NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD

Jesus, before sending out his disciples on missionary adventure, reminds them that he has “not come to bring peace but a sword” (Mt. 10:34). That’s rather harsh language coming from the Prince of Peace, isn’t it? It seems completely out of place. But, of course, it is not. Even people of peace have to raise their voices every now and then if only to be heard and certainly to be taken seriously, otherwise they will be written off as mere do-gooders and their words and examples ignored.

That is not always, if ever, easy. Saying what needs to be said, especially when it is the truth and when that truth makes others very, very uncomfortable, is difficult. Many people followed Jesus for a while. But when the going became rough, when more was demanded of them than they were willing to give of themselves, they simply walked away. Thus, Jesus knew that he could pull no punches if his mission and his ministry were to be carried on after he was gone.

Jesus also knew there would be conflicts among his followers, the external variety as well as the internal. There would be times when the living out of faith in Jesus might force one to make a choice between doing what the faith demands and doing what our family and friends want us to do. In fact, our faith is put to the test every day in this way. Our boss asks us to be less than honest in a project we are charged to oversee; our friends want us to go to a party with them when our parents have already said we could not; our, well, the list is endless. Our faith in Jesus’ is put to the test daily by forces – family, friends, and the like – outside of ourselves.

Our faith is also tested internally every day. We not only struggle internally with those decisions others want us to make that are against what we believe, but we also struggle internally when there is no one trying to force us into an action we know we should do. Temptations to be selfish, to put ourselves, our wants and desires, above what Jesus wants and desires of us, come more often than we realize, certainly more often than we would wish. With those temptations also come seemingly sound reasons why we should go against what our faith demands.

Yes, there will indeed be times when our faith in Jesus’ pits us against our family, our friends, even ourselves. Being strong and remaining faithful during those times will never be easy as we have all discovered. But what we have also learned is that we can remain strong and refuse to give in because God will always give us whatever grace and strength we need to remain faithful. All that is left is for us to cooperate with God’s gifts.

We know there may be times today when we will be tempted to say or do that which we know we can and must and temptations to do just the opposite. What we must do is cooperate with God’s always-offered grace and say "no" to what we should not do and “yes” to what we know in faith we should.