the success of his ministry on his obedience to God. And he warned us that obedience to God will make us unpopular with the world. In Luke 12, he’s teaching his disciples, “Don’t let your current circumstances blind you, or your current comforts bind you to this world. Saying “Yes” to me means saying “No” to this world and its comforts and priorities and value systems.”
These leads us into some pretty shocking words from Jesus:
“I came to bring fire to the earth…
“Do you think I’ve come to bring peace – no, rather division…
“Households will be divided – father against son, son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother…”
Not what we’re used to hearing from Jesus. Jesus is the love of God in the flesh. One of his names is the Prince of Peace. So these words seem very out of character for him.
Have you ever been watching the news or a show on TV, and someone says something that stops you in your tracks, you just have to rewind and listen to that again because you think – “Did I hear that right?” That’s what happens with this passage. You have to pause and think – “Did I hear that right? Are those words really coming out of Jesus’ mouth?
Biblical scholar Audrey West points out that this passage is best understood as DESCRIPTIVE rather than PRESCRIPTIVE.(3) That is, it is not Jesus’ purpose to set children against their parents or parents against their children. He is pointing out that a kind of rupture, regrettable as it may be, is possible when you live your life like Jesus. Jesus doesn’t intend or want to bring division, but he is realistic in pointing out that it may happen.
Van Varner, the former editor of Guideposts magazine, tells of driving through the Rocky Mountains with his godson David. They passed a sign reading “Continental Divide.” A continental divide is a boundary that separates a continent’s river systems.
David pointed to the sign and said, “This is the great watershed. From here the waters flow either toward the Atlantic or the Pacific.” As Varner considered David’s comment, he realized that the decision to follow Jesus is that kind of decision. It is a watershed moment. Once you commit to following Jesus’ example, you leave your old life behind and take up a new life that is not under your own control.(4)
There is a great quote from British philosopher Gordon Graham. He writes, “Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight; indecision is a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind it.”(5)
Decisions are not the same as opinions or feelings. Decisions require action. Decisions have a result. Decisions effect change. Molding your life to the character, priorities and actions of Jesus isn’t an opinion or a feeling – it is a decision.
“Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight…” That’s what Jesus is talking about here. And once you make the decision to live like Jesus, sharing his priorities and concerns, there might be some people, some values, some comforts that will be cut loose. There are three ways that living like Jesus creates division, and we need to keep those clearly in sight as disciples and apostles.
First, living like Jesus divides us from the person we used to be. Paul said it best in his second letter to the Corinthians – “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” You are a new creation.
And Paul should know. When he became a disciple of Jesus, he became an entirely different person. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul talks about influential and connected he used to be. But when he started following Jesus, he lost his status, his privilege, his power and connections. But he had no regrets. In fact, he described all those perks of his old life as “garbage compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” Decision is a sharp knife, and living like Jesus divides us from the person we used to be.
Living like Jesus also divides us from the people around us. Jesus’ own brothers didn’t believe in his identity and ministry until after his resurrection from the grave. Jesus understands how painful such separation is. It’s a natural consequence of living out the radical priorities of Christ, priorities such as loving your enemies, speaking the truth, pursuing peace, and not conforming to the value systems of the world. You are going to make others uncomfortable around you. Your character and lifestyle might make others question their own values and priorities – and lots of people don’t really want to do that.
For instance, there was a man named Franklin McCallie who was raised in a prominent, wealthy family in Chattanooga, TN. One of Chattanooga’s most prestigious private schools is named after his family.
Franklin was born around 1940. His family were staunch supporters of segregation. Franklin’s only contact with Black people were with his nanny and the Black men who served as his family’s household staff. Even though they were devoted Christians, the McCallie family had for generations assumed that separation of the races was right and good in the eyes of God, and that Black people were not meant to be equal with whites.
In 1961, when the Civil Rights movement was gaining influence on college campuses across the country, a college friend of Franklin’s invited him to a small gathering of white and Black students from separate Tennessee colleges.
When Franklin heard the stories of discrimination against these young men and their families, he began to question his family’s acceptance of segregation, inequality and racism. When he returned home and tried to tell his family about his new insights, his uncle called him an embarrassment to the family name.
Later, when Franklin moved back to Chattanooga to take a teaching position with The McCallie School, he insisted that the school be integrated. His father refused. So Franklin took a job at the all-Black Howard School. He took his passion for integration and equal rights to the churches, to the politicians and to the streets. Occasionally, Franklin’s father would call to criticize him for his activism – didn’t he realize he was ruining his reputation? But Franklin didn’t care.
One day, Franklin learned that the local Kiwanis Club had accepted its first Black member. He visited the head of the Club, a family friend, to thank him and to ask how he had convinced all those white men to finally accept a Black man as a brother.
“Franklin, didn’t you know. It wasn’t me. It was your father who convinced us.”
Franklin rushed over to The McCallie School to find his father. They embraced. And Franklin’s father said the words he never thought he’d hear – “I’ve been wrong about Black people my whole life.” I’m sure a thought crossed Franklin’s mind – “Wait, did I hear that right?”
Not long after, Franklin McCallie’s father opened up The McCallie School to boys of all races, and all the other private schools in Chattanooga followed their example.(6)
Jesus knows that these types of transformations don’t always happen. Decision is a sharp knife. Living like Jesus can divide us from the people around us.
And finally, living like Jesus divides us from the value systems of this world. Jesus was very upfront about this. He lived to teach people about the kingdom of God and its values. He never tried to gain influence with the power players of his day, as tempting as it would have been. He even tried to turn people away from following him – some of you aren’t ready for this. Jesus would not conform to the culture, even for the sake of popularity or success. Even for the sake of saving his own life. And if we are new creations in Christ, we follow his example.
Pastor Corey Fields tells a story about a successful pastor he admired who suddenly began questioning his own values in light of Jesus teachings. Rev. Brian Zahnd was pastoring a growing and dynamic church. He was becoming something of a Christian celebrity among other pastors.
But as his church grew, Zahnd became concerned that its spiritual life didn’t reflect the spirit of Jesus. So through Bible study and prayer, Rev Zahnd began to align his life and the ministry of the church more closely with the teachings of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He preached a sermon series on Jesus’ blessings for the poor in spirit, for those who mourn, for those who are persecuted. He taught his leaders to organize the mission and ministry of the church around the Sermon on the Mount.
And this new direction made some people very uncomfortable. They were being challenged to live sacrificially, to grow spiritually and some people weren’t ready for that. They just wanted to come to church, a bright, clean modern facility – hear an inspiring message, some uplifting music, maybe some small group time around the espresso bar with a donut or a croissant. That’s all they wanted. They certainly didn’t want to change their lifestyles and priorities to do the work of Jesus in their community. So people starting leaving the church.(7)
It’s not easy to walk away from the life we know, the people we know, the values that have defined us. It’s not easy to live like Jesus. That’s why Jesus used such strong language here that causes us to ask – “Did I hear that right?” No matter how popular and successful he looked at the moment, Jesus knew that he was walking towards the cross.
But Jesus valued obedience to God over popularity. “I have come to bring not peace, but division.” Yes, you heard that right. Decision is a sharp knife, and sometimes it cuts things out of our lives. But as Paul reminded us – what we gain from living like Jesus is of far greater value.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No.3, p 71.
2. Ibid… p 71.
3. Audrey West, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3. Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p 360.
4. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 3, p 72.
5. Ibid… p 72.
6. Ibid… p 72.
7. Ibid… p 73
