Sunday: Jesus Brings Division
Very few people enjoy conflict. We crave harmony and peace. We even teach seminars on peacemaking and conflict resolution in our churches or institutions.
Read Matthew 10:34-39. What does Jesus mean when He says that He did not come to bring peace but to bring a sword? What does this mean, considering that Jesus is “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)?
Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com
Jesus’ statement in Matthew 10:34-39 is shockingly counterintuitive. The Savior, who came as a helpless babe instead of a powerful king surrounded by elite bodyguards, who preached love to both neighbors and enemies, now tells His followers that He brings division and struggles. His disciples and His audience may have wondered, as we are wondering: How can this be?
Matthew 10:35-39 is really about allegiances and loyalties. Quoting Micah 7:6, Jesus challenges His audience to make choices for eternity. A son should love and honor his parents. That was a legal requirement of the law that Moses had received on the mountain. It was part of God’s required mode of operation; and yet, if that love would trump the hearer’s commitment to Jesus, it required a tough decision. A father and a mother should love and care for their children. Yet, if that love would top the parents’ commitment to Jesus, it required a difficult decision. First things first, Jesus reminds us in this passage.
Jesus expresses this choice by formulating three sentences, each using the term worthy. Worthiness is not based on high moral standards or even overcoming sin. Worthiness is based on one’s relationship with Jesus. We are worthy when we choose Him above everything else — including mother, father, or children. We choose the suffering of the cross and follow Jesus.
“I have no higher wish than to see our youth imbued with that spirit of pure religion which will lead them to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Go forth, young disciples of Christ, controlled by principle, clad in the robes of purity and righteousness. Your Saviour will guide you into the position best suited to your talents and where you can be most useful.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 87.
| Sometimes we are forced to bear a cross not of our own choosing, and sometimes we voluntarily bear a cross. Either way, what is the key to bearing that cross faithfully? |
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I have struggled all day to make a meaningful comment related to today’s lesson. I am fortunate that I come from a family of Seventh-day Adventists and have never had to choose between family and God. I am aware that some Christian sects practice shunning of family members who decide to leave their religion behind. I know of people who have had to make that choice and have been cut off from family for life and I find it difficult to even imagine what that would be like. In New Testament times, the notion of changing religions was likewise an invitation to be cut off from family and friends. And I think this is at least partly the background to what Jesus was saying in today’s scripture references.
The conflict is always between selfishness and selflessness and unfortunately, even within Christianity we continue to see selfishness competing with selflessness among those who call themselves Christian. How often do we find ourselves in conflict situations in our own church, where we really need to step back a bit and ask ourselves the question whether we are arguing from self-interest?
We easily point at the conflict between us and others with whom we disagree, as a sign that we are right and they are wrong. But we should perhaps consider the thought that sometimes our perception of our rightness may be selfishness in disguise.
brother ashton,
your family is very unique indeed if there has not been any conflict about religion and discipleship. that is a very rare occurrence regardless of your heritage. from my experience in being a member of the seventh-day adventist church for 35+ years, conflict among siblings, parents, children, uncles, aunts, cousins over religion and discipleship is as prevalent as conflicts over politics. today's lesson is especially relevant to relieve the guilt and regret which many members of families have over conflict regarding faith, discipleship, doctrine, et.al.
I recognise my good fortune with my family Mark. However, I need to be fair and admit that family members have not always agreed with one another. But those disagreements have not escalated to the extent that family members have been shunned or treated as outcasts.
Jesus Brings Division
'Sometimes we are forced to bear a cross not of our own choosing, and sometimes we voluntarily bear a cross. Either way, what is the key to bearing that cross faithfully?'
That is true. I am a follower of Jesus and I believe Jesus comes 1st in every thing. Many times those in my house-hold even the church do not understand me and thought I am working against them or the mission of the church.
E.g. as stated before, I do not invite any of my non Adventist family by my home because they don't want to obey the laws of the sabbath. Even my children and my own graduation I did not attended because the were held on the sabbath. Some of my children were not happy not to see me there to cheer them along.
I am always praying that I dont have to be under my children management/control moving forward. They have their own lives and I have mine. Things I never thought them, they choose to do on the sabbath. They are adults at present but I still have to correct them which they seems not to enjoy.
