It Will be Worth it All

Sometimes when I read Scripture I find myself saying, "What??"  There are passages that confuse and concern me, this I freely admit.  I have found that at those times God is trying to teach me something new and give me deeper insight into the hidden meanings of His Word.  The passage in Matthew 10:34-39 is one such section of Scripture:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be those of his own household.  He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life my My sake will find it."

The first time I read this passage I found myself shocked at the thought that Jesus said he had come to earth not to bring peace, but a sword.  After all, I had been given an image of the Christ as a quiet, unassuming, peaceful suffering servant, not a sword-wielding warrior.   But as I looked more deeply into His statement, I realized that I'd left out a couple of crucial words from my understanding.  Christ did not say He would not bring peace... He said He would not bring peace on this earth.   Jesus did not descend from His throne to change the social structure of the day or to effect some sort of political alteration.  As long as the world is embroiled in sin and disobedient to God, there can be no peace.

When we think about the peace that Christ spoke of in so many other scriptures ((Luke 2:14; 7:50; 8:48; 10:5-6; Acts 10:36; Ephesians 2:13-17), we need to understand that this peace will only come to those who choose to believe in Him.  As long as a man stays lost and tied to this world, he (or she) will never know the "peace that passes all understanding through Christ Jesus, our Lord."  The hardest part of that is the realization that some of those individuals who refuse Christ as Lord may actually be a part of our own family.

Jesus said that He brought a sword, not peace to this earth.  A sword is an instrument that pierces and cuts and divides asunder.  That is a clear understanding of what the Gospel of Truth does in this world.  It divides the believer from the unbeliever and penetrates deep into the soul of one who is lost.  It brings conviction and discomfort as it pierces the conscience.  It is not eagerly embraced by a sin-sick soul.  Following Christ will surely bring some division into our lives.

It seems the first and most ferocious opposition we receive when we choose to believe in Jesus comes from our own family.  I think our choice to follow Him may be seen as some sort of disloyalty by many of them.  Our behaviors change, our desires change, our attitudes become different, and suddenly we are a stranger to those who grew up knowing all about us.  They feel threatened and confused at this "new" person with whom they are faced, so they lash out in an effort to subdue and conquer, returning the individual to one whom they can recognize again.  A new believer may feel the need to strike back in defense, but the longer I have walked with Christ the more I have come to understand that this is not the way for a disciple to respond.  In His final hours on earth, as He stood wrongfully accused before Pilate of all manner of lawlessness, Jesus did not speak.  He chose to remain silent because (I believe) He knew that to respond in the face of such hate and anger would only fuel the fire of evil.

Now, I am as human as the next person, trust me.  There have certainly been those times when I have returned anger for anger in my life.  This much I can say with deepest conviction:  not one single time did that turn out well for me.  In fact, I only suffered greater anguish as I became convicted and chastened by the Holy Spirit for wallowing in the mud from which He had already once lifted me.  I felt shame and regret for my failure to recognize that following Christ means I will be faced with persecution, but those experiences are part of what will bring me closer to Him.  If I am to be a follower of Jesus, if I am to call myself a Christian, then I must accept all that comes with the title, knowing that God will be faithful to carry me through each confrontation or attack.

My friends, if following Jesus Christ brings division among you and your family or friends, count it a blessing.  It only means that you have been given the opportunity to share in the suffering and the glory of our Lord.  Each time we triumph over evil, each time we hold our tongue and do not return anger for anger, we become more like the One who gave His life that we might be redeemed to our Heavenly Father.  When we die to ourselves and live for Christ, persecution in this life will have little effect on us.  We will be able to keep our eyes fixed on eternity and upon the face of the One who really matters.

In his article entitled "I Came to Bring a Sword,"  Yves I-Bing Cheng, M.D., M.A. wrote:

"The cross, like the sword, separates. The cross, like the sword, exposes. The cross, like the sword, kills.    The cross, like the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), makes alive because it sets us free from sin. Now we understand what the Lord Jesus means when He says, ‘I came to bring a sword.’ That sword is the cross."

I close today with the precious words of an old hymn:

"It will be worth it all, just to see His face,

When He calls me for His own.

Then ten million years to sing 'Amazing Grace,'

It will be worth it all when we get home!"