There's a lot going on in this reading again today, but I want to focus on just a handful of verses toward the end of Matthew 10. Harsh verses. Hard to understand and SO hard to want to put into practice!!
We find here in Matthew 10, Jesus teaching His disciples just before He sent them out on their "short-term missions" assignment and so we find here a message to ALL who would be His disciples and who claim to be. This is serious stuff. It's hard to read the following verses without cringeing:
Matthew 10:34-38: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 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."
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; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.See? OUCH!
Now I'm going to let John MacArthur take over here because, well.... he's just smarter!! I would strongly encourage you to read or download and listen to the entire "The Hallmarks of Discipleship" series (part one, two, and three). These excerpts come from the 3rd sermon:
...the Lord says - Don't be under any illusions about me coming to bring peace. I've come not to send peace, but a sword. Now it's expressed in that verse as if it was the intention of our Lord's coming, and consequences are often expressed as if they were intentions. For in the ultimate sovereignty of God they have to be seen that way. But here the direct result of His coming is described as if it were His deliberate intention. And this is, in a sense, a paradox. The Lord is saying on the one hand - I'm a prince of peace, on the one hand I've come to save, to bring peace, but on the other hand you have to realize that there's going to be a sword.
...It's as if Jesus is saying - It's just going to be the division that you're going to see for the moment. The intervention of God in history through the incarnation of Christ is going to split and fracture the world into segments, into parties that will be pitted against one another. So don't be under any illusion as you go out as a disciple to think the whole world's going to fall at your feet. You're going to go rushing home and tell everybody you've become a Christian. You're going to tell everybody at school, ...and everybody's going to wonderfully line up to sign on the dotted line. It's not going to happen.
Martin Luther said: "If our gospel were received in peace, it wouldn't be the true gospel." And he, if anybody ever saw it divide, saw it divide.
Now, in a real sense verse 34 is paradoxical because we should expect the Lord to bring peace. ...the first coming brought a partial peace, that being the peace that comes to the hearts of those who believe. But the Lord says - You just remember this as you go out, you're going to cause division. You're going to cause a fracturing and a rending and a splitting apart.
The Gospel does that. It is the refiner's fire that consumes. It is the shepherd's separation of the sheep and the goats. It is the husbandman's fan when he throws the grain into the air and the chaff is blown away. There's a separation. The entrance of Christ splits, tears apart.
If Christ had never come, the earth would have gone on in unity to hell... doomed. But when He came a war broke out. (I love that statement!! I feel like shouting, "Hallelujah!!")
And so what He's really going to say here is this - If you're a true disciple, you'll be willing to even create a division in your own home which goes against the grain of your nature, doesn't it? 'Cause that's the place you want the peace. That's the place you want to keep intimacy. Those are the people you love. You don't want to be at odds with them. But you will be true when you commit yourself to Jesus Christ with such commitment to His Lordship that even if it fractures your home you're willing to pay the price.
You see, beloved, what we're talking about is the Lordship of Christ and I saw this again and again, but its got to be repeated until people begin to hear it: becoming a Christian is affirming your commitment to the Lordship of Christ to the point where you forsake everything. It isn't just sticking up your hand, signing a card, walking down an aisle and saying - I love Jesus. It is by faith, not by works, but the manifestation of true faith is a commitment that cannot be swayed by any influence.
The whole point of this section (specifically, the "take his cross and follow me" part, which MacArthur sheds some really cool light on, giving some history that I had never known before) is to stress one thing... total self denial to the point of death.
The Lord is really zeroing in who is a true Christian. One who is not afraid of the world, he is not intimidated by the world. One who favors the Lord and confesses Him, not matter how hostile the forces may be. One who says I love You more than I love the people that are closest to me in this world, and if it comes to that I'll choose You over them. And now it says, I love death for Your sake better than life for my sake. (emphasis added)
So? Still wanna call yourself a disciple of Christ?! A follower of Jesus? This is not an easy calling to live up to. I pray those of us who call ourselves by His name will realize the weight of our commitment ~ and still be committed.
Tomorrow's passages: Luke 9:7-17, Mark 6:14-56, Matthew 14:1-36, John 6:1-21
3 comments:
Great post, Tammi! I cringed a little when I read actually that whole passage. But I really like the verse that says not to be afraid of those who can harm the body but not the soul. I think we can all agree that as humans we're pretty weak, for the most part, especially when it comes to physical pain or discomfort. It was a good reminder for me that the spiritual is more important than the physical.
Weighty indeed! Some serious food for thought there. I think because we live in a country where we're not physical persecuted for our faith, we think this is not applicable to us. And yet, so often we stay quiet under the threat of emotional persecution. Wake up call!
Big time. John Piper has some words about threat of emotional persecution in his book, Don't Waste Your Life. I wrote about the "myth of safety" here.
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