With alot of love, I think this is a wrong perception of our adventism. Jesus Himself would mingle with sinners even on Sabbath. Are we greater than Him? NO way! Sometimes I feel we Adventists go to the extreme of almost declaring ourselves holier than them, something that Christ strongly warned against in Luke 16:15
He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts.
Brother, Jesus knew no sin(He was not a sinner, as I am). There was not the likely hood of Jesus being influenced by sinners to induce Him to sin. For me, a sinner, there is a real concern that instead of my presence influencing sinners toward living holy lives, the opposite will be true and what holiness God has brought me to will be deminished.
Thank you for your perspective, which raises two questions in my mind:
How can we be used as instruments for inviting others to share God's grace if we do not mingle with them?
If I am fully committed to Christ, does He not have power to keep me faithful even when mingling with "sinners"?
Very well said, Benard! Jesus exuded love, so that sinners were drawn to Him. We need to be filled with the same love for sinners that He had and to follow His Pattern. He mingled with people, demonstrating that He desired their good. He ministered to their needs before He asked them to follow Him.
Jesus gave us the commission to follow Him in the way we live our lives. The chief thing He did on this planet was to draw sinners close to Him - not to keep them away because they didn't keep His Law.
Of course, mingling with sinners for our own benefit is just as much selfishness as is keeping them away for our own benefit. It takes much of the grace of God to make good decisions on this topic.
Brethren, it goes like this-
(Child knew parents will be out for the weekend). Adult child wrote SDA parent- My 2 friends from college (not Christians) wanted to come visit next weekend date....... They want to go to an entertainment place on Sunday. Can they stay at the house for the weekend.
To you, what is wrong with the paragraph?
1. They are adults and can find a hotel to stay by.
2. Why do they want to trample on the Lord day, the sabbath.
3. Should parent be nice and allow adults to do anything in their house because they are Christians?
Dealing with friends/relatives who are antagonistic to our beliefs can be very difficult and often we find ourselves on both horns of the dilemma. I don't have all the answers. I have a son who rejected the church, but is not antagonistic to us, nor does he challenge our beliefs or lifestyle. I have always held the belief that my children are always welcome in our house and I make sure that my son knows this.
I know of folk who have had a young adult child who has become a drug user and has become destructive in the home. These folk had to tell him to leave their home but they made sure that he had accomodation and food, and they made it clear to him that when he resolved to seek help, he was always welcome to come back home. Their son never had cause to doubt that his parent's loved him.
I think that sometimes we parents want to tell our adult children what to do and we forget that they are adult and have to make their own decisions. Our responsibility is to let them know that they are loved in spite of their decisions.
The best paraphrase of Matthew 10:34-39 The Remedy
Don't think that I have come to make peace with a selfish world. I have not come to bring peace with selfishness, but a sword to cut selfishness out of the hearts of people. I have come to cut dysfunctional family ties: to free a son from selfish loyalty to his father's ambitions and feuds, to sever a daughter from the control of an oppressive and manipulative mother, to cut through the fear and hostility a daughter-in-law has toward her mother-in-law. A person's worst enemies are often members of their own family.
“Those who love parental approval more than they love me are untrustworthy of me and the Remedy I bring; and those who love the approval of their children more than me are untrustworthy of me and the Remedy I bring. Anyone who refuses to die to selfishness and follow me — loving others more than self — cannot be trusted by me to distribute the Remedy I bring. Whoever seeks to save self remains infected with selfishness and will die of their unhealed condition, but whoever surrenders self in love to me will experience healing of heart, and will find eternal life”
All we need to do is look at Cain and Abel to understand the meaning of Jesus words in Matt 10:34-39. Abel embraced the truth, loved the Lord, and obeyed all His commands, while Cain rebelled and ended up hating his “righteous” brother to the death. Anyone who is under the spell of the great rebel will be led to hate the followers of God, which Jesus was faithful to warn about. This principle will always exist while sin exists, and is so important that Jesus gives a double blessing with the last beatitude to emphasize the point(Matt 5:10-12).
..."what is the key to bearing that cross faithfully?"
This is a vital question to ask and correctly answer. What is the key?, ”love the Lord with all...”! Consider Ps 40:8, Rom 12:1,2.
