Sermon 6/22/08
On Fire: Peace or Swords? - Matthew 10:24-39
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Our gospel lesson today seems to be a mish-mash of teachings from Jesus, words he gives to his disciples right before sending them out into the towns and villages to preach the good news. In this short passage, we skip through four or five different mini-teachings. Jesus starts by reminding the disciples that they don’t have to seek to out-do Jesus – it is enough to strive to be like Jesus. He tells the disciples not to fear – their bodies may sometimes be at risk, but not their souls. The very hairs on their heads are counted by God. He tells them not to be ashamed of acknowledging God before others. But at the end of all these teachings comes the section that my attention is drawn to every time. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” I get to this verse, this section, and I can hardly focus on anything else.
Isn’t this Jesus the one we call the Prince of Peace? Don’t we hear from the prophet Isaiah a vision of the messiah who brings about such peace that swords are beaten into plowshares? Doesn’t Jesus speak to his disciples again and again of bringing peace to them? Isn’t this the same Jesus who tells the disciples to put away their swords, saying, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword?” How, then, is this very same Jesus saying he comes not to bring peace after all, but a sword?
Jesus doesn’t just stop there, or leave it at that though. He continues, saying, “I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother . . . and one’s foes will be members of one’s own house-hold. 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 up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Sometimes when we confront very difficult texts like this one, I think our initial reaction is to try to talk ourselves out of it meaning what it seems like it means, of believing that Jesus is saying what it really seems he’s saying. It is a very tempting reaction to try to make this passage go away somehow, by interpreting it away. But I fear that the only ones who suffer as a result of that kind of interpretation are ourselves – we interpret away the powerful message of discipleship Jesus is trying to convey to us. So we have Jesus and this sword. We have Jesus, and these words about who we put first: God, or anyone else. We have Jesus and this message that if we don’t take up the cross – that is, the very instrument of Jesus’ death – if we don’t take that up ourselves, we’re not worthy to follow Jesus. That’s the text we have before us. Rather than wishing it away, let’s dig into it. What is Jesus telling us?
First, we have to start with the assumption that Jesus is not contradicting himself. If he says elsewhere that those who live by the sword die by the sword, if he frequently speaks of offering peace to others, and if he calls peacemakers blessed inheritors of the kingdom of God, we have to assume that what Jesus says here isn’t something that negates all of those other important things. We have to remember the context. When is Jesus saying this message about bring a sword? To whom is he speaking? What’s happening in this scene?
Jesus, as I mentioned, is giving his disciples all the last-minute information he can to equip them before they go out on their own to preach the good news. And I think Jesus is trying to be as honest with them as possible. Jesus is trying to give a very clear picture of what the disciples will face, in this journey, and in the long haul as his pupils, his followers. He sets a boundary for them, first telling them they don’t have to – couldn’t – outdo Jesus. He gives them comforting words about how much God cares about them. But then he tells them the truth – the message that they carry to people, even though we call it the good news, will not be received as good news by many. It will cause people to react, to make choices to believe them or not believe them. And when people choose differently, division happens. When the disciples ask people to follow Jesus and walk a difficult path, some will say no, and separation will occur. In fact, the path Jesus lays out for the disciples involves them possibly facing the same suffering fate that Jesus does. He’s not trying to rope them into discipleship without being very clear about the costs. Many people won’t like what they have to say, even those who are very dear to them. So they have to decide if they will follow Jesus anyway or not, knowing fully what they might face. But, Jesus says, losing they life they know in this way is the surest way to find new life in him.
So Jesus brings a sword, not peace, to the lives of those he calls to be disciples. Our call might not look like the call of the twelve exactly. We might not go preaching the good news from village to village. But, Jesus still works in our lives in ways that sometimes will create division if we choose to be disciples. And more particularly, more so than a call that is divisive, Jesus’ comes with a sword that calls us to be decisive. Jesus, above all, is asking the twelve, and asking us, to make a clear decision, knowing what the results FOR US may be.
You probably know the expression, “You want to have your cake and eat it too.” The original expression is hundreds of years old: "Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?" In other words, the expression means that we both want to consume or cake, and still have our cake uneaten, still ready for us. The expression basically means someone wants things both ways, even if those ways can’t actually possibly exist together. You can’t actually have your cake (as in keep it uneaten) and eat it too. The two choices are mutually exclusive of one another. A choice between the two has to be made.
This passage, if I could simplify it, is about Jesus responding to our human desire to have our cake and eat it too when it comes to discipleship. We want to be disciples, I think. We want to follow Jesus. We want to feel like we’re on God’s path. But, if we could find away to be disciples without it impacting the life we’ve already got going for ourselves, I think that’s what we’d want – to have our cake and eat it to. We want to follow Jesus, but we’d prefer if following Jesus didn’t mean we had to change our lives, give anything up, make sacrifices, cause conflicts. We’d prefer if we could get the perks of this Christian life, have a relationship with this God who even has counted the hairs on our head, but still be able to box our discipleship into the limited space we’re ready to give it – an hour here or there, only among certain groups of friends, separated from our work or school or business, easy enough so that our lives as disciples are barely distinguishable from those who’ve chosen another way. Having our cake, and eating it to.
Jesus comes though, not to bring us comfort and tranquility, not when we’re talking about what effect being a disciple will have on our life. Jesus comes to make a clear division – a clear distinction between the kind of life we have when we’re in charge of it and the kind of life we have when God is in charge of it. Jesus comes and asks for our decisiveness. Jesus reminds us that we have choices – the choices are ours to make. But we do have to make a choice, make decisions, choose whether or not we really want to follow Jesus. We can choose not to follow Jesus, not to take up the cross, if we find the costs of discipleship to be too high. That is a choice we have. But Jesus is telling us that we can’t be disciples and be our own masters. If your faith hasn’t caused you to make any choices and you can still go on without any changes to your life, if your life with or without God looks exactly the same: Jesus comes to your life now with a sword, not peace, ready to unsettle you, stir you up, create conflict, make demands, ask for changes, and ask for your choice. Will you take up the cross? Will you lose your life, for the sake of finding new life in Christ? Are you a disciple? Yes, or no.
Amen.