Suppose you that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
Read Chapter 12
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Spiritual understanding is at work in every passage of the Gospels. In the present case, fearing that the rigidity of a simple explanation may offend someone, the sequence of the sense is to be qualified by spiritual depth…. We will believe that the Lord took care to advise reverence for the Godhead at the same time as the grace of piety. He said, “You will love the Lord your God, and you will love your neighbor.” Is the present so changed as to erase the names of close kin and set affections at variance? Are we to believe that he has commanded discord within families? How is he our peace, who has made both one? How does he himself say, “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you,” if he has come to separate fathers from sons and sons from fathers by the division of households? How is he cursed who dishonors his father and devout who forsakes him? If we observe that the first is because of religion and the second through piety, we shall think this question is simple. It is neces...
Even according to the letter, a religious explanation is not lacking for those with a devout understanding. We think a deeper meaning should also be explained. He added, “There will be from now on five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.” Who are these five, when the exposition given seems to be of six persons, father and son, mother and daughter, motherinlaw and daughterinlaw? The same woman can be understood as both mother and motherinlaw, because she who is the mother of the son is the motherinlaw of his wife. According to the letter, the reason for the number is not absurd. It is evident that bonds of nature do not bind faith, because children are obedient in faith because of the duty of piety. It also seems suitable to explain this meaning with a mystical interpretation. One man is one house, because each is the house of either God or the devil. A spiritual man is a spiritual house, as we have in the epistle of Peter, “Be also as living stories built up...
For you say, that he said that every kingdom or every city divided in itself shall not stand; and elsewhere you say, that he said that he would send a sword, that he might separate those who are in one house, so that son shall be divided from father, daughter from mother, brother from brother; so that if there be five in one house, three shall be divided against two, and two against three.
He teaches us this by saying, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” By his baptism, he means his death in the flesh. By being constrained because of it, he means that he was saddened and troubled until it was accomplished. What was to happen when it was accomplished? The saving message of the gospel would not be proclaimed only in Judea. Comparing it with fire, he said, “I have come to send fire upon earth— but that now it should be published even to the whole world.” Before the precious cross and his resurrection from the dead, his commandments and the glory of his divine miracles were spoken of in Judea only. Commentary on Luke, Homily
A first baptism was by the flood for the cutting away of sin. A second baptism was by the sea and the cloud, because the cloud is a symbol of the Spirit, while the sea is a symbol of the water. A third baptism is that of the law, because every unclean person washed himself with water and also washed his garments and then entered the camp. A fourth is that of John, which was an introductory baptism leading those thus baptized into repentance so that they might believe in Christ. “I indeed,” he says, “baptize you in water, but he that will come after me, he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” John purified with water in advance to prepare for the Spirit. A fifth baptism is the Lord’s baptism with which he was baptized. He was not baptized because he needed purification. He was baptized so that by making my purification his own, he might “crush the heads of the dragons in the waters,” wash away the sin and bury all of the old Adam in the water, sanctify the baptizer, fulfill th...
