The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
The Trouble with Jesus is he’s upfront that following him requires knowing that your most basic relationships and values, for some even their lives, are going to be reordered.
Here’s a safe bet you didn’t hear these words preached last Sunday. Even if Jesus did say them, they wouldn’t sit well for a sermon on Father’s Day. Better just to honor those who have raised us to be good people, godly people, fathers who give so much of their life and love for their children. But not these words: “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….”
Hey! Whatever happened to the Christ Child whose birth proclaimed, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men…?” Wasn’t this the guy who’d later say, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword…?” Doesn’t everybody say that Jesus did not come to be a military leader but a Savior? What’s with this talk of starting up some kind of family conflict?
The Trouble with Jesus: Push Back
If this makes you nervous, you’re not alone. 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. You’d expect they would be loved and find a lot of good press with that kind of ability. But Jesus knew what was waiting for them. 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.” Expect push back, and 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 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.” For disciples of then and today, this doesn’t look too appealing.
You have to know this though: 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.” 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. 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. 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 serve those whom nobody else wants.
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 cult recruitment. People drank Kool Aid believing this kind of thing. Jesus is getting way too extreme here.
Sure, it’s extreme, sounds similar to what terrorists use to enlist revolutionaries. (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…well, that is, Love God first and above all. 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
Yes, the trouble with Jesus is the conflict in the difference of 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 kind of sword strikes at the core of any peace not centered in the desire of and seeking life close to Jesus. Later, his sword transformed into his cross.
In that reversed image, his sword flips and reverses one’s former priorities with a promise of a discovery in new purpose:
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it;
But if you give it up for me, you will find it.”
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