6^th Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on June 22, 2008

Matthew 10:34-42 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ 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-- ³⁶ a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' ³⁷ "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ⁴⁰ "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. ⁴² And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

The Honor of Our Lord’s Sword

Today’s sermon is not a sit back and relax message. This "difficult-to-hear" teaching of Jesus reflects something we know but often prefer not to think about. Jesus divides people. When we hear the truth about Him in the Gospel, we are either for Him or against Him. The Bible makes it clear that we cannot pick and choose certain doctrines concerning Jesus. He did not come to offer us a new set of laws or a new philosophy of life from which we can select parts that we accept and reject others. He confronts us with Himself as God in the flesh. We must by God's grace either believe or reject that claim of His – and if we believe it, the line is forever drawn in our lives against everyone who doesn't completely and totally believe in Him as God, Lord, and Savior.

When we are confronted by the reality of the Word made flesh, life's basic issues are at stake. Saved by His grace, once dead in our sins but now alive in Christ, we are forever changed. The unconditional sacrificial love of Jesus compels us in return to obey His command to take up our cross and follow Him. He reminds us that we must die to live, lose ourselves to find ourselves in Him. He divides rote religion from right relationship, the secular from the sacred, the temporal from the eternal, this world from the next, the saved from the unsaved, the lost from the found, darkness from light. He is Himself the divide between heaven and hell. Though He is the Prince of Peace, by the very nature of who He is, our Lord Jesus also brings with Him a Spiritual Sword that divides people, even those in our own households.

A sword is a weapon of honor. A cruise missile is very effective, but it does not have the honor to it that a sword does. With a cruise missile, you push a button over here, and hundreds of miles away over there, you blow up whatever you’ve targeted. You don't see your victims, you don't hear or feel their pain, and you really don't experience what you've done. You don't even know if you've accomplished your mission until you see the video later on CNN.

A sword, however, is different. There is honor to a sword because you stand toe-to-toe with your opponent. He is looking into your eyes as you look into his. You sense his fear as you yourself are afraid because you are both so vulnerable. You hear and feel the clash of the steel. And if you strike a wound and win, you experience the pain of your victim, you hurt with him and for him because you are right there with him.

One of Aesops Fables has a kid goat perched on top of a house, and looking down sees a Wolf passing under him. Immediately he begins to insult and berate his enemy. "Murderer and thief," he cries, "what do you want here near honest folks' houses? How dare you make an appearance where your vile deeds are known?" "Curse away, my young friend," says the Wolf. "It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."

It easy to be brave in doing mission work from a safe distance. It takes much more courage to use the Lord’s Sword up close and personal.

When it comes to living as loved ones of Jesus Christ, commissioned by Him to go and make disciples of all nations, most Christians seem to prefer the cruise missile approach from a safe distance. Send some money over there, way over there for missions to foreign nations and let us know in a newsletter how it all turns out later. Very effective and necessary to win the world for Christ, but it is not the only way we are called to share the Gospel … and it's not just the pastor's job. Some Christians might say, "Pastor, I'll pray for you while you spread God's Word of salvation. Our Southeastern Wisconsin District and our Synod will send foreign missionaries overseas and home missionaries into areas like New Hope in North Racine. I think it's great that you have been trained to defend the truth of God's Word. I'll give the offerings, you spread the Good News." That's cruise missile evangelism. You don't feel it, hear it, or experience it at all; it's very safe and easy when you send someone else to fight the good fight of faith. Yet Jesus clearly states the difficult truth that sometimes a Christian’s enemies will be members of his own household.

What does He mean by that? Jesus gets very personal here. He is saying that the love of God for you, and your love of your family, compels you under certain conditions to draw your sword and do spiritual battle within your own family. (Son against his father, daughter against her mother). From our Lord's perspective there can be no true Godly peace within a family until all are His people, saved by grace through faith in Him alone. Though Jesus is the Prince of Peace, He knows that if you are truly following Him according to your new nature given in your baptism, then you will sometimes have to pay the price of conflict even with those you love the most, and that's not easy.

Most of us seek peace at all costs in our home and relationships. We have had to compromise many things to live together in peace. Some of us, therefore, have remained safe yet sorry for years while family members and old friends remain lost and headed to an eternity without God … because we don't want to upset whatever delicate relationships we live within.

