Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
This coming of the Messiah did promise peace. The angels that sang at his birth said, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (see Luke 2:14). Zechariah recognized that the one who was to come would "guide our feet into the path of peace" (see Luke 1:79). Jesus taught that the peacemakers would be called sons of God (see Matthew 5:9) and instructed his own disciples to bless the houses to which they would go with his peace (see Matthew 10:13). But the peace promised was not to be a pretend peace. It was to be a peace that only Jesus could give (see John 14:27), that could only be received by our identification with him. It was in this sense that it was divisive, a sword, delineating those who would follow Jesus and those who would not. It was in this sense that his peace was to the "worthy", or "people of good will", or "those on whom his favor rests". These would be the ones who allowed the sharp words of Jesus to cut them away from any compromise with the world and set them apart as his disciples.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
We who profess to be disciples of Jesus, what would we sacrifice for him if it was required? Do we love father or mother, son or daughter, more than Jesus himself? We can't love our families well unless that love is properly ordered. Their ultimate fulfillment, like our own, can only be found in Jesus himself.
When you come in to visit me,
who asks these things of you?
Trample my courts no more!
Bring no more worthless offerings;
your incense is loathsome to me.
We must do more than go through the motions. We are called to genuine concern about sin and evil in our midst. We sometimes, perhaps frequently, try to sustain our relationships by ignoring and avoiding disagreements about Jesus and his teachings. There may be nothing obviously wrong from an external perspective, no obvious compromise of our Christian life. If we choose this course simply because we don't think we have been given the right moment and the right words that is one thing, and could be legitimate. But if it is because we have decided to affirm family because they are family over and against what Jesus is saying we aren't doing a favor either to our family or to ourselves. We must learn to put Jesus first even if, at times, their are consequences. We must take up our cross even when those for whom we carry it do not recognize the value in our doing so.
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
It may at times be necessary to allow the words of Jesus to separate. We may be called to follow him so urgently that there is no time to say farewell to our families, no time to bury our dead. To be his disciples means to be cut free of compromise. Yet it is not the separation from others itself that is the goal. Nor is it to seek death that we go to the cross. It is rather that in both cases we hope for a resurrection. It is the same with the discipline of the Church. When someone can't agree even with the Church and is cast out to be treated as an unbeliever (see Matthew 18:17) it is for the sake of their own recognition and restoration that this is done. We must be clear about the one place peace can be found so that others can find it, and we ourselves can remain covered and clothed with it.
Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
We may not all be able to become street evangelists or missionaries to the remote corners of the globe. But we can receive them, that is support their ministries. We can do as little as giving them a cup of cold water to drink and it will not be forgotten. There is a real way in which our care for the ones sent by Jesus, his prophets, righteous men, and little ones, makes it is though we ourselves are united with all of them in their missions, receiving their own reward as our own. And what can this reward be but a greater capacity to experience the love and presence of God, and to know his peace in our lives?
So today, let us allow the sword of truth to cut away compromise. Let us love our families unto Christ and not only unto their own whims and desires. Let us seek the peace that can be found when both of our feet are firmly planted in the camp of discipleship. If this peace seems elusive, and if the cross we are called to bear seems too heavy, we have been given a strategy to find rewards along the way. Let us invest in the mission of the King of Peace, sowing peace in the world, so that we can know his peace as our reward.
No comments:
Post a Comment