Matthew 10:34-42
Pastor Troy Slater, Our
The Seventh Sunday after
Pentecost - A
I heard
something this week that I found a bit disturbing as a pastor - although it was
something that any of us as confessing Christians should probably find
disturbing. And maybe you heard it
also. But it was the findings from a
survey of 35,000 adults that showed that 70 percent of Americans with a
religious view - which is probably most Americans - but 70 percent do not believe
that their religion is the only way to eternal life. And if you look at those who belong to
mainline protestant churches - of which we would be classified as LCMS
Lutherans - but 83% of those belonging to mainline protestant Christian
churches believe that many religions can lead to eternal life. Universalism is what this is often referred
to as - the belief that my belief is truth, your belief is truth, the Muslim
over there, his belief is truth, the Jew over here, her belief is truth. We're all right - believe whