Take Up Your Sword

The Trouble with Jesus: Following him requires your most basic relationships and values are going to be reordered.

Listen up. Here’s a safe bet you won’t hear these words preached on Sunday. Even if Jesus did say them, they wouldn’t sit well for a sermon on Father’s Day. Nah, Pastors will be spouting, “Honor your dad,” those who have raised us to be good people, godly people, fathers who give so much of their life and love for their children…Full on Hallmark energy.

But Jesus? He dropped a line that would see any preacher to the door. “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, I came to bring a sword. I have come to set a man against his father….”

Yeah, Jesus said that.

Hey! Whatever happened to Baby Jesus, the one the angels hyped up like, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men…?” (Luke 2:14) Wasn’t this the guy who’d later say, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword…?” (Matthew 26:52) Doesn’t everybody say that Jesus wasn’t trying to be some military general but a Savior? What’s with this talk of starting up some kind of family conflict?

The Trouble with Jesus: Push Back

If this got you sweating, trust me, you’re in good company. Jesus first said this to his disciples. The Twelve were getting their chance to go do as their Master had done, cast out evil spirits and heal every kind of disease and illness, the same wild stuff he’d been doing. (Matthew 10:1) You’d expect they would be loved and find a lot of good press with that kind of ability, lining up to throw them a parade.

Jesus knew better. He knew the same folks who wanted him gone would want them gone too. As there were those who would just as soon as have Jesus disappear from the face of the earth, a similar dangerous response awaited them. “The servant shares the master’s fate.”

Pushback wasn’t a maybe. It was a guarantee. Watch your back at all times.

The Trouble with Jesus: No Guarantee

Jesus understood. That is, God understood. What was going to happen to them would not go unnoticed. “Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it….So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.”

That’s comforting, kinda. Nice to know, but it’s not followed with any guarantee you won’t get hurt either. And it especially doesn’t sit well if you are trying still to wrap your head around what he’d just said before this: “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”

That’s not exactly a motivational poster.

You have to know this: Jesus doesn’t promise pie in the sky or a big lottery win. Take it for what it is, a brutal honesty of what life following him means. This much Jesus does give: “If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my father in heaven. But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven.” But never does Jesus say any of this will be easy.

The prospect of being a fried fowl aside, what is Jesus getting at? What would the disciples tell people about who Jesus is and what he wants to do in a person’s life that would make someone risk one’s life for the love of him? The answer is in Jesus’ sword.

The Trouble with Jesus: Conflicting Loves

If nothing else, through the life of Jesus Christ is the activity of God in ways not expected or according to our agendas and comfort zones. God doesn’t bring a peace that’s known or even wished for, but a new vision that extends to those who are considered worthless, of not much value than even half a penny. God knows when the sparrows of the world fall and is not blind to their plight. He says they matter. God’s call to those who have blessings of opportunity and privilege is to be the ones taught as a servant by a master and as a student by a teacher who serves those whom nobody else wants.

And Jesus?

His sword’s not about violence. It’s about cutting through competing loves.

Jesus’ sword will fight the battles found between those whose supreme affection would even stretch the closest of human relationships: parents, children, extended family of any kind, crew, tribe, or race. His message declares division for those who choose to “love more” any concept other than value and dedication of their best for this message of God.

Slow down right there. You know what this sounds like, don’t you? This kind of talk about walking away from your family is the basis of cults. It’s terrorist recruitment. People drank Kool Aid believing this kind of thing. Jesus is getting way too extreme here.

But Jesus wasn’t calling folks to abandon their families. He was calling them to order their loves right.

Love God first. Everything else falls in line behind that.

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Sure, it’s extreme. (Maybe this would sit better if we said this passage was an example of Jesus’ using the Hebraic practice of hyperbole to emphasize his point. You have to admit it does get your attention.) Did He really mean this like it sounds? Yes. This isn’t a call to desert or deny your family ultimately. It’s in the “love more” that Jesus wants to be known.

The Trouble with Jesus: A Reversed Image

Here’s the twist: Jesus’ sword’s not a weapon. It’s a mirror flipped upside down. The trouble with Jesus is the conflict in loving God and neighbor or loving oneself and the desire to control this life. Held high in the air by its blade, Jesus’ sword takes on another image. “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you’re not worthy of being mine.” His sword slices through fake peace — the kind built on comfort, control, and keeping your life exactly how you want it.

Eventually, his sword transformed into his cross. The whole thing flips. The blade becomes the burden, the burden becomes the purpose. In that reversed image, you find out who you really are and what you’re really living.

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it;

But if you give it up for me, you will find it.”

Matthew 10: 24-39