Today’s Gospel might sound as if it depicts Jesus when he was having a low self-image day.  We tend to base our judgments about Jesus’ personality on the more positive, upbeat Gospel stories like the ones in this past week’s daily Liturgy of the Word. 

Last week, at daily Liturgies, we heard about Jesus embracing a child as a lesson in humility for his disciples. (Mt 18:1-5)  Later in the week, he spoke at length about the virtue of forgiveness. (Mt 18:21-19:1)  Today’s Gospel passage doesn’t seem to fit with the conventional image of Jesus as friend to children, forbearing teacher of his disciples, and prophet of mercy.   

The references to fire and division might sound out-of-character for Jesus but are not at all unusual.  These images were used by the Hebrew prophets in a variety of situations and with a variety of meanings.  In today’s Gospel reading, the images of fire and division are references to purification and righteousness. 

Purification and righteousness are intertwined in the Scriptures.  The book of the prophet Malachi says that God will send a messenger who will be like the fire used to purify gold or silver. (Mal 3:2)  There are numerous references in the Scriptures that describe Israel as a people distinct from all others because of God’s special favor. (cf. Ex 19:6, Deut 7:6, Isa 61:6)  The purification of God’s People makes them righteous, and their righteousness purifies the whole world. 

In today’s Gospel reading, the images of fire and division are used as a post-facto explanation of the experiences of both Jesus’ disciples and the members of Luke’s church community.  Those who followed Jesus during his lifetime found themselves separated from family and neighbors due to the demands of discipleship.   

Luke’s congregation was composed entirely of gentile converts to the way of Jesus.  Many of them would have experienced the disapproval of their relatives because of their faith; all of them would have experienced ridicule by their fellow gentiles.  Their conversion from pagan morals to the Christian faith would have been a purification both in the sense of moral reform and in the sense of becoming separated from pagan society. 

It should be kept in mind that the purification experienced by those who put their faith in Jesus is fundamentally different from the purification that is commonly discussed in secular society today.  When our contemporaries use words like purification, it most often refers to social conflict, racial prejudice, and even murder. 

The widespread starvation in Sudan is the one of the continuing consequences of a civil war that was fought in order to exterminate a disenfranchised ethnic group.  There is on-going violence in Syria; the fall of Assad’s government has opened the way for bitter conflict between rival religious groups.  To those lacking in conscience, “purification” means using any means available to rid oneself of anyone or anything that is unfamiliar, different, or oppositional.   

Jesus was the victim of the faithless and immoral violence that is often called purification.  His teaching confused and challenged the religious authorities in Jerusalem; their way of dealing with the unfamiliar was to have him executed. 

By contrast, those who are faithful to God understand purification and righteousness in a way that is unintelligible to the faithless.  Today’s second reading says that Jesus “endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.” (Hb 12:2)  He showed himself pure in his innocent suffering and was rewarded with eternal righteousness in God’s presence. 

God promises a share in Jesus’ glory to all who imitate his purity and holiness, but this is no easy task.  We live in a society that shames and rejects the sick, the elderly, foreigners, the poor, the powerless, the unborn, and even the unattractive.  The behavior that secular society considers virtuous is judged shameful by Jesus’ teachings. 

We stand before a choice, then – a choice reminiscent of the divisions that Jesus prophesied in the Gospel reading.  We can choose to hold fast to secular values, or we can choose to live according to Jesus’ teaching, but we cannot do both at the same time.  For the faithful, the choice obvious: we find strength and comfort in the shadow of the Cross of the one who was rejected by the unrighteous.