Today’s lesson is confusing because we usually offer the
peace of the Lord to each other. Jesus
did this in all his resurrection appearances, so what does it mean in today’s
lesson when he says that he has not come to bring peace but division, or to put
in another way; how is this good news?
Several weeks ago I tried to build the case that it was not
God’s will that Sodom and Gomorrah be turned to ash along with Lot’s wife
becoming a pillar of salt but that it was our projecting our human violence
onto a god of our own making. I think we need to use the same type of thinking
to make sense of today’s lesson. In
Jesus’ time the Jews thought of themselves as a race and a nation. Their identity came from being blood
descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
You could not marry a foreigner because that would dilute or pollute the
blood line. This is the kind of thinking
about race, ethnicity and religion that marks and perpetuates the
Jesus called into question the categories of nation and
family. “When Jesus family heard him
preach they sought to restrain Jesus because they thought he had gone out of
his mind. Then his mother and brothers
went and standing outside they called to him.
The crowd told him your mother and brothers are outside and Jesus
replied to them. Who are my mother and
my brothers and my sisters? Those who do
my Father’s will.” Lk. 8:19-21. I think you will have to give me that this is
a blatant redefinition of family.
Or this lesson, “A woman from the crowd lifted up her voice
and said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed
you. But Jesus responded; blessed rather
are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” Lk. 11:27. 23:29.
Another of his disciples said to him; “Lord permit me to first bury my Father. And Jesus said to him follow me and leave the
dead to bury their dead.” Lk
9:59-60. This is scandalous, because the
proper burial of the dead is a universal human obligation. The only explanation for Jesus’ astonishing
commandment is that he saw himself as creating an alternative to nation and
family that we know as the
Paul very quickly picked up on this part of Jesus preaching
and he established a multi ethnic and non-national church structure. Paul understood that the Jewish way of
looking at the creation was fundamentally flawed and needed to be
abandoned. He reflected in his ministry
that Jesus had created a new family around himself. Jesus called for a deep and shockingly
disloyal move away from nationality and family loyalty. It was to be replaced with total devotion and
loyalty to himself.
Humanity is permeated with sin, even, and perhaps especially
nation and family are examples of this.
This is the sense in which I think Jesus came to cause division. Jesus comes with a truth that will divide us
and show us how our faulty constructs and institutions keep us divided. Sin causes us to win our happiness at the
expense of someone else’s pain. It is a
sacrificial logic that says my arm feels better if yours is broken. It is this inside/outside game that we play
all the time and that Jesus called
The good news in our lesson for today is that Jesus has come
to offer us true peace, not at another’s expense but won by Jesus who suffered
pain at our hands. Jesus was the victim of
our sacrificial logic. He became an
outcast as an example for us. But God
raised him from death and declared him to be the only winner. And there is even more good news! Jesus has freely shared his victory with us
so that we can all win since Jesus whole project was to forgive the sin that
separates us from each other and God. We celebrate this victory won by Jesus on
the cross by sharing what we were given because of it: forgiveness!
Jesus doesn’t just break down family and nation he rebuilds
us all into the new family of his body.
He calls us together for a family meal where he feeds us with the power
of his life. He shares with us the
forgiveness, peace and life everlasting that he received from his Father and
gives us the chance to share it with each other.
1.
Do the old institutions have to be taken apart
before we can live in the
2.
How does using Jesus as an example lessen
rivalry between people?
3.
How is Jesus the only true source of peace?