I recently finished The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight. Overall, I don’t have much to say about the book. I didn’t find any of it groundbreaking or new; it seemed to fit right in with the way that I approach my faith and calling to follow Jesus. However, at the beginning of each chapter McKnight lists a few Bible verses that he encourages the reader to meditate on. Not surprisingly, it’s here where I found myself being challenged. There are times when taking the Bible seriously seems scandalous, and it’s to one of these sections that McKnight directs his readers. It’s from Matthew 10:34-39:
34 r“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. sI have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 rFor I have come tto set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 uAnd a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 vWhoever 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. 38 And wwhoever does not take his cross and xfollow me is not worthy of me. 39 yWhoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
YIKES! These are harsh words, and I didn’t like hearing them from Jesus. Consequently, over the past few weeks I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I started to wonder if maybe Jesus was some kind of moral monster. I worried that maybe Christ, the person who I think of as my savior and the author of life, has no love and brings only death and destruction. The worst part of this confession is that this was not the first time that I’ve read these verses. Every single time I read Matthew 10, I struggle before I eventually stuff my doubts deep down, afraid that if I look too deeply then my faith would prove to be rooted in anger and hatred, the very things that I try to so hard to distance myself from.
This is common reaction. It seems that we are prone to excuse the sections of the Bible that we find offensive. There’s a lot in the Old Testament that we find troublesome. What do we tend to do with those thoughts and feelings? We tell ourselves and others that that was the Old Testament. That was before Jesus, so it doesn’t really count. After all, Jesus is our savior, and he’s the best person who’s ever lived. And then when we find things in Paul’s letters that sound abrasive to our modern ears, we either disregard the message by feigning ignorance or we become combative. But here, in Matthew 10, Jesus is saying something that we can’t ignore.
“I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Instead of stuffing my feelings down, I started to consider these words. What is Jesus actually saying here? It’s not good to take certain parts of the Bible that we agree with, and discard the rest. Instead, as a Christian it’s imperative to understand that Jesus is the Messiah, and we are human. We are influenced by the society we inhabit, and we bring preconceived ideas about God when we sit down to read our Bibles. By engaging in the sections that don’t sit right with us only then can we ensure that we’re following Him, and not just our preconceived notions of a savior.
So, now we need to start thinking: what the heck is going on in Matthew 10?
When we read the Bible, we are actually not given individual, isolated verses. In fact the entire Bible provides context for understanding Jesus. Luke 24:27 confirms this: “And nbeginning with oMoses and pall the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” ALL things in scripture attest to Jesus. Okay, so we have a 1,000 page book that’s all about Christ. So then, does Matthew 10 contradict John 3:16, “for God so loved the world”? How about 1 John 4:8: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because mGod is love.” And then there’s also the fruits of the spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23, which include peace, not war.
And yet, Jesus says that he does not come to bring peace.
Here’s the thing. Most of us idolize peace. We are timid when it comes to our convictions, especially our convictions about Jesus. When I’m at work and there’s an opportunity to talk about Christ, I choose silence because I’m worried about upsetting people. I then turn around and call this ‘keeping the peace.’ I convince myself that this fault is a virtue. That’s not the way things should be.
Christ is King. Consequently, he’s going to require all from us. Everything. By limiting the influence of Christ, we are actually not acknowledging Him as Lord. At the same time, Christ is a revolutionary. When we think about other revolutionary figures, such as Che Guevara, Mahatma Gandhi, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Mandela, and George Washington, we don’t see peace. Instead we see dissension and violence. Even people like Gandhi, who led revolutions through non-violence, incited violence. You see, humankind resists change, especially the individuals who benefit from a specific system. So when Christ tells us that he’s here to separate families, he’s not actually giving a command. Instead, he’s stating a fact: there will be resistance, and we are called to do whatever it takes to pick up our cross and follow Him.
All of that said, without the last part of these verses it’s easy to start thinking that Christ is calling us to yield the sword. We could either consider this as a literal weapon or as an analogy for our words. However, read the section again, because that’s not what He says. Instead, He says He will bring a sword. Christ is the only one with the moral integrity to bring full justice and mercy. No, our task is different. He calls us to follow Him by picking up our cross. This is the call of a servant. A person who does not yield power to control others, but rather somebody who is willing to give all, even their lives, so that our Lord can bring restoration.
It’s possible to spend an entire life meditating on just these few verses. After all, I don’t know anybody who fully carries out this command. They’re difficult words, but they’re not difficult in the way that we might think upon first reading. Instead, they remind us that the road is narrow, and we are not to deviate to either side. We are called to a life of persistence, humility, and patience. This is the life of a servant.
*I originally wrote this as a message to the youth group at my church. I made significant changes to accommodate readers.
Mitch Kelly 