Matt 10:34. The gospel is a message of peace. Christianity is a system which, received and obeyed, would spread peace, harmony, and happiness throughout the earth. The religion of Christ will unite in close brotherhood all who accept it's teachings. It was the mission of Jesus to reconcile men to God, and thus to one another. But the world at large are under the control of Satan, Christ's bitterest foe. The gospel presents to them principles of life which are wholly at variance with their habits and desires, and they rise in rebellion against it. They hate the purity which reveals and condemns their sins, and they persecute and destroy those who would urge upon them it's just and holy claims. It is in this sense- because the exalted truths it brings occasion hatred and strife- that the gospel is called a sword . GC 46.3
No peace because of Rejected Messages. Christ declared "I came not to send peace, but a sword." Why? Because men would not receive the word of life. Because they warred against the message sent them to bring them joy and hope and life. We look upon the Jews as inexcusable because they rejected and crucified Christ. But today the messages that the Lord sends are often received in a manner similar to the way I the Jews received Christ's message. If the instruction of the Lord does not harmonise with the opinions of men, anger takes control of reason, and men play into the enemy's hands by opposing the message that God sends. Satan uses them as sharp instruments to oppose the progress of truth. Manuscript 31, 1889. (5BC 1089.3.4.5) Does this apply to us individually? I think so. How do we in the church treat the sharp cutting truth? How many like the truth in our church? Few. It's more than Sabbath of the 7th day. Other denominations also pray on Sabbath. We have a distinct message. Painful but it is. Cuts but heals.
Matt 10:1-42
Before Jesus sent out the disciples to their relatives - fellow Jews waiting for their Messiah - He warned them not to expect to be accepted and respected.
Their message should have been good news to the Jews - the Kingdom of God was near - why would they be persecuted and rejected.
Why did Jesus quote Micah 7:6? If they turned to that scripture they would discover a discription of the state of the nation - "The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth." "Don’t trust anyone—not your best friend or even your wife!" Or even your family.
But Jesus comforted them, saying "So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows." "Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven." He considered them worthy to be His followers.
As we go out to share the good news with the world we would be wise to consider the warnings and promises in Matthew 10. It won't be easy but it will be worthwhile.
Our Saviour came to make devision, but also came for us to find peace and confidence in Him. John 16:33. He also came to call the sinner to repentence."
Matthew is interpreted by John. "In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]" John 16:33.
So be of good cheer, Christ came into the world to also bring peace to those who turn to Him, even though turning to Him may bring devision. John 15:18.
Read this wisdom from John. More understanding of the sword, Jesus brought as mentioned in Matthew.
"If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [no longer one with it], but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world, the world hates (detests) you."
John 15:19.
So Jesus came to lead us to take the cross and follow Him. Choose ye life, by loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and clinging to Him. Deuteronomy 30:19,20.
He leadeth me into paths of righteousness for His name sake, and promises to comfort and continue to be by our side, though the heavens fall.
Thank God for our loved ones, where devision is not created as we continue to follow Him, or follow Him more closely.
Another of John's gems.
"Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]"
John 14:27.
Binary thinking is prevalent. Eternal life-eternal punishment, heaven-hell, sheep-goats, selfless-selfish, wheat-tares, good-bad, God-Devil, wise virgins-foolish virgins, weak-powerful, love-fear, saved-lost, liberal-conservative, long skirts-shorter skirts, black-white, right-wrong, up-down, us-them, peace-sword, past-future.
Between past-future is something else, the here and now. For me, this is a clue that I can live and think outside of a binary way. It is freeing. And I find support for this in the Word.
1. We create a lot of opposites, yet God (the I-am, the here-and-now, the triune) stands between the only binary pair that seems important to Him: "those who put Me first and those who put self first". We see this exemplified when Jesus talks about the sheep and wolves in Matt. 10:16. One group pours love out for the well-being of all and the other group grasps for their own wants and needs. This dividing of sheep and wolves is a visual which Jesus then follows with our reading for today in Matt 10:34-39 about treasuring our relationship with God above any other relationship or commitment. Treasure putting my union, communion and walk of service with God first, in this moment, above everything. The only thing to focus on. Not on the apparent binaries all around.
