Matthew 10:24-39
Gospel Reading for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
This is one of those texts with which people are not sure what to do. It is likely that a lot of churches will shy away from it. Or it is one that a church might triple down on and receive the wrong message (“As the army of Christ, we are at war with everyone and everything in this world!”). It’s a tough one. The text definitely has an edge as it reaches its crescendo. Jesus says that he didn’t come to bring peace. Rather he came to bring a sword that would sever the ties within one’s family. In fact, if you want to follow Jesus then you need to hate your own family.
It is one of those moments of jarring dissonance. Much of the gospel message aims to bring the Hope of God to fruition. There is a desire for justice, peace, and a love unlike that which the world has ever experienced. So when Jesus says that he came to set sons against fathers, daughters against mothers, and so on then we find ourselves clearing out our ears in hopes that we didn’t hear him correctly. It kind of seems antithetical to what he teaches. Does he really want his followers to go to war with their families?
I am writing this as I sit at my parents’ kitchen table in South Carolina. I am fortunate that I have parents who have been there for me from the beginning and are still here for me now. Yesterday at breakfast, Mom asked the loaded question of how I was doing and I could answer in full honesty because I knew she truly wanted to know and I had no fear that my response would not scare her off. I do not know where I would be without these two loving people.
So does Jesus want me to hate them? No, of course not.
This is my stab at what he is trying to say (because, swords, get it?). Jesus is trying to remind us that truly following him opens up all sorts of conflict and difficult churches within our lives. To love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor in a way that flows from that will put us at odds with some of the places that most feel like home. Trying our best to be a disciple can put us into conflict with family, church, community, or country.
There are moments when what we feel that the godly course of actions would make us a bad child, a bad member of the community, or a bad citizen. Our gut instinct is to stay where we “belong," where it is safe. Jesus is reminding us that even in those difficult dilemmas that his followers are still supposed to follow the way of God’s community. And even in those severing times, we are still supposed to do our best with God’s help to live in a way that embodies the goodness of his way.
The flip side of the coin that we see many times throughout the gospels is that this radical faithfulness can create new families for us. Jesus once remarks that those who do the will of God are his mothers and brothers. He is inviting us into an even larger family that does not adhere to the divisions of blood and border.
That’s my best attempt at this tough passage. Jesus doesn’t want us to hate people and he doesn’t want us take a sword to all our relationships like a kid pretending he’s a ninja. Jesus is reminding his disciples that following him truly can be difficult and we must be ready for those severing moments.