The Prince of Peace Brings a Sword
Text: Matthew 10:34-39
Introduction
The biggest fear of most Basic Trainees is that an injury will force them to restart training. After my worship service (as a Basic Training Chaplain) one morning I spoke to a soldier on crutches as my three-year-old wound her way around my legs. Later that day Alexandra related the story to her grandmother. "Daddy talked to the soldier girl and she was crying."
"Why was she crying, Honey?" Grandma asked.
"She doesn’t want to be a disciple," Alexandra replied.
When Grandma shared this account with me I was momentarily puzzled. As I replayed the conversation in my mind, however, it dawned on me, "She doesn’t want to be recycled!"
Unfortunately, for many of us what Alexandra said is more true than we would like to admit. "Disciple" seems to imply a level of difficulty which is above and beyond the call of duty. Like the soldier on crutches, we expect a certain level of discomfort in life but when it comes to facing genuine hardship we feel like the one in charge is asking a little too much. After all haven’t we been saved? If hardship is still to be part of life, then what have we been saved from? There is an implied expectation that for God’s people life should be easier than those in the world.
Yet in the passage we read today Jesus turns that notion on its head, quoting a prophecy from Micah He speaks of a life of loneliness and difficulty for those who would be His followers
Proposition: The theme here is something that the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "The Cost of Discipleship"
Bonhoeffer learned how steep the cost could be in a Nazi concentration camp where he forfeited his very life. The SS Doctor who witnessed his execution said, "I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God." (http://www.thesumners.com/bonhoeffer/)
Interrogative: But what is to be expected for us? How much does this free gift of salvation cost, and with what premium must we pay?
Transition: Jesus mentions three dimensions of the cost of following him, and then concludes with the benefit that can be expected for those who choose to follow. I’d like to look at the costs and benefits together this morning. The first thing that Jesus notes is that following him will bring...
1. Division
vv. 35-36 "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.’"
Here is the prophetic quote in our passage this morning and it is a strange one. Jesus reaches back to the prophecy of Micah to a passage speaking about a time when the people have fallen away from the Lord, a time of apostasy, and the care that the faithful must take at that time, that they must not trust in those they should be able to trust in. Jesus zeroes in on the part of the Passage that says even families are divided in such a time.
Now this isn’t the kind of passage you would expect the Messiah to be claiming fulfillment of. You’d expect passages like we read last week about the Messiah performing miracles, you’d expect passages about Messiah establishing God’s kingdom, but you don’t expect this.
I suspect If I’d been in the crowd I might have made a fool of myself, as Jesus says "do you think I’ve come to bring peace?" I’d have been saying "Yes, amen, peace!" But Jesus says no, not peace but division.
Why? Because Jesus brought a message that isn’t always so popular. The Apostle Paul said the message is a stumbling block. Because although the Gospel is good news it is preceeded by some very bad news, the News that we are all sinful and need a savior. You see the need for a savior isn’t always a popular thought. For me to accept a savior I must confess my own moral bankruptcy.
And there is something in the human spirit that is rankled by that thought, there is something within us that wants a God who affirms that we are good enough as we are, a God who will say, your life balances to the good. But Jesus doesn’t say that, He says your life is messed up and you can’t fix it, so I’ll fix it for you.
ILLUSTRATION: I got in trouble with my four year old the other day for zipping her zipper. She stomped her foot and wailed "No, I wanted to do it myself" Our human nature says to Jesus, "No, I wanted to do it myself!"
So your profession of faith in Jesus as your Savior doesn’t make you popular with everyone, they see your claim of being a Christian,or your faithfulness in church as you saying there’s something wrong with them. Of course they don’t understand that you’re also saying there’s something wrong with you too, that only Jesus could fix.
But some of you have experienced Division, between you and family, between you and friends that you had when you weren’t following Jesus, or when you weren’t following Him seriously, and now your relationships with those people are strained or even severed because the "Christian you" makes them uncomfortable.
