“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
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; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
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; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-39 NRSV).
I think I've misunderstood the sword.
I've been thinking a bit about what Jesus said, that he is the resurrection. Not just that he would be raised or that he would raise others (Indeed, when Jesus was raised, tombs burst open and dead people came out of them alive), but that he was, in his own person, very resurrection itself. And when resurrection enters the world, the world can't help but blossom into life again.
So, what of this sword? How could he who is resurrection also bring a sword and promise division? How could the Prince of Peace say he has not come to bring peace?
Maybe it's because he who is resurrection also came to separate the parts of this world that join resurrection from the parts of it that cling to their old life, their same death. Maybe that sword is like a knife that cuts away the cancer. Of course it's painful, of course it's not pretty, but it has to be done for the sake of life. Maybe that sword is the sword that keeps the attackers out. Those who seek to steal, kill, and destroy do not belong in the resurrected world; they must be kept out.
If there's any hope to restore a marriage damaged by adultery, it's not to try to create peace among three people. It's to cut off the offending party and to remove all of the emotions and situations that got them there. Do not create peace where there is no peace. You have to cut off the death.
There's no room for abuse in a resurrected world. There's no room for lying or cheating or stealing or hurting. There's no room for disordered sex and sexuality. There's no room for hunger or sickness because there's no room for death. And so, the hope of the resurrection means cutting off all the death. And that sawing, cutting, ripping separation is often excruciatingly painful.
It's painful to cut away parts of ourselves--things we've loved and lived with--because these things belong to death.
It's painful to cut off father and mother, daughter-in-law and household because they are clinging to death so desperately.
It's painful to cut off the life of the world in order to take up the cross of Christ.
The world is spinning in confusion, unable to discern life from death. Tricking itself into believing that life is death and death is life. And in that confusion, resurrection enters and makes claims about what is life that don't sound good to us. We don't want to go into the operating room. We don't want to pick up our execution.
But Jesus says that we must enter into his death so that we can enter into his life.
We have to let his sword do the cutting.
But I don't usually want to. I want to have it all. I want one foot in life and one foot in death. I don't want to surrender even the dead and dying parts of me because the sword just hurts too much. I don't want to give up hurting people because cutting that off leaves me exposed to more hurt. I don't want to think about the things that have to die. But this is what resurrection is--resurrection includes letting some things die.
But there is also a wonderful amount of hope in this--in the big picture. As resurrection people, we are called to be those who end the hunger, who cut off abuse, who stop the sicknesses, and who cease the lying. We get to be the ones under the sword, cutting out the cancer and removing the offenders. We bring division because death ought to be divided from life, because death must be cut off of all that will be resurrected. This is the life--the resurrection life--that we are called to. Here is a place for that life.
And here is a place for a sword.
*As a disclaimer, I really have no idea if this is what this passage is about at all...but I don't think I'm that far off...