What a disturbing saying from Jesus today! This is especially so if we are tied to that false concept that Christianity is about peace in the sense of doing nothing. Jesus himself directly rebukes that image by saying that he has not come to establish peace on the earth but rather division.
While Jesus does not propose violence to promote change, his lifestyle and preaching are opposed to the status quo form of relating to God and others. He openly identifies and condemns oppression, sin, evil, lukewarm lifestyles, and twisted priorities. His debates with the religious leaders of the times are peppered with clear prophetic condemnations. In his interactions with common folk, he is overwhelmingly compassionate. But some of those encounters he uses obviously unkind cultural phrases or even insults to push people to move towards deeper faith.
Personal conversion and fire must go together. Jesus is announcing a profound change in human beings. Overall, he is calling for a return to the communion as in the Jardin of Eden. We have continually used our free will to do damage to ourselves, others, and our relationship with God. Placing ourselves at the center of our world, we tend to destroy everything around us, our own selves, and our relationship with God. That tendency must be burned out of us through the action of the Holy Spirit through conversion and baptism.
For tenth anniversary of 9-11, I helped arrange the donation of a fire engine from the USA to Lima, Peru. The pumper was put into service on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 in the evening at the fire station where I served. Fridays were my free days in those years in the parish in Lima and I usually spent most of Friday at the fire station. Friday, May 4th, 2012 I was on duty at the station. At 11:45AM the alarm tones sounded and that pumper was assigned to its first emergency in Peru. There was a fire in Cañete in a shantytown straw hut neighborhood. We were the back-up crew, water, and pumper. Cañete is 85 miles south of Lima. With the weight of 500 gallons of water in the tank, we headed south on the Pan-American Highway and arrived about one and a half hours later. When we arrived, there was nothing left. The fired had roared through the straw huts over a five square block area leaving only a layer of hot ash. Here or there I could see a metal stove or a metal cabinet left standing. No personal injuries, but everything else was gone. It was devastating to see. No recognizable image of human habitation was left.
That is the dramatic image of change that Jesus is calling us to realize in our lifestyle. That is what true conversion is about. All of our self-justifications, selfishness, self-assuredness, violence, and sin need to be burned out. The human person before conversion and after conversion are dramatically different. The human person that we build up with our own efforts separated from God is gone. What is left is the image of communion with God and others. The first step is opening ourselves up to God’s mercy and forgiveness.
I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
Image: CANVA CJ Dunn 07 October 2026 AI Generated.