Grace, mercy and peace be to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
This morning’s Gospel lesson, like last week’s Gospel lesson,
is a tough one. Today’s Gospel lesson a hard pill to swallow for all of us,
since Jesus who unites the human race – through His incarnation, when God
became man – also divides many, including those we love, though Christ’s
words and teachings.
Jesus says to us: “Do not think that I
have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword” (Matthew 10:34).
When Robert Short, the author of The Gospel
According to Peanuts and Parables of Peanuts, spoke at Concordia
University in Seward, Nebraska, some years ago, he disclosed that as a high
school student, he became an agnostic, although he had been raised in a
Methodist home.
He remembered sitting across the table from his mother as she
spoke to him. Tears were running down her cheeks as she said, “I thought we
raised you right. I never thought it would come to this: our son an agnostic.”[1]
Many of us have been there. Your son or daughter, cousin, other
family member or friend denying Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
[Household Divided]
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus says, “Do not think that I
have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword” (Matthew 10:34).
Whatever happened to “Peace on earth and goodwill to all”? Well,
that is still here, but wherever Christ and His gospel of forgiveness have been
brought to humanity, conflict, or a sword, has resulted.
You see, Jesus cuts us down to the core. We have to all decide – and
I know as Lutherans – making a decision when it comes to faith is a hard
pill to swallow. For we don’t decide, we receive. Yes, we receive the ability
to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior through the power of the Holy
Spirit. This is what happens at our baptism! But, as we grow in the faith, we
do come to a decision: Are we with Christ or not?
Jesus Himself will cause division between people. And, this
division is so severe that Jesus uses the brutal image of a sword.
Some will hear Christ’s call to faith and discipleship, and by
God’s gracious action through the Gospel they hear, and they will repent and
believe. Others will hear the same call, but due to their own ingrained sin and
stubbornness, they will reject the Christ who summons them to salvation.
Back when Jesus preached the Gospel in the First Century, the
chief priests and Pharisees sought to kill Him. Why did they want Jesus dead?
They wanted Jesus dead not from a political point of view.
Instead, they wanted Jesus dead because He told the truth. In fact, Jesus is
the Truth, as He says in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”
The chief priests and Pharisees of yesteryear are still with us
today, since sin is still with us.
Yes, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. But in this sinful world that
we live in, the culture doesn’t like being told – even by the one true God
– on how to live peaceably with all. Our sinful nature desires to be in
control. Our sinful nature desires to be a god.
Jesus tells us, “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”
(Matthew 10:35-36).
This cuts us right to the core. How many of us have seen this
division? It’s more common that what you may think.
In these divided families, the believer will sooner or later face
this challenge from unbelieving loved ones: “Choose me and my
ways rather than Jesus and His ways.”
Just look around today. You may hear: “If you don’t agree with me,
you must hate me.” “If you don’t like me for who I am, you hate me.”
God’s truth hurts. It really hurts. Each time you confess your
sins to God the Father, we should all feel demoralized. We should all feel
awful. We have all sinned against God in thought, word and deed, and we all
deserve eternal punishment for doing so.
But, for those who are outside the one true Christian faith –
the nones (N.O.N.E.S.), otherwise known as unbelievers – they want us to
choose them and their ways rather than Jesus Christ, who is the Way
(John 14:6).
To be sure, Christians will be more loving, more patient, more
accepting of non-Christian family members and friends than the unbeliever would
be, since the love a Christian receives is from Christ. This love enables the
Christian to display Christlike love to all.
Other times, however, the non-believing spouse or parents or
children will demand allegiance and conformity in ways that a Christian simply
must not agree. At this time, the Christian must love Jesus more
than father or mother or son or daughter.
§
Many of us may become
pressured from within our own families and close friends to stray from Christ
due to social pressures.
§ Many of us may be pressured by your teacher or professor to stray from Christ’s teachings in order to receive a good grade.
§ Many of us may be pressured by your employer to stray from Christ’s teachings in order to remain employed or to even get employed.
