NOTES: 1] Here we face a tough-talking Jesus, One we aren't so used to facing up to. 2] In a parallel to v.49, the ancient Gospel of Thomas has Jesus say of the fire: "I am guarding it until it blazes". 3] v.50 refers to Jesus' baptism with blood at his crucifixion. 4] The 'completed' Jesus uses in v.50 is the same word he uses on the cross: "It is finished" (JN 19:30)

WARMING UP:  Can we think of people who have a tough side & a soft side? Which side do we better relate to?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened since last week's group?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

49-53    Do we normally think of Jesus as a fiery person? Is it just a matter of whether his fire burns within us (in a spiritual sense) or burns us up (in a destroying sense)? Or, is there more to it than that? More to divine fire than that? If, as many believe, God's only fire is the fire of his love, how does that affect: a) what Jesus says here & how we understand him? b) what we do about what he says? What kind of fire is it that Jesus wishes were 'already kindled'? Is it any more observable now than it was when he says this? What's he really talking about? Is the fact that Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, could be 'under stress' (literally: 'pressed upon') while things were working themselves out, any help when we're 'pressed upon'?
              In times when we normally think of / teach / are taught that Jesus stands for peace & unity, what do we make of him saying he's come to bring not peace but division? (MT 10:34 adds " a sword"!) How could we get it so wrong? Have we ever experienced Jesus as divisive, violent? Have there been times when that's what we needed him to be, or he needed us to be?

54-56    Does our own pre-occupation with weather validate what Jesus says here? Have those of us not on the land become too interested in the wrong kind of weather? Ought we to be busier taking other kinds of 'temperature', 'air pressure', 'wind strength' (e.g. our own spirituality & that of our community) rather than getting too immersed in daily weather forecasts? How, exactly, do we 'interpret the present time'? Is our interpretation based on Jesus' view of things, or more on other factors?

57-59    Why do we still, as persons, & churches, resort at the drop of a hat to law, legal niceties, that kind of thing, so much, when Jesus seems to be saying "Sort out differences between among yourselves"? Is it that we don't have enough confidence in ourselves, or not enough in God? Should we take Jesus' words about judgment as a threat unless we change our attitudes?

             What positives can we take / make out of what Jesus says in this passage about: a) fire? b) stress? c) peace? d) division? e) 'weather'? f) law? e) judgment? f) ...........?