“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.”
In our world and in our current political climate, it seems that there are more things that divide us than unite us. Our world is supremely broken up and split on things like race and ethnicity, socio-economic classes, ideas about how our government should run, and even which candidate is worse. There is a lot of rhetoric that is inherently divisive and unfortunately, has resulted in violence and hatred.
The quotation above is not from either one of the presidential nominees; it is from Jesus. Jesus was divisive, so much so that he promised to turn families against one another. Yet, Jesus’ divisiveness was different from what we are used to. Jesus was divisive because he was countercultural and his message was other-worldly. He declared that to really be alive, you must die. “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39) In another instance, Jesus tells the rich ruler that to be truly prosperous, he must sell all of his possessions. (Luke 18:18-30).
One of the most revolutionary actions of Jesus was also his most divisive. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2) The religious and political leaders during Jesus’ day were upset that he was hanging out with the sinners – with the whores, the liars, the drunks, the democrats, the thieves, the financial extortionists, the republicans, the murderers, and so on. This is the divisive gospel of Jesus- that he would receive and eat with sinners. He eats with us.
The message of Jesus is divisive because it goes against everything we have been taught, and everything we value. The ethic of the cross is counter-intuitive to our self-preservation, and yet, it is the only way forward in our Christian life. If we are to live, then we must die, continually, every day. Jesus says that he came so that we may have abundant life, yet this life only came through his death. This is the paradox of Christ, that through his death, we have life. Many of people’s reasons for supporting a particular candidate sound more like the old wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of the cross. Nationalistic tendencies that hold onto self-preservation is at odds with Jesus’ example of self-sacrifice. The most divisive part of Jesus’ ministry was his love for sinners. It didn’t matter who they were, or what they had done- Jesus ate with them. Now, as Jesus is the God with us, he invites us to a meal. Yet, the only way to eat the meal is to give your seat away and serve the meal to others. I pray that during this season, the Church would be divisive because it refuses to alienate the vulnerable, hurt the broken, and create fear of the unknown. I pray the Church responds as Jesus taught us: to take up our cross and die.
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