Each year as we approach the Christmas season and the threshold of a new year, it is good for us to reflect on the nature and character of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We see Jesus at this time of year as a child. He is also heralded as the “Prince of Peace” in one of the more popular texts of the Christmas season... Isaiah 9:1-7.
We love to recall these comforting verses that speak of the qualities and attributes of Jesus the "Prince of Peace". Especially verses 6 and 7... For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
The coming of the Christ, the Messiah, as foretold in these verses in Isaiah speaks of Him bringing us from darkness to light; distress to hope; from death to life; removing the yoke of burdens and subduing the oppressor. His arrival would be comforting and reassuring. Okay, Jesus makes us feel really good this time of year. But now we must consider the essence of Matthew chapter 10 in conjunction with Isaiah chapter 9. There is a stark contrast presented.
Unlike Isaiah 9... Matthew 10 is forty-one “comfort shattering” verses we must reconcile with Jesus the child and the imagery of a Prince of Peace. Matthew 10 recounts the instructions Jesus imparts to his twelve disciples as he sends them to the Jewish people to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
Matthew 10:34-36 says these words..."Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn " 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.”
What are we supposed to do with a Prince of Peace who says, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." A sword? Turning families against each other? Not much peace in that scene is there?
Let’s start with our Christmas season view of Jesus. During this time of the year it's normal for us to think of him as the sweet baby Jesus in the manger. Our songs are about him being tender and mild, how he lays down his sweet head and no crying does he make, and all these wonderful images of this divine child. And that's appropriate at this time of year.
However, I would suggest that many Christians have crafted a passive, comforting and reassuring perception of Jesus as a child in the manger. We have allowed our vision of Jesus the God-man, to be formed by our vision of Jesus the baby. In our imaginations we tend to view Jesus as an adult the same way we view him as a baby. As an adult we picture him as being a mild, sweet-natured, and gentle Savior, somebody who talks softly, who's got a perfect complexion and a twinkle in his eye-pretty much a big, grown-up baby. After all, he is called the Prince of Peace. We rarely think of Him as being aggressive or belligerent or combative or in any way socially impolite.
So this Christmas season maybe we need to reconcile our hearts and minds with who Jesus really is. Do we really understand who it is that we worship and welcome at Christmas? To answer that question, we've got to let Jesus out of the manger and be a man on a radical mission.
Certainly Scripture says he is the Prince of Peace and he has come to establish peace. But could the establishment of peace actually call for a period of unrest? In Matthew 10 Jesus says something uncomfortable. It's challenging. It disrupts our assumptions about who He is and why He came. The chapter begins with Jesus commissioning his 12 disciples. Then in verse 5 he sends them out on a mission to proclaim the kingdom of God throughout the villages and towns of Israel. He gives them specific instructions-to raise the dead and heal the sick and proclaim the Good News. Then in verse 26 he tells them that as they do this, they are going to be persecuted. People are going to hate them because of Him.
Then on the heels of that, in verse 34, Jesus says those radical, disruptive and divisive words... "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." What are we to make of that? What happened to our comforting, kind and gentle Prince of Peace? What happened to "good will toward men"? Jesus says he did not come to bring peace but a sword. This doesn't fit with our view of Jesus in the manger, the sweet, innocent, meek, and mild baby. This doesn't fit with our cultural view of Jesus the man, who is equally as infantile, sweet and gentle. How do we reconcile that Jesus says he has come to bring a sword? What does that mean?
First, he's not speaking literally. Jesus is not literally wielding a sword. He never does, and in fact He discourages violence. If not literal, then He is using the sword as a metaphor, as a symbol. What does it represent?
