Most of us don’t like conflict. Most of us
want to get along with each other. Now, that’s not universally true, of
course. There are people who thrive on
conflict, and if that’s you I’m not criticizing you. God made us all to
be different, and there are some occupations where you need to be able to
handle conflict if you’re going to do your job properly. But for most of
us, if we could, we’d like to see everyone be able to accept each other. Even if we disagree on some things, we’d like
it if everyone could find a way to just get along with each other.
And that’s true in just about every setting. We’d
like the people in our family to get along with each other. We’d like the
people in our church to get along with each other. We’d like the people in our community to get
along with each other. We’d like the people in the country to get along
with each other.
It’s just kind of generally agreed that people accepting
each other, working together, getting along with each other, is a good
thing. In fact, there’s an entire psalm, Psalm 133, that talks about how
wonderful it is when God’s people live together in unity.
And then we come to our Bible reading for today. And
there’s Jesus, talking about how he has not come to bring unity at all.
He says nothing about people getting along with each other and working
together. In fact, he says he has come to bring division among people. In fact, he specifically says he has come to
bring division among families. Listen to it: Jesus says, “From now on there will be five
in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against
three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against
daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
That goes against everything that any of us would ever want
to see happen in our families. I don’t know anyone who wants to have the
people in their family divided against each other. It happens, of
course. We know it happens. Maybe some of you have even experienced it in
your family. But even when it happens, we wish that things were
different. I don’t know anyone who would
say that division in a family is a good thing, that it’s our goal, that it’s
something we want to have happen.
So what’s Jesus talking about? Why would he say these
things?
Well, we should point out that, in saying this, Jesus does
not say that division in a family is a good thing. He does not say it
should be our goal or that we should want it.
He does not say that he wants these things to happen. What Jesus
is saying is that these are things that are going to happen, whether he wants
them to or not. These are things that
are the inevitable result of the message he has come to give and the work he
has come to do.
Jesus knew that when he did the things he did, some people
were going to get upset about it. He knew that when he violated the
Sabbath law, when he worked miracles, when he contradicted the Pharisees, when
he spoke out against the religious leaders of the time, and especially when he
asserted that he was the divine Son of God, that these were going to be
controversial things. Some people would accept them, and some people
would not. Some people would accept him,
and some people would not. And in some cases, the people who would not
accept him would actively work against him to stop him.
In other words, Jesus knew that saying the things he said
and doing the things he did was going to cause division. Those things
were going to cause division because they were going to force people to
choose. They could choose to follow him,
or they could choose to actively oppose him. Or, they could choose to not
make a choice, to simply try to get along with everyone and not take a
stand. They could choose to ignore Jesus
entirely. But even that was a
choice. No matter what they did, they could not avoid having to choose,
even if they wanted to. And their
choices were going to cause division.
And sometimes, as we see throughout the New Testament, that division
resulted in violence against Jesus and his followers.
I don’t know that Jesus wanted to cause division,
exactly. I suspect he’d have been much happier if everyone had simply
agreed to trust him, believe in him, and accept him as the divine Son of
God. That certainly would’ve made things easier for him. But Jesus knew that was not going to
happen.
Jesus knew there was only one
way he could avoid causing division, and that way was to stop. Stop
saying the things he said. Stop doing
the things he did. Stop violating the
Sabbath law, stop working miracles. Stop contradicting the Pharisees,
stop speaking out against the religious leaders. And certainly, stop claiming to be the divine
Son of God. That was one of the options open to Jesus, and he could’ve
taken that option. But if he had, he
would not have done what God the Father sent him to earth to do. The only
way he could do what he’d been sent here to do was to say the things he said
and do the things he did.
So that’s what Jesus did.
And he did not fear the division that came about as a result. He accepted
it, because he knew he was doing what God the Father had sent him to do.
And he knew that, as long as he did that, things would go the way they were
supposed to go. He knew that would be true even in the division that
followed. In fact, it would be true even
when that division ultimately led to him being killed on a cross. God
would be with him, God would bless him, and God would bless what he did.
As we look around us today, we
see a lot of division. I’m sure some of us do have division in our
families. Sometimes there’s division in
our community and in our local church. There’s certainly division in the
United Methodist church as a whole, especially over the issue of homosexuality. In fact, some are predicting that the United
Methodist church will split over that issue. And there’s certainly
division in the country as well. You can
look at the news on pretty much any given day to see that.
And when we’re faced with these
divisions, we have times when we have to choose. We choose to be on one
side, or we choose to be on the other side.
Or, we can choose to not make a choice, to simply try to get along with
everyone and not take a stand. Or, we can choose to ignore all of these
things entirely. But even that is a
choice. We cannot avoid making a choice,
even if we want to.
I’m not saying that, as
Christians, we need to go out of our way to cause controversy and
division. Some of us may be called to do that, but most of us are
probably not. But if we truly live out
our lives as Christians, if we attempt to share God’s word and show God’s love,
if we try to go and make disciples the way Jesus told us to, there will be
times when people don’t like it. And so, division will be the result.
It’s one of the things that
makes it hard to be a Christian. Most of us don’t like controversy. I don’t know that Jesus himself actually liked
controversy. But he accepted it, because he knew he could not avoid it
and do what he had been sent to earth to do. And as Christians, you and I
need to be willing to accept controversy, too.
Because, as Christians, there will be times when we cannot avoid
controversy and still truly be followers of Jesus Christ.
So we need to face that.
And while we may not like it, we don’t need to fear it, either. If we do
what God wants us to do, God will take care of the rest. That will be
true even in the division that follows.
If we do what God wants us to do, God will see that, God will bless the
things we do, and God will bless us.
But in dealing with division,
there are a couple of things to point out. First, we are not called to
deliberately be provocative just to create division. The Apostle Paul
says, in Romans Eighteen, “as far as it depends on you, be at peace with
everyone.” Living as a Christian sometimes results in division, and we
have to accept that, but nowhere are we told to deliberately fan the
flames. We simply need to say what God wants us to say, do what God wants
us to do, and live as God wants us to live.
And second, we are not supposed
to hate those who disagree with us. Jesus spoke out against the Pharisees
and the other religious leaders of his day, but he does not ever say that he
hated them. He may have hated the things they said and did, but he did
not hate them. Remember, Jesus told us
to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. In fact Jesus,
while hanging on the cross, asked God to forgive the people who had done this
to him. Even if our lives as Christians
result in people hating us, we are not supposed to hate them in return.
As Christians, that’s simply not one of our options.
It’s hard on us when our family
is divided. It’s hard on us when our church is divided. It’s hard on us when our country is
divided. It was probably hard on Jesus, too, when he was on the
earth. But while Jesus may not have
wanted division, he did not fear it, either. He simply did what God the
Father wanted him to do, and he accepted whatever happened as a result. He was confident that if he pleased God, God
would take care of the rest.
That’s the example for
us. You and I may not want division, but we do not need to fear it,
either. If we do what God wants us to do, we can accept whatever happens
as a result. We can be confident that if we please God, God will take
care of the rest.
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