You don’t want to upset the tenuous peace in the family by discussing your disproval with your daughter living with her fiancé. You don’t want to push the subject and cause tension that you come to church with the children while your spouse stays at home. You don’t want to cause a family rift as your unbelieving father is dying from cancer and you want to share Jesus and heaven with him. You don’t want the tension when you discuss infant baptism for your grandchild or discuss a Christian wedding ceremony in your family’s home church, or discuss why your non-denominational relatives cannot take communion with you.

Jesus teaches against this attitude of seeking human peace versus spiritual truth and salvation. Better that there be conflict so that at least some would be saved. We cannot live in peace with Satan or in serenity with sin or in harmony with indifference. We must not just sing, "Lift High the Cross" in the safety of our sanctuaries, but we must lift that wonderful cross high in the dangerous, real world of a thousand different opinions on that subject – in our businesses, schools, and social gatherings; and yes, especially in our homes.

Jesus forces the question upon us – who do we love the most? And how do we love the best? Jesus is reminding His disciples that you really can't love anyone else in the right way until you love Him first and most. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for everyone, and if you truly love your family and friends, you will take the risk to direct them to Him because no one comes to the Father but through Jesus, no matter what that may cost.

The cost often involves pain. You stand toe-to-toe with people who are known to you and who know you, warts and all. If there is rejection or a challenge to the authority of God's Word, you hear and feel the clash of the Sword of the Spirit as you and the one you are seeking to love into God's Kingdom both advance and defend. And even if you win the battle and the Good News of salvation in Christ is received, you may first have to experience the pain of your loved one slain by God’s Law, dying to self, and revived by Christ.

We lose our life to find it. We take up our cross and follow Him. We die to sin and rise with Christ to newness of life. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." We draw the Sword of Jesus because He loved us and gave Himself up for us. It is the only honorable thing to do. Because He first loved us, we simply must love others to Him, instead of just hoping and wishing that something will happen somehow, someway, to move that person to Jesus Christ. We honorably draw the Sword of Jesus even though it may forever change our relationship with the one we care enough about to risk it. It is sin to keep the Sword of Jesus in its sheath because we seek peace at all costs, even if that cost is our loved one's eternal destiny. We ask God to forgive us for our lack of honor in this most important mission. We ask God to send us into our own family, our schools, our businesses, standing there right in front of us. We draw the Sword.

The pain is worth it. It's like major surgery, like an operation in the hospital. The surgeons first have to cut and open and pull apart before they can take out whatever is sick and fix whatever needs fixing in there. They have to cause some pain in order to heal.

The Bible says the same thing about the Sword of God's Word in Hebrews 4:12-13: "For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

God loves us enough to open us up and pull us apart with His Word that reveals the truth about ourselves. This may cause us some pain when we see how far we are from what God calls us to be. But then once everything is open and laid bare before Him, He takes our sin out from us, removes that guilt and sin that has made us so sick, He takes that fatal disease called sin upon Himself and then He repairs our heart and soul with His blood transfusion of love, and grace, and mercy, forgiveness, and the promise of everlasting life in His name. He then sews us back up again with the Gospel. Jesus, the Great Physician, has died to heal us of all our sins, no matter how awful or helpless we may feel that we are. Jesus has won the ultimate battle over sin and death on the cross on our behalf, and now the victory of the resurrection is ours forever.

Maybe people don’t invite you to social gatherings because of your faith. Maybe they mock you for being a narrow-minded fundamentalist. Maybe they roll their eyes when you talk about religious stuff. Maybe you’ve lost some friends. Let me tell you this –- that’s not a sign that you made a mistake in speaking out for Jesus. It actually means you’re following the Plan. Shortly before He died, Jesus told his disciples, “No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:20) Get it? If you are taking guff for your faith, it means that you’re right where you’re supposed to be.

A sword is a weapon of honor. The Sword of Jesus is the most honorable of any sword there has ever been. Jesus paid the price of His life to be your Savior. He now calls on all of us to give our lives as His disciples in the real world in real ways. It's not always easy to take up the cross, to lose yourself to find yourself, to draw the Sword of God's Word, but it certainly brings honor to Christ as He divides sin and death from another precious soul through your prayers, words, and acts of compassion for the lost in your own backyard.

It is easy to be brave from a distance. Today Jesus calls upon you to be brave up close and personal as you go into battle swinging and slashing the sword of the Lord. The most amazing thing about this Sword of Jesus is that in the midst of all of the battles that we face in life, this Sword brings with it daily blessings, and of all things, a peace that passes all human understanding. Amen.