Today we’ll continue with some of your favorites (or the passages you have questions about).  Email (andy@stm-umc.org) or message me with any passages you’d like added or that you have a question about!

Today we are looking at Matthew 10: 34-39: 

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Today’s passage comes with another question.  “This seems to be in direct conflict with Jesus saying in John 14:27 “my peace I give to you.” Aren’t we a religion of peace? 

This is a great question.  Didn’t Jesus say, “blessed are the peacemakers?”  Yet here we see Him saying that He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword.  This doesn’t sound right.  What is really happening here?  Is peace not important?  

Well, let’s look at what is happening here.  What Jesus is talking about is a choice.  He has come, and we have to choose.  He has come, and He makes us choose.  Will we follow Him, or will we not?  Will we obey Him, or will we not?  We have to make a choice.  

That is the sword that He has come to bring.  Not a sword of hatred, but a sword of choice.  A choice to follow Jesus or to reject Jesus.  That is our choice.  That is what we must decide.  He leaves us without an option.  What will we choose to do?  Follow?  Reject?  Obey?  Turn away?  

He gives us peace, yes.  He gives us freedom and grace, yes. And He sheathed Peter’s sword and healed the ear of the servant.  He calls us to walk that same path.  He calls us to choose.  That choice is hard and may have consequences.  But it is a choice we must make. 

He has brought a sword, yes.  He has brought the sword of choice.  What will we choose today?  It’s up to us to choose today. 

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