2. Another important point the Bible shows me is that even this binary pair of "my Creator is Lord of my life/I am Lord of my life" intermingle until the end of time. Matt 13:28-30, 40-43; Matt 25:31-33; Matt 25:6-13. Jesus says that God and the angels will sort it out at the final hour. Sorting through this pair of opposites - with God or against Him - is God's job, not ours. We can't see as God sees (1 Sam 16:7). And He's not sorting right now either. My understanding is that God's dream is to do away with binary thinking. He wants and is working for a human family ALL unified in Him. Every. One. (2 Peter 3:9, Gal 3:28).
3. And lastly, I see that Jesus doesn't ask that the sheep break out into an us-them stance and separate out safely, keeping themselves from being tainted. Just the opposite. Jesus' prayer is that the sheep WILL mingle with the goats (John 17:14-19). There is a common phrase "in the world but not of it". Said this way it may feel like being "not of the world" is where we end up and rest. Yet "not of it (the world)" is not our stopping point, it's our starting point. We could change the phrase to "not of the world but sent into it". Our mission is not to dissociate but to mingle and join God in illuminating the darkness of an
us-them mind.
Jesus stands between the opposites. So yes, He is division. And fusion. He is there between the woman and her accusers. He's on the middle cross. He is there between me and anyone I feel estranged from. He is there stirring up opposing questions within myself.
Most of those opposing terms are due to faith or unbelief. We simply choose which it will be.
Absolutely, Choose life. Deuteronomy 30:19. Choose life may sound like a command, but actually it is an invitation. We found in Thursdays lesson that it was deliberately being unfaithful that was the down fall. Yet God said return to Me, and I will heal your unfaithfulness. Jeremiah 3:21,22.
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.
By Fredrick Lehman.
That believing ‘Jesus brings division’ was one of the hardest lessons for me to learn. I had not yet learned to ‘shake off the dust of my feet’; not knowing when 'enough was enough'. But when I understood that it was the power of the Word which deals with man’s heart, it became easier to ‘walk away’ from unfruitful ‘religious’ conversations.
The setting of this lesson’s conversation took place as Jesus prepared His disciples. Matt.10:1-42 records all His instructions given to them as He sends them out to preach the Gospel, preparing them to expect strong resistance –
v.7: ”And as ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”;
v.14: ”And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.”;
v.20: ”For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”
v.24: ”The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.”
v.31-34: ”Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrow.” Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not hat I am come to send peace, but a sword.
I see Matt.34-39KJV in this light. My answer to the question ‘what Jesus meant’ - I see Him talking about the cost associated with believing and sharing the Gospel Message, and therefore indicating the value of it, pointing out that it is the Word of God, the power of the Word which convicts and ‘brings division’.
Heb.4:12KJV. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Matt.11:29KJV tells me that Jesus is meek at heart as He shares the Father’s Truth; the Truth convicts through its own power.
Matt.10:38KJV - Jesus points out ”He who does not take his cross/whatever the cost and followeth after Me, is not worthy of me. This does not negate the head of the household's reponsibility to meet family's needs.
Seeing Truth in this light, I believe that the love of Truth and the Spirit of Life go hand in hand.
Christ Jesus has made us aware of the high cost associated with ‘bearing our cross faithfully’!
In answer to question re: Mt 10:34, I believe there are multiple levels of meaning, many mentioned already. There was also the present (to their time) literal meaning.
The disciples grew up listening to their Jewish leaders' interpretations of the Christ's purpose for the Jews, on earth. They were expecting the return of a Solomon-time-like kingdom on earth (for the Jews). It has been confirmed over and over that Christ's disciples did not understand the true plan of His coming to earth and death though He had, at times, spoke plainly. They couldn't get past their hope to rule w/Him on earth.
I believe that Christ is, one more time, trying to let them know that His kingdom is not of this world and that by putting Him above all else would lead to strife of the deepest trials, on earth. Then Christ continues that even in this strife the disciples must chose Him/His Word above all else.
And so the lesson is for His true disciples that follow today. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, though He worked steadfastly in it to save people. We are to search for God's true meaning of His Word and chose to obey at all cost.
But because each has to do this individually, there will be those that chose selfishness and therefore have different goals and will walk a different path, divergent from those who obey God. May God help us.