Matthew 10:34-42 - Confessing Jesus Brings - July 12, 2020

We’re in the long season of the church year called Pentecost. The paraments are green to indicate that it’s a season of growth. It’s a time for us to grow in our faith by applying what Christ has done for us to our everyday lives. As our first two lessons indicated – and which our sermon text confirms – this growth is not easy; it’s not smooth; it’s not painless. It’s going to mean conflict and struggle. Put bluntly, it’s a time for us to grow up; to grow up and out of a childish and naïve understanding of what it means to be a Christian in a hostile world ruled by the devil (John 12:31). Jesus doesn’t pull any punches here, he says that if you confess his name you can expect three things to come into your life. The question each of us has to wrestle with is: is it worth it?

Our text is the conclusion of Jesus’ Missionary Discourse – his final instructions to the twelve apostles before he sends them out on their own for the first time. He has just promised them that everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:32). And now he tells them what kind of reaction they can expect as they do that confessing throughout the cities and villages of Israel. But it’s more than that. Jesus is also speaking to us. He’s telling us what Christians of all times and places can expect when they confess Christ. Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. What? Jesus didn’t come to bring peace? Didn’t Isaiah call him the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)? Didn’t the angels sing glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind (Luke 2:14) at his birth? So which one is it? Did Jesus come to bring peace or not? How do we solve this paradox?

It all depends on how you define peace. If you define it like the world does – as the absence of war, financial security, good health, mental and emotional tranquility; or these days, a cure for Covid-19 or an end to the protests – then no, Jesus did not come to bring that kind of peace. And, actually, if that’s what you’re here for, you might as well leave now, because we don’t have that to give. Jesus didn’t come to bring earthly peace, but a different kind of peace – the peace of forgiveness, peace between God and sinners, the peace that nothing in this world can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:39). Jesus explains the distinction in John 16: I have told you these things (that the disciples would be persecuted), so that you may have peace in me. In this world you are going to have trouble. But be courageous! I have overcome the world (John 16:33). This resolves the paradox – in Jesus we have peace; in this world no peace, but trouble. And in our text, he identifies one of the specific troubles as a sword.

What does that mean? What does a sword do? It cuts, it divides, it separates. (Think of how Peter tried to separate Malchus’ ear from the rest of his body (John 18:10)). Divides, separates what? We see plenty of divisions in our nation today, don’t we? Political, economic, racial, etc. But this sword cuts much deeper than any of those, this sword touches every single human. We get a hint of this division already in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit they separated themselves, divided themselves from God and “made peace” with the devil. God wouldn’t let that stand. He wouldn’t let the crown of his creation ally itself with the prince of darkness. So what did he do? He declared war: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel (Genesis 3:15). So you see this amazing truth: the sender of this sword, the source of the single greatest division between people on earth – between believer and unbeliever – is not the devil, but God.

Now, we’d probably be just fine if this sword were aimed at drug dealers and pedophiles and anarchists and Muslims, but Jesus points this sword much closer to home: 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. Now, understand this correctly. Jesus’ goal is not to divide and destroy families. And thank God for the families that stay together and pray together and go to church together. But sadly, just as often, division and bitterness result when Christ is confessed. I know that many of you have personal experience with that sword. You have baptized and confirmed sons and daughters who have turned their back on their Savior to chase after the things of this world. You have siblings who are avowed atheists. You have spouses who think going to church is stupid and childish. Many of you have felt the sword strike division in your own homes and your own heart – and it hurts.

Why is it this way? Why isn’t it obvious to everyone, especially the people we love, that in view of the fact that one day we will all die, the only logical thing to do is follow and confess the only one who can give us eternal life? Why does your family resent and dislike and mock you because you do? Two reasons. First, they don’t want to hear or be reminded that their chosen lifestyle, their behavior, their beliefs are sinful in the eyes of God. Whenever you confess the truth of the Law, you’re are a reminder that they stand under God’s judgment. Second, you stand before them as a living, breathing example of someone who confesses their desperate need for a Savior. And many people don’t want to hear that. They want to think they’re good enough on their own. They want to believe that their best efforts can save them. And whenever you confess the Gospel you’re reminding them that they’re not and they can’t. Is it any surprise that they resent you? So grow up, Christians, don’t be surprised when the Gospel of peace proves to be a divisive sword in your own home and family.

