Luke 12:49-59

Signs of the Times. For parallels see below. Jesus is oppressed with the thought of the future till it is accomplished.

Luke 12:49 f. Lk. only. Fire is what Jesus has come to cast on the earth (cf. Luke 3:16 f.); here it probably means division (Luke 12:51; Mt. sword). Would that the discord had set in it would mean that the Kingdom was nigh. But something else has to precede the Kingdom, perhaps also the discord, viz., His death, here referred to as a baptism, i.e. a new consecration (cf. Mark 10:38). The passage should be compared with the more formal predictions of the Passion, which may have been edited after the event.

Luke 12:51. Cf. Matthew 10:34. Lk. is more elaborate he pictures a household of husband and wife, son and his wife, and daughter. The two men quarrel and the elder woman quarrels with the two younger ones. Such hostility on the part of elders to the young who are attracted by the Christian message is well illustrated in the modern mission field, especially in India.

Luke 12:54. Matthew 16:2 *. Lk. has the better setting. The Jews recognise the signs of the weather, they refuse to recognise the signs of the approaching Judgment, with the need for repentance. The sign is of course Jesus Himself and His message. Even apart from signs they ought to judge what is right (Luke 12:57), and to do it while there is yet time, like a debtor satisfying his creditor before the case comes into court, where only utter condemnation is to be looked for.

Luke 12:58 f. Matthew 5:25 f.* Perhaps the setting is better in Lk., where the moral is implied that men must repent before God in view of the imminence of the Judgment.