§ Many of us may be pressured by your teacher or professor to stray from Christ’s teachings in order to receive a good grade.
§ Many of us may be pressured by your employer to stray from Christ’s teachings in order to remain employed or to even get employed.
What are you going to do? Who are you going to choose?
Again, it is not you or me who are hated. It is actually Jesus
Christ.
In short, where Christ comes, there two hostile camps will be
locked in battle. And the division and the warfare must go on without truce or
armistice until Judgment Day. So Christ wills it, in order that not all may be
lost, but many may be rescued to eternal peace in His presence.
[Christ’s Words are a Sword]
As Jesus told His disciples what His words meant – peace and
division – His disciples knew what they were in for.
The apostles had to know, as we must know, that such a hostile
division would cut through all of the society around them and even through the
units of society closest to them, their families.
Christ tells us: “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” (Matthew 10:37-38).
The apostles knew that they represented Jesus. Therefore all who
received them were receiving Jesus. Jesus, in turn, represented the Father. The
Father had sent and commissioned Jesus, even as Jesus was commissioning them.
So, to receive the message of Jesus means that you receive the
Father in heaven. This means that by receiving, those people receive eternal
life.
For as Christ says: “Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39).
So, as Christians, we must be prepared to lose our lives. Now,
this may be a shock to us. But, Jesus never said we are living our best life
now. No, He promises eternal life! He promises everlasting peace!
So, we must be prepared to take up our cross and follow Him! In
the ancient world, crucifixion was considered the most-vile death. So, being
nailed to the cross was the epitome of suffering and shame.
This may seem so radical to us here, but this is actually taking
place in the Middle East, in Africa and in Asia. They take up the cross of
Jesus and follow Him even to a cruel death.
For us, in all honesty, we often fail to put Jesus first in our
lives. Instead, we let the culture around us lead our lives instead of Jesus.
Instead of proclaiming Christ in the gentlest way to our family
and friends, we just keep quiet – as to not offend them. We don’t see the
urgent task of evangelism and mission to the lost to those who do not have
faith in Christ. We don’t see the urgency of sending workers into the harvest
field. And, we do need more pastors who will preach God’s Word in
season and out of season!
Yes, it is tough reaching out to the unbeliever. For by their
nature, they do not want the salvation accomplished on their behalf through
Christ’s death and resurrection. This salvation that pastors, missionaries, and
the whole church offer in the stead of Christ. But, remember, it’s not about
you and me. It’s all about Jesus. So, if you are hated, you are not hated for
your own sake. You are hated solely on the account of Christ.
[There is Good News!]
Today’s gospel reading is tough. It cuts us all to the core:
believer and unbeliever.
As Jesus began today saying, “Do not think that I have come
to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”
(Matthew 10:34), we may have thought this is really the “un-Gospel” rather than
Gospel. This is bad news, rather than Good News. Yes, Christians will often
experience the sword, rather than peace. But, that is the now. We have so much
to look forward to.
So, our commitment to the one true Christian faith will cause
divisions in our own families. Like Jesus, we may find ourselves bearing the
cross.
Thanks be to God that what we fail to do, Jesus did for us – you
and me! He took up His cross and paid the penalty for the sins of the world.
So, that through His suffering, death and resurrection, all who trust in Him by
grace through faith in Him alone have peace!
The Gospel is here! There is Good News! Jesus tells us, “Whoever
finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it” (Matthew 10:39).
By thus losing our life, we find it. Eternal life with God in
heaven is far better than any temporary suffering on earth. Inner peace here on
earth far surpasses its material blessings.
So, remember our author Robert Short who became an agnostic? Well,
he didn’t remain an agnostic forever.
During his college years, through contacts with a campus pastor,
he came to a new relationship with Jesus Christ and he eventually became a
pastor. When he converted to Christianity again, he told his mother. Again,
tears rolled down her cheeks as she said, “I never thought it would come to
this: my son a religious fanatic.”
To God be all the glory! Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
T SOLI DEO GLORIA T
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