“Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Luke 2:34-35
Or how about that time in Matthew when he dropped this bomb?
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “ a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Matthew 10:34-36
Though he be the Prince of Peace, Jesus divides people. What if sometimes it takes division to get to peace? Why do we think peace is an easy thing? Is it because of its association with tie-dyed t-shirts and free love? Everyone is fine talking about God until the name of Jesus enters the conversation. Something about Jesus can either start the conversation or stop it in its tracks. Could it be because his very presence causes “the thoughts of many hearts to be revealed”?
If we are looking for cheap unity and an easy peace we should probably move on from Jesus. His peace is costly and his brand of union is all-consuming.
Something about us wants to believe peace and unity are possible without Jesus. Something about us wants to have the Peace of Jesus without going the way of Jesus. It’s too costly. It’s easier to paper over our conflicts (or worse, deny them) and settle for the superficial harmony of getting along, with a little Jesus sprinkled over the top.
The hardest thing we will ever do is to settle our undivided allegiance to Jesus. It will cost us our idealism, our idolatries, and our ideologies. Until we do, everything about us, including our relationships, will be divided.”
This devotional from Seedbed.com’s JD Walt points to the way in which the name of Jesus causes division. It is not so much that Jesus causes division….it is the expectations and demands of those who either believe in Jesus or don’t believe in Jesus as Teacher/Savior/Incarnate God. It is what we demand of Jesus and demand others to believe about Jesus that causes the division. Jesus is simply who he is……and when we confine our actions to simply witnessing to our own experience of Jesus and trust that Jesus will reveal himself as the Truth of who he is when others feel safe enough to explore Jesus’ claims for themselves that he will reveal himself to them. 4/4/2017