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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unless we are spoiling for a fight, we all probably prefer peace. While in general we may enjoy watching the news and even action-packed television-shows and theatrical-movies, reports of recent racial unrest or a particularly violent storyline may have gone too far for us. We may well yearn for peace: peace in our world, peace in our country, peace in our state, peace in our counties, peace in our city, peace in our congregation, and peace in our homes. All the more striking, then, is Jesus’s unique statement in today’s Gospel Reading that He did not come to bring peace but a sword, a symbol of war. As we this morning consider today’s Gospel Reading, let us direct our thoughts to the theme “Not Peace but a Sword”.
Today’s Gospel Reading is the end of Jesus’s so‑called “Second Discourse” in St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, which Discourse largely deals with authority in the Church. We heard the beginning of the Discourse two Sundays ago (Matthew 9:35-10:20) and more of it last Sunday (Matthew 10:5a, 21-33), including Jesus’s speaking both about parents delivering their children over to death and about children rising against parents and putting them to death. Especially where we might most expect—and want—Jesus to bring peace, Jesus instead thrusts a sword (RWP cited by RR), not a literal sword, of course, but, “just as a sword slices in half”, so “Jesus divides families” (Gundry, ad loc Mt 10:34-46, 199), for example, as St. Matthew uniquely reports it, with an apparent reference to a passage from the Old Testament prophet of Micah (Micah 7:6), setting those of the younger generation against those of the older generation.
When we were those of the younger generation, we may have thought that those of the older generation were just too stuck in their ways or not keeping up with the times (and maybe in some cases they were). However, when we become those of the older generation, we may come to realize that in many cases, if we have not already done so, many in the younger generation have moved both to different moral values and to a different understanding of the Christian faith. If for the sake of peace in the family we in any way deny or compromise either the truth of God’s law or the truth of His Gospel, then we are not truly Jesus’s disciples (confer Luke 14:25‑27). We heard Jesus say in the Gospel Reading that whoever loves a family member more than Him is not worthy of Him, and whoever does not take up his or her cross—such as the cross of discord in the family—and follow Him is not worthy of Him.
Of course, on our own we are not worthy of Jesus. Whether we sin by loving family members more than Jesus or whether we sin in some other way, we all do sin, for we all are by nature sinful. In today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 7:1-13), the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul described how our sinful passions work in our body’s members to bear fruit for death, and he said that, if it had not been for the law, then we would not have known sin. Indeed, God’s unchanging law shows us our sin so that we realize our need for a savior from sin and from the death that we otherwise would deserve.
Then, God’s unchanging Gospel shows us our Savior from sin and calls and thereby enables us to repent of our sin. As we did in today’s Psalm (Psalm 119:153-160; antiphon: v.154), we call for God to plead our cause and redeem us, to give us life according to His steadfast love (or, “mercy”). And, when we so repent, then God does just that, He forgives our sins—all our sins, whatever our sins might be, He forgives our sins—for Jesus’s sake. You see, Jesus’s coming is a sword that divides families, but His coming also gives peace to those who repent and believe in Him.
Long before Jesus came, God prophesied through Isaiah that to us a Child would be born, to us a Son would be given, among whose names would be “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). The angels heralding Jesus’s birth sang, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those of His good pleasure (Luke 2:14). And, on the night when He was betrayed, Jesus left His peace with and gave His peace to His disciples, but not like the world gives peace (John 14:27). Out of His great love for us, the God-man Jesus Christ took our sins to the cross in order to make peace between God and us. There Jesus died for us, in our place. In today’s Gospel Reading Jesus mentions a cross for the first time in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, but those hearing the Gospel account likely already knew that He took up His cross for them, and that He loved His Heavenly Father more than His earthly family (Matthew 12:46-50). There is no contradiction when Jesus says that He came not to bring peace but a sword (confer Michaelis, TDNT 4:526). Jesus reconciles all people with God and, at least potentially, saves them for all eternity (confer Foerster, TDNT 2:412), but, consequently, as a result or effect of His so coming, those who refuse Him and His salvation are divided from those who receive Him and His salvation in repentance and faith through His Means of Grace.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus told His Twelve apostles that whoever received (or, “welcomed”) them, welcomed Jesus and the Father Who sent Jesus. The Apostles were sent—as their successors, pastors today (the Christian prophets, righteous people, and little disciples) are sent—to let peace come upon households that welcomed Jesus by welcoming them, both believing their words and supporting them, supplying their needs (even a cup of cold water), or to let peace return to them and to separate themselves from those who did not so welcome them (Matthew 10:8-14). With Christ’s authority and bringing His presence, those He sends read His Word and preach in His Name, they combine His Word with water and baptize in His Name, they combine His Word with touch and individually absolve in His Name, and they combine His Word with bread and wine that in the Sacrament of the Altar are His Body and Blood to, in His Name, give us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
No one other than Jesus earns that forgiveness, life, and salvation, or anything else, from God as a wage or reward; they are all given to us—pastor and people who support him—as free gifts for Jesus’s sake. The one who welcomes someone whom Jesus sends, because Jesus has sent him, receives the same “reward” as that person whom Jesus sends. And, while receiving that “reward”, pastor and people, individually or together, also may fall under the world’s wrongful condemnation that their faithfulness is causing what the world regards as unnecessary division. Jesus Himself was similarly falsely charged with stirring up the people (Luke 23:5), as was St. Paul (Acts 24:5, though the Greek verb is different), and so were the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther and those with him (Luther, ad loc John 7:45, AE 23:292). So, we are comforted in our bearing our crosses of family and other discord over the faith (confer Pieper, III:70). We do not seek such family strife, or any other strife, but if we are forced to choose between loyalty to Christ and loyalty to anyone else, then we choose loyalty to Christ (Davies-Allison, ad loc Matthew 10:37, p.221).
In today’s Gospel Reading Jesus said that He came to bring “Not Peace but a Sword”. In that and other regards, Jesus was a truly-sent and faithful prophet like Jeremiah, whom we heard of in today’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 28:5-9) and like those before and after him. Thanks to such faithful preaching, we have realized that, though we at times sin, by loving family-members more than Jesus and in other ways, Jesus died on the cross to make peace between God and us. As we live each day with repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, we may have “war” over God’s law and Gospel in our world, country, state, counties, city, congregation, and homes, but, no matter, for, far more importantly, we have peace with God.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +