We often gloss over the implications of living fully as a Christian. It’s more acceptable to many if we embrace the Christmas card image of the Incarnation; that is a stable as clean as a cottage with happy barnyard animals surrounding a beatific Mary who cradles a chubby infant Jesus. Easter should be full of pictures of lambs, a glowing Christ in white robes and lilies, lots of lilies.
That is why reflecting on Matthew 10:34 Christ shares a startling message with his disciples. “ Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Christ is here to upset the earthly order which since Adam has been disordered with regards to loving God and loving neighbor.
We must choose love
When the scholar questions Jesus in Matthew 22:35-40 and Jesus responds: “…one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ ‘He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. ‘ ”
Love in the face of conflicts
If Jesus teaches that love of God and neighbor are primary, but in Matthew 35-36 he talks about setting family members against one another and further on in Matthew 10:37 says, “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” How can this be loving others?
I believe what Jesus is telling us is that our family, our friends, and our neighbors might not want to hear that God is central to our lives. If people refuse to recognize that pleasing God is important, conflict is surely inevitable.
Jesus goes on to exhort in Matthew 10:40-42 that if we perform acts of charity as his disciples we will be rewarded by our heavenly Father. We would all agree that loving acts come more easily for family and friends. But Jesus wants us to recognize that everyone is a neighbor who deserves those same loving acts. As Christians we need to take a “sword” against prejudice, against perceived enemies, against hate. Trying to change attitudes such as these is extremely hard but if God is the center of our lives, it is a battle worth fighting.
Following Jesus
When we make Jesus’ cross secondary to lambs and lilies and pretty Christmas card images, we are not being true to His message. As Jesus says in Matthew 10:38 “…and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” May we all pray this week for the grace to follow Jesus even when the way is difficult.
