Daily Bible Reading 27th September 2026 // Luke 12:49-53
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 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.”
In 49, the RSV rendering is clearer than the AV: 'what will I', and it should certainly read, 'would that it were', The 'But' in 50 seems to suggest that before Jesus' longing can be fulfilled, the baptism must be accomplished - i.e., the baptism of His passion on the Cross. Until that takes place, He is straitened in Himself, and there are things He cannot do. Well might He say, 'Would that it were already kindled! Hebrews 12:2 says, 'Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross...' This is the joy that was set before Him, the coming of the fire of the Spirit upon the earth. And so, today, this is 'repeated' and 'reflected' in the lives of His disciples. Of every contemporary situation He says, 'I am come to send fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!' He is straitened in us, because, so often, there is a death we have refused to die, a baptism we are not willing to undergo. One recalls the word used by Luke in 9:31 to describe the death Jesus was to die at Jerusalem - it is 'exodus', which means 'a way out'. Here in the context of Jesus' words, we must surely see that the 'death' He calls us to die in discipleship is also 'a way out', out of straitening, out of barrenness and ineffectiveness in service, into fruitfulness for Him. This is the true aim and purpose of discipleship (cf John 15:16).