And even if you’ve been blessed to not experience the sword in your own home, it’s clearly drawing blood in our nation, isn’t it? Not too long ago scholars used to describe America as a post-Christian nation – meaning that while some of the remnants of Christian values and morals remain, Christianity was no longer the primary worldview in public affairs. I don’t think that description is accurate anymore. I believe our society has become actively anti-Christian. It’s not just in the obvious ways: that the Ten Commandments have been torn out of courtrooms or that there was a rainbow flag flying over our state capitol during the month of June – or even that there are over 2000 abortions performed in our country every day. [1] (Based on the doctrine of the two kingdoms, I don’t believe we have a right to insist on the first two. And the third, abortion, is not a matter of faith at all, but a matter of natural law and human rights.) It’s that when you confess Jesus Christ as the only Savior you’re automatically labeled an intolerant bigot. It’s that in this new “cancel culture” you can lose your job just for confessing Christ as the Savior of all – as one Milwaukee area man did just a few weeks ago. It’s that state and local officials are dead-set against allowing tax payers to use their own tax money to send their children to Christian schools and that these same people have, during this pandemic, specifically targeted churches to hinder their operation. The world doesn’t just want Christ and his cross removed from public buildings anymore, it wants them removed from the public consciousness altogether. But again, this shouldn’t surprise us, this is the world Jesus warned us about.

It’s somewhat ironic then, that while the world is trying to get rid of the cross, Jesus tells us whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Today we fashion bright and shiny crosses to adorn our churches and decorate our homes and tattoo them on our bodies – we take pride in the cross. But in the Roman Empire, the cross was a symbol of shame; it had only one purpose: to kill. That’s Jesus’ point here. If you want to follow him, you must be prepared to die. This dying happens in two ways. First, there’s a certain dying that happens as the sword of the Gospel separates us from the people close to us and from the unbelieving world. And, who knows, one day it may become more than just verbal, social and legal harassment; one day they may come for our church, our homes, even our lives. Certainly we know that throughout world history, violent persecution of Christians is the rule, not the exception. Just as others have carried this cross in the past, we may be asked to carry it in the future.

But there’s another, more personal, aspect of the cross that we bear when we confess Christ. And that is the putting to death of self, our sinful nature – the old Adam, as it’s called. What does this mean? It means putting to death the sinful desires we were born with that want to take control of our lives. The lust, hatred, jealousy, anger, greed, selfishness, drunkenness (Galatians 5:19-21) – those desires that rise up so naturally in our hearts – they need to be put to death each and every day. How? Only God can do this, and God has chosen to do this through Baptism. But, contrary to popular belief, Baptism is not a one-time event but a slow execution that lasts a lifteime. Luther explains, “Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” (SC Baptism 4). As brutal as the war between the powers of heaven and hell is out there – the fiercest struggle is taking place right here: in our hearts. Going to war with self daily, putting the old Adam to death through repentance – that is the nature of life for baptized Christians, that is the cross we all bear for confessing Christ.

And so, according to Jesus, we are in a lose / lose situation: whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. If all you’re looking for in Christianity is your best life now; a nice, comfortable life with no problems – then, ironically, you’re going to lose out on true life. You will never know, never experience the eternal life Jesus wants you to have. But when you lose your life, now; when you don’t define yourself by who you are or what you have or what you’ve done, when you give up thinking that you’re good enough for God, when you throw yourself on Christ alone, when you properly view your 70 or 80 years here primarily as preparation for eternity – then, and only then, you will find true life.

And that’s the life Jesus came to this earth to win for you. And do you know how he did it? Not coincidentally, with the three things we’ve been talking about: a sword, a cross, and a life. We may face some degree of hostility from our families and from the world for our confession – but it doesn’t compare to what Jesus endured. His family called him crazy (Mark 3:21). His own brothers didn’t believe in him (John 7:5). One of his disciples betrayed him (Luke 22:47) and his best friend disowned him (Matthew 26:69-75). But never once did he let his natural love for those closest to him overcome his love for God – and his perfect life is now yours! Right now we may endure harassment and persecution from the world, but 2000 years ago the world took Jesus, physically assaulted him, falsely convicted him, brutally whipped him, and nailed him to a cross. A cross that wasn’t just composed of wood and nails but of the sins of the world. All the sexually immoral, hateful, angry, greed, selfish things we have thought and said and done – Jesus suffered the wrath of God and the fires of hell free us from them. He didn’t just feel like he was dying on the inside – he did die, he gave up his life suffering the eternal death we deserved. But then…three days later, he took his life up again.

And that’s the new life Jesus brings to you today. It’s his life, the resurrected life. It is life that is not affected by divisions in the family, by persecution from the world, by sin or even death. And as a baptized Christian, not only will you rise to live and rule forever with Jesus, but this new life is yours right now. Your confession of Christ may cost you family ties here on earth, but that confession ties you, binds you, unites you to the family of believers you see around you and to all of the prophets and apostles who have gone before you – they are your true family. The world may mock and scorn you – but you know the truth; that this world and its desires pass away (1 John 2:17). So, I’ll ask again, is it worth it, knowing that confessing Christ will bring a sword and a cross into your life? Not only is it worth it, we thank God for the privilege to suffer the sword and bear the cross in this world because through it, Jesus brings us true life, life that starts now and will never end. Amen.

[1] https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states?gclid=CjwKCAjwxqX4BRBhEiwAYtJX7YDTiRsRONq_hBBH4z_aYowqqqaw9aV6p2u9jc_kpXMyizJokD6IVRoCBV8QAvD_BwE