<p>12:49 <i>I came to cast fire upon the earth, yet it is already kindled</i>- The Lord wished that the fire He came to kindle had already been kindled. This may be an allusion to a common Latin saying at the time: <i>Nemo accendit nisi ipse ardet</i>, 'No one can kindle another unless he himself burns'. In this case Jesus is likening Himself to a fire which ignites others; and yet He so wished that someone else had earlier come and been Messiah. Some of the Messianic passages describe Him being amazed that there had been no man, and He Himself therefore dressed for action and did the Messianic duty. It is an essay in His humility that He should have held such a view. It also reflects how there had been previous opportunities for Messiah to come.</p><p>The Gehenna fire of condemnation of the wicked is &quot;already kindled&quot; by men's attitude now. The tree that will not bring forth good fruit &quot;<i>is</i> hewn down, and cast into the fire&quot; (Mt. 7:19)- alluding to the figure of Gehenna, into which the rejected will be 'thrown'. The ungodly <i>are</i> already like the chaff that will be blown away after the Lord's return (Ps. 1:4,5; 35:5; Job 21:18-20 cp. Is. 5:24; 17:13; 29:5; Dan. 2:35; Lk. 3:17). Those who lose their first love are <i>now </i>condemned (1 Tim. 3:6; 5:12). The Lord Jesus stands with the sword of judgment <i>now </i>going out of His mouth (Rev. 1:16), as it will do at the final judgment (Is. 11:4).</p><p>The disciples had wanted to bring fire down as Elijah had done, to consume their opponents. The Lord replied that His spirit is different; they didn&rsquo;t know His Spirit, without which, Paul says, &ldquo;we are none of his&rdquo;. And yet still He patiently bore with them. However, He also says that He has come to send fire on the earth at the last day- an evident reference to Elijah. We could read the Lord&rsquo;s treatment of the disciples&rsquo; request as saying &lsquo;The time to act like Elijah will come- but it&rsquo;s not now&rsquo;. Likewise His comment that He came to bring division rather than peace. Elijah was renowned as the prophet who would turn the fathers to the children and bring peace in the land (Mal. 4:6; Ecclus. 48:10). The Lord may be saying: &lsquo;You think, like some of the Jews, that I am a re-incarnation of John the Baptist, the Elijah prophet. I&rsquo;m not. I&rsquo;m the Messiah Himself. My spirit is different&rsquo;. In that very context, the Lord stressed that He had a baptism to undergo, rather than to dispense to others as had John (Lk. 12:50). Perhaps the immaturity of the disciples was so great that they, former disciples of John, somehow believed that Jesus had turned into a re-incarnation of John. In this case, they would have been caught up in the surrounding world&rsquo;s view of Jesus- for there was much speculation that Jesus was John the Baptist <i>redivivus</i>. The way John in his gospel labours the point that John the Baptist &ldquo;was not that light&rdquo;, i.e. Messiah (Jn. 1:8), perhaps is John&rsquo;s recognition that finally, they got it right. You can imagine him preaching in those early days: &lsquo;After John&rsquo;s death we thought at times that Jesus was some sort of reincarnation of John. But Peter got it right, and now, I&rsquo;m just making it clear also what the truth was. He wasn&rsquo;t John the Baptist <i>redivivus</i> as so many thought. We were caught up a bit in that thinking; but we were wrong&rsquo;.</p><p>The Lord Jesus spoke of how &ldquo;I am come to send fire on earth after the pattern of Elisha against apostate Israel... I am come to give... division&rdquo;. He parallels the fire of condemnation with division. And yet He says that this figurative fire is &ldquo;already kindled&rdquo;. If we are divided willingly, of our creation, then we stand self-condemned. This is how serious this matter is. I fear, really fear, that in the day of final account it may be that a brother or sister has lived separately from the world, believed all the right things, and yet his or her divisiveness means that they are condemned together with the immoral and the worldly.</p><p>The idea of fire from Heaven in Lk. 12:49-54 is associated by the Lord with division in the brotherhood. And the Lord went on to say that the Pharisees could interpret a cloud arising in the West as a sign that rain was coming, but they could not forgive their brethren, which was what was essential (Lk. 12:54). This just has to be a reference to Elijah, who saw a cloud arising from the West as a sign of rain. The Lord is, it seems, sadly associating Elijah with the Pharisees. And yet... despite all this,&nbsp;the Lord Jesus likens Himself to Elijah. He sent fire on earth as Elijah did (Lk. 12:49). And the context of the Lk. 9:54 reference to Elijah is that the Lord&rsquo;s time had come that he should be received up, and he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem (Lk. 9:51). This is all very much the language of Elijah (2 Kings 2:1). And elsewhere Jesus quotes Elijah&rsquo;s words &ldquo;Your son lives&rdquo; (1 Kings 17:23 = Jn. 4:50-53). What this shows is that the Lord saw what was good in Elijah, and He didn&rsquo;t separate Himself from someone who didn&rsquo;t have His Spirit. He simply wanted His followers to learn better from him.</p>