The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Matthew, the tenth chapter:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This passage today goes along with last week’s lesson: that the world will be against you because it is against Christ. Do not take Christ’s words lightly here. Division will occur.
About this text, I’ve heard it said this way: “Oh, well, Christ doesn’t really mean that He came to bring a sword. It’s just some kind of symbolic act.” Or: “We don’t really know what Christ means here, but it can’t mean the plain meaning.” Or: “Christ is the gift of peace, certainly He doesn’t want to split up families.”
But, the thing is, He does. Please don’t take the words of Christ lightly here. He means what He says. But, I think we have the wrong focus on the words, which changes what He wants us to hear. With the wrong focus, we can ask that if Jesus is the Prince of Peace, if His Church is to be the place where the entire world could find true respite, if His first words to the Apostles after His resurrection were, “Peace to you,” then how could Christ come to bring a sword? How does a man of peace use some sort of violence?
The key is the word “earth.” Christ doesn’t come to bring peace on earth, so to speak. Yes, I know, the angels appearing to the shepherds at Christ’s birth said it. But, when Christ says here “earth,” He is talking about the “world.” And when He’s talking about the world, He’s talking about everything that chooses to be outside of His forgiveness, outside of His care and provision. He’s talking about the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of the world, which Satan rules over for a little while.
So, when Christ says He comes not to bring peace to the earth, He’s saying that His purpose upon the earth isn’t to take every kingdom and person and make them subject to God, but to save people out of the world that they may be found holy and blameless in the sight of God. You can’t do that through a Hippie Jesus. Jesus isn’t all love and peace and harmony. Jesus has the intention of going into situations and dividing families by bringing those who are His out of them. He removes those who are evil.
Certainly, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Certainly, every king and every nation will be and already is subject to Him. But Jesus wasn’t going to be some kind of human warrior, He wasn’t going to be some type of heroic legend who would set Israel free from the Romans. He was going to be, he already was, the Savior of the world, the Savior of those who are slaves to sin.
It’s like this: to bring peace, sometimes you have to bring war. And make no mistake, war with humans is not something that God ever wanted. Yet, He wasn’t the one to make the declaration. Humanity declared war against God in the beginning. From the first time Eve doubted the Word of God, from the first time Adam let her bite into the fruit, from the first time Adam ever let that shifty serpent speak, Adam and all of mankind declared war against the God of all righteousness. By their sin, they declared war upon their Creator, they declared they wanted Him dead for they knew better than He did.
Often, when a country declares war against another, it’s in order to bring their standard of peace to them. That was the stated reasoning behind our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Vietnam and Korea, even the World Wars. You can think whatever you want about those wars, but the reality is that we saw people in trouble and wanted to help, and war seemed the only option.
Sometimes this is done very well, and the effect is a more stable, peaceful society. But to get there, sometimes violence is necessary. Right? Our ethicists have debated for decades about if it was right or wrong to use violence on people to bring peace. Was it right to carpet bomb Dresden? Was it wrong to use Agent Orange? Was it morally acceptable to set off nuclear bombs in Japan? What amount of force is acceptable? What amount of crime can the world’s nations live with?
When humans declare war on humans, the outcome is never certain. One side is the winner, or both sides are the losers. Sometimes peace is achieved; often peace is lost, seemingly forever. But when humans declare war upon God Himself, the outcome is certain, though never in favor of humanity. God will always win. And the war has to be fought. God cannot have rebellion in His ranks. He must remain stalwart and true. He has to be righteous. He cannot allow sin to exist.
Yet, look at the patience of God. While the enemies of God worked to destroy Him, even by destroying each other, God used the events of man to point to what His ultimate plan would be: to send His Son to redeem His enemies from their sin. Instead of knocking out humanity in one fell swoop, He has always worked to save humanity by the most amazing, self-sacrificing gift ever conceived.
The cross was not peaceful. Yet, the cross brings peace. The cross is violent and bloody, yet the cross is comforting. At least it is for you. You who believe in Christ, you who have been fed by His hand, washed by His hand, enlightened by His gifts, you are forgiven through the cross of Jesus and justified through His resurrection. The cross, though a torture device, is for you the sweetest image of the world, for it comforts you as would a father sweeping his son out from a pack of bullies. The cross is peace, for it stands a sign that there is reconciliation for you with the Father forever.
But for those who do not believe, the cross is a stumbling block, it’s an offense. The cross is a statement of war. And by that cross, Jesus Christ uses it as a sword to save those who cling to Him only for salvation. Jesus is the hostage rescue team, going into enemy territory, rescuing by any means necessary the lives of those who are held hostage by their captors, sin, death, and the devil. And what is necessary is that Christ would lay down His life for those hostages; He laid down His life for you. And defeating sin, death, and the devil, Christ would succumb to His wounds, yet be raised from the dead three days later. All for you. All to protect you. All to save you.
The idea is this: if Christ had not come, the whole world would be complacent in its sin. Never would the sinful depravity of the world be challenged. God could ignore the declaration of war by Adam and Eve and all their descendants; He could leave us all to our own devices. And one day, God would have His ultimate vengeance. Yet, by engaging in the war against evil, by working to reveal the coming of His Son, God made sure that there would be a light, that there would be a safe haven. Better for God, better for humanity, that there would be division, saving as many people as possible, than to let all perish in their sin.
And so the sword of Christ divides, yes. It turns families against themselves, yes. But it does so because those who are saved are despised. Those who are saved can fall victim to the evil machinations of sin, death, and the devil. We who are saved would rather give ourselves over to the evil ones to do with us what they will than be violently opposed to them. That’s what the cross of it all is.
It would be so easy just to go along with the world. Sure, sleep with your girlfriend. Sure, move in together before you’re married. Yes, get drunk and laugh. Sure, why not take what you want? Yeah, the world definitely should let you be true to yourself. It would be so much easier. We could all do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, just like the rest of the world does. Wouldn’t that be great?
But, then you’d just be going along in your sin. Your cross is that you are called to something higher. Because you are redeemed in Christ, you are called to a holier life. You are called to be the beacon on the hill, telling all about the comfort of Jesus Christ. You are called to be righteous as Christ is righteous.
Until the day comes when Christ comes to make the new heavens and the new earth, until the day comes when He brings you up out of your grave, the world will be in a constant state of war with God. But the end of the war is coming. It is. It’s almost in sight. Until that day, God’s camp on earth, His Church, will continue to struggle with sin. We’ll continue to give in to our temptations, but we will also continue to be forgiven of all our sins, for in God’s camp we are lead to repentance and forgiveness. We are lead to righteousness.
We are called to righteousness, but we are given forgiveness. We are called to peace, but we live in an age of war. We are called to comfort, yet we are surrounded on every side. But have no fear; the Lord cannot and will not be defeated. Who can stand against the Lord? Who can win against God? Not one. Yet you have been invited to stand behind Him as He has won the victory for you.
He will defeat all evil, and indeed He already has won through the death of Christ. Though it may not look like it, the battle has been finished for a long time. Christ has divided the righteous from the evil; He has done so by His sword. He has saved His beloved Bride. We only await the day that comes when we receive our papers to return home, to leave in peace and security with Christ for all of our days. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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