Most of us think of a sword as an instrument of violence. It's a weapon of warfare. So is that what Jesus means, that he's come to bring death and war and destruction to the earth? Some people think so. In fact, throughout Christian history some have interpreted this verse to justify war against non-Christian cultures. Others have used it to justify Christians killing non-Christians in the name of God for self-defense or to protect the church in some way. That's how it's been interpreted throughout history. That's a gross misinterpretation of what Jesus is saying here. Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus advocate violence. Nowhere is he pro-war. Jesus is not using the sword as an illustration of vengeance or violence or death in any way.
Remember, Jesus told us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. And he modeled that for us as he hung on the cross when he prayed to forgive those who were in the process at that very moment of killing him. This is also the Jesus who told Peter to put away his sword, because those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Jesus is not advocating violence or war. That's not what this symbol means. So what does it mean?
The key is in the word peace. Jesus says he has not come to bring peace. The word he uses here is the Hebrew word shalom, familiar to many of us. Shalom means peace. But the Hebrew word has a more nuanced meaning. It doesn't simply mean peace in the absence of violence. It's a peace that comes from wholeness, from being complete, completely put together, unified. It's the wholeness that comes when nothing is missing, when everything is one. So what Jesus says is this... I have not come to bring wholeness; I've come to bring the opposite. The opposite of wholeness or unity is division. He's using the image of a sword to divide, to cut in half. "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." I did not come to bring wholeness and unity, but division. And this interpretation fits the context. After all, in the verses immediately before this Jesus is talking about how the disciples will go throughout the villages and will be persecuted and hated because of him. I've come to bring a sword –– division.
He's come to bring division. I've not come to bring peace on earth, but separation and division. What Jesus is saying is that his mission is to turn the world upside down. And we see him doing that even from the moment of his birth. If you know the Christmas story you know that when King Herod heard that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, he was greatly disturbed, because Jesus even as a baby, as a newborn, was a threat to his power. He'd come to turn the world upside down. So Herod tried to have this child killed failing, but murdering many innocent baby boys.
Let’s fix our perception of Jesus Christ. At Christmas we don't welcome and worship and celebrate the birth of a passive Savior, a pushover Messiah, somebody who just came to make us feel better. The baby Jesus in that manger was a ticking time bomb that would blow the world apart!
Jesus is the most radical person who has ever walked the earth. He did not come to bring peace; he came to bring a sword, to turn the world upside down, to radically alter this world, to dethrone every illegitimate king. He came to utterly change and disrupt this world. And the way he did this was by calling all people back into communion and fellowship with God, back into the kingdom of his Father. And one of the radical things he did was invite people who everyone else thought were completely disqualified from being connected to God: the sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes and thieves and drunkards and all those who were on the outskirts of society. He welcomed them back into fellowship with God. And he welcomes us back into that same restored relationship with God.
He overturned the world by showing God's radical, lavish love for all people and then invited us to love God just as much, with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the reason why this is threatening, the reason why this turns the world upside down, is because to be back in proper relationship with God, to love Him with all that we are, means taking something else in our lives out of that place.
Every one of us has put something in the place in our lives that rightfully belongs to God alone. Just as Herod was threatened by the birth of this rival king, every one of us should be threatened by the birth of Christ, because he has come to dethrone whatever is on the throne of our hearts and dominates our lives. That's why he came to bring a sword, because he's here to turn the world and our lives upside down. That’s radical, disruptive and divisive. But yielding to His form of radicalism, can restore us to a right and satisfying relationship with God.
Jesus has come to ask for our full allegiance, and that will cause division both in us, in our families, among our friends and in the world. During this “season of the Christ” I don't want you to be mesmerized by the imagery of Jesus in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Yes he did start out life on earth that way, but don't look at the manger and think about this innocent, helpless, sweet baby, tender and mild, laying down his sweet head. Jesus is no such thing. He did not come to bring peace but a sword. He did not come to make us feel better about ourselves, but to demand our allegiance. He came as a threat to every illegitimate king in this world, including every illegitimate ruler in our own lives, every god we place before Him, whether that be family or self or anything else. And he alone can make such a demand, because He bought us with His blood on the cross.
