Truth that Divides

'Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth?'

Jeremiah 23.23-29

Luke 12:49-56

As Christians we live with paradox – we believe after all in God made man; perhaps the greatest example of a paradox that there is. Jesus talks in our passage from Luke about bringing division – which seems highly paradoxical, as isn’t he the Prince of Peace? Why would Jesus come to divide households, mothers against daughters and fathers against sons? Surely, we can’t worship a God who proclaims such a message?

The reason that Jesus brings division, and that he is labouring to see it completed (‘what stress I am under until it is completed’) is because the Word of God is not neutral, bland or irrelevant. As the Living Word our response to Jesus can’t be neutral or bland either.

The Word of God is, as the prophet Jeremiah says:

‘like fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces’

Or,

‘The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews 4.12).

It’s impossible to be neutral or unmoved as a Christian in the face of suffering, in the face of injustice: ‘Defend the right of the humble and needy; rescue the weak and the poor, deliver them from the hand of the wicked’ says the psalmist.

If our wealth and our privilege shield us from the real and damaging realities of inequality – poverty that manifests itself most fully in lack of choice, absence of opportunity, then we can become bland Christians whose faith means nothing other than respectability. People who shuffle in pews, bow heads and refuse to have their hearts transformed by the overpowering love and compassion of God.

Jesus comes to shake all that up. He labours under a baptism that is waiting for fulfilment. He has not come to preach peace but division. Where do you stand? Make a choice! Be somebody who stands up for the vulnerable, the weak, the poor. Be somebody who speaks truth publicly and not lies.

We live in a culture where permissiveness has been the strong and dominant ethical narrative for some time: what is good is what makes you happy, the right thing for you. And there are some real benefits to that way of living – shame becomes less dominant in such a culture, for instance. It seems like we are in a place of freedom. But, perhaps the flipside of that is that truth as a concept and reality is undermined, as each person has their own truth. Without a common understanding of truth, we come to a place where we can’t trust each other and then we see society start to fracture with the widespread telling of lies.

That is not the Christian narrative, the Christian narrative says that we live in a world created and loved by God, who is the source of all truth, light, life and goodness. That there is a difference between right and wrong, between good and bad, between lies and the truth. That we can trust in God to teach us what is true, to help us live in communities of justice and peace. Jesus is the manifestation of God in our world- and we are called to follow him and to put all our trust in Him.

Jesus brings through his life and witness a truth that divides people. He demands a response, either of commitment or rejection. We cannot stand neutral in front of his Word.