Jesus said that would happen and you need to understand that it’s not because you’re doing it wrong but because you’re doing it right, they don’t reject you, they reject Him. Part of the cost of discipleship is division. The next dimension of the cost of following him is that it forces you to make a...
2. Decision
v. 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."
Here the point is not just that your choice to follow Jesus causes your loved ones to pull away from you, but that you must make a priority choice between Jesus and those people and things that you care about, and here it’s regardless of whether or not they are also followers of Christ.
This is the Abraham test. You remember God called upon Abraham to be willing to sacrifice the son of promise? God calls on us to make a decision about priorities in our life that places him first. Above career, above comfort, above our personal hopes and dreams, above, yes, even father and mother, son and daughter.
Now does that mean that we’re being called to neglect family responsibility in the name of spirituality? No of course not, The Apostle Paul wrote that the one who doesn’t care for his family is worse than an unbeliever. Caring for and loving your family is part of your service to the Lord, but it cannot and must not ever take priority over your love and dedication to Him.
How does that work out practically? Here’s one way, Often when I speak with folks who call themselves Christian I ask, "Where do you worship?" and I’ll get a variation of this response, "Well we’re so busy that when we have any time we just want to spend it with each other."
Or how about that dreamy guy or girl that you’re head over heels for, young person, but Oh, they’re not a Christian yet, or maybe they are a Christian but your relationship is compromising your walk with the Lord.
Well I could go on but I think you get my drift, The cost of discipleship often calls for a Decision. One more thing, following Jesus requires...
3. Determination
v. 38 "...and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."
Ouch, that hurts! The cross was an instrument of torture. Jesus was being very politically incorrect for even mentioning it, because Jews at this time refused to speak of crucifixion in polite company--it was considered an obscenity. Here is Jesus not only talking about it, but saying if you want to follow him you have to carry a cross. To make it contemporary imagine some guy on the street calling for people to pick up an electric chair and follow him. Not the greatest selling point for your new religion.
But Jesus says if you’re going to follow me, it’s going to take that kind of Determination. A willingness to follow whatever the cost. I used to sing a song as a teenager called "Whatever It Takes" one verse said "take my houses and my lands change my dreams and all my plans for I’m placing my whole life in your hands and if you’d call me today to a land far away, Lord I’d go and your will obey." I always had a hard time getting through that verse because it’s talking about this kind of determination, the obedience of the cross, obedience unto death.
ILLUSTRATION: I read about a career day school assembly where the school had invited the Army, Air Force and Marine recruiters to give their pitch to the student body. The first two went over time and the Marine had only two minutes to speak. He stood and stared at the students and finally said, "I doubt if there’s more than three of you here who could even make it in the Marines, but I want to see those three at my table." You know what happened--his table was surrounded.
Jesus is saying the same thing about being His follower. It’s not going to be easy, no wimps allowed. It’s going to take determination. Even though Christ paid for our salvation with His own blood and it’s a free gift that I can’t add anything too, he makes it clear that it will cost us something, that something is nothing more and nothing less than our lives.
Why would that appeal to anybody? For the same reason the Marine recruiter had such success, we all understand deep down that anything worthwhile costs us something. We understand that difficult things have great rewards.
That reward is the last thing that I would like to look at with you. The reward of following Jesus is...
4. Discovery
v. 39 "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
If we attempt to hold on to our lives we find that we cannot, but if we will surrender our lives to Him we will Discover real life.
Jesus uses marriage as a metaphor of our relationship to Him, and there is a similarity at this point. No matter how many jokes you hear about giving up your freedom when you get married, anyone who has experienced marriage the way it ought to be understands that whatever surrender there is to make a relationship work is dwarfed by the fulfillment and magic of two becoming one.
Life without Jesus is shallow and empty. When we give our lives to him our heart finds its true home. We were created to be in relationship with Him. When we surrender to him our life’s purpose is fulfilled. We have life and more abundantly--real life, life the way it’s supposed to be. So by giving ourselves to him we don’t loose our life but find real life. That is the reward of following him.
