The sword that divides families
Matthew 10:34-42 34“Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
37“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
40“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. 42Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink because he is my disciple―Amen I tell you―he will never lose his reward.”
Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:12)
During the first few lessons of my adult confirmation class, I warn everyone that the devil will come at them in ways they’ve never encountered before. I’ve seen it numerous times during my 27 years in the ministry.
I tell them that before this the devil wasn’t that interested in them because they were unbelievers who already belonged to him. Or if they were nominal Christians who believed in God but didn’t do anything with that faith, then he may not have spent much time tempting them. But now that they are growing in their faith and involved in sharing their new or renewed faith, they are encroaching on Satan’s territory. And he’s ticked! So he’s going to come at them hard!
After saying this, almost everyone has replied, “Ahh! That’s what’s been happening!” Then they explain how they’ve been growing closer to God and his Christian family, the separation between their non-Christian friends and family has also been growing. Their family calls them hypocrites. Their friends mock them as phony. Their co-workers classify them as stuck-up.
Jesus prophesied this would happen. As Jesus sends out the Twelve with a renewed emphasis in sharing their faith, he teaches, “Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”
The Prince of Peace comes to bring peace between sinful humanity and his holy heavenly Father. But Jesus promises that this heavenly peace will often be accompanied by earthly division. Satan and our sinful nature like to pit our love for God against our love for our family and friends.
Jesus comes to bring peace … but not an earthly peace where everything is peaches and cream, where life could be a dream. No, Jesus did not come to bring that kind of peace. Jesus comes to bring the sword of the Spirit which is the Bible. It is the two-edged sword of Law and Gospel.
Why does Jesus bring a sword? To unite us with God, Jesus must first separate us from all the things we hold dear on earth. So that we might learn to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, Jesus must divide us from the things that we fear, love, and trust in this world. Everything we have in our lives are gifts from our gracious God. Especially our family. But family can also become idols that interfere with our faith.
Many of you know what I’m talking about. You’ve felt the tension in your own families. Maybe it’s an adult child caught in a sexual sin. Do you call out the sin trying to lead your child to repentance at the risk of alienating your child? Or do you ignore the sin to keep familial peace?
Maybe you are dating or married to someone who is not WELS. You encourage them to come to Bible class and worship with you. But when they refuse, you are tempted to give up, come to church by yourself, or even stop worshiping and attending Bible study altogether to keep peace in the family.
Maybe you have family at your house for the weekend or friends at work you would like to invite to church. But you know they are offended by our biblical doctrine of closed communion. So you don’t evangelize them and invite them to worship to keep the peace.
We are tempted to divide ourselves from God so we can be united with family and friends. We are tempted to compromise our heavenly peace so we can have some semblance of earthly peace. But in doing that, we aren’t giving our family and friends the heavenly peace that comes through Jesus.
We need to fear and respect our earthly fathers. But we need to fear and respect even more our heavenly Father. We need to love our earthly mother. But we need to love even more our new mother of the Christian Church. We want to trust in our earthly brothers and sisters. But we need to trust ever more in our new brother, Jesus Christ. For Jesus tells us, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
The truth of God’s Word is like a sword. It is a sword can divide children and parents, family and friends. Or, in our efforts to maintain peace, we can drop the sword and the truth will be given up.
Jesus understands very well this kind of family division. Though Mary and Joseph believed in their Son as their Savior, it seems their other children did not always share in that faith. Jesus’ siblings even considered Jesus crazy and out of his mind (Mark 3:21).
It wasn’t until after his crucifixion and resurrection that Jesus’ siblings believed in their Brother as their Savior. By grace, Jesus’ brother, James even became the leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17). He was later martyred for his faith by being stoned to death by the Pharisees.
Jesus knows firsthand the division that the sword of the Spirit can cause within families. He understands the pain of a family divided. He knows the heartbreak. But for your sake, he was willing to bear it. He was in conflict with his brothers for you. He was misunderstood by his mother for you. He was essentially homeless during his ministry years for you. So, he will help you with your heartache. He will gladden your heart even in your grief. He will give you solace even in your sadness.
Jesus is concerned with rescuing you. Then he wants to use you to rescue those around you. With every one of his rescues, Jesus swings the sword of the Spirit. It divides and damns. It unites and saves.
The division in your family may be a cross you are called to bear. Jesus teaches, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
The cross is God’s gracious means of restoration. Only through the death and resurrection of Jesus does God grant us forgiveness of our sin and restoration of life. You are called to bear Christ’s cross so that others hear of and receive Christ’s cross for their restoration and salvation.
Jesus’ desire is that you take his cross seriously. You rightly love and cherish your earthly relationships … but they cannot be at the expense of your relationship with Christ, his cross, and the sword of his Word. Do not make a golden calf out of your family relationships. Remember to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
Why is this so important?
Today we confess the words of the ancient Nicene Creed: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. … We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father … We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son …”
Perhaps some of you heard of the anti-Christian creed that went viral this week. It’s called The Sparkle Creed. Here are just a few sentences of this heretical creed. “I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads, and who saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow Spirit, who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity.”
This is gross. This is demonic. This is a perversion of the Christian creed. But I share this creed with you, so you know the division out there in the world. Christ is calling for his faithful disciples to use the sword of his Spirit to cut away anything that is false, creepy, heretical, and leads people away from his cross.
The words of the Sparkle Creed would be laughable if they weren’t so damnable! This is not Christian. This is pagan. The place – I hesitate to call it a church – was filled with elderly people with gray and white hair who were confessing this demonic drivel. These elderly sheep are being led by their false shepherd away from the Good Shepherd. Instead of leading sheep to salvation like a good under-shepherd, she is leading them to Satan’s slaughter.
As St. Paul teaches, our calling as Christians is to help others “to flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.” We take up the truth of God’s spiritual sword to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:11, 12).
Also this week, while I was canvassing for our Soccer Camp with some of our teens, I received a phone call from a WELS pastor in northern Wisconsin. He called to tell me that Mike and his wife had come into his office. The couple were planning on retiring up north when Mike was diagnosed with cancer. He was given only a few months to live.
Mike had been a member of Epiphany decades ago. I never knew him. He was in the pastor’s office to confess his sins and his faith. He admitted that he had been absent from the Lord’s house and Lord’s Table for decades. But he still remembered the words of the creeds and Catechism that were instilled in him by his faithful pastor, teachers, and parents.
I shared this story with our teens at lunch after canvassing. I told them this is the reason why we were canvassing in smoke and humidity. I’m telling you, this is the reason we have an Inreach Pastor and Elders to call straying sheep back into the flock. This is why we catechize our children and confess ancient creeds every Sunday. This is why we bear Christ’s cross and swing the sword of the Spirit.
The devil and his demonic forces are going to come at you whether you are new to the Christian faith or have your own self-assigned seats in the pews. They want to pit your family against the family of God. They want to create disunity in your home to disrupt your unity with God. They want to keep you silent and the sword of the Spirit still.
We use the sword that divides families so the Holy Spirit might unite us into a new family. We swing the sword of the Spirit to call our family to repentance, our friends to faith, and point all those we love to the One who loved us enough to die on the cross for us. We speak up to our father and mother to point them to God the Father. We speak out to our brothers and sisters so we can unite them with their Brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. We open God’s Word to let the Holy Spirit do his work through our words.
In swinging the sword that divides, we are brought into a family united with God our Father, Jesus our Brother and Savior, and the Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Counselor. A family of baptized and communing believers. A family here at Water of Life. Amen.
In the name of the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or is able to see. To him be honor and power forever! Amen. (1 Timothy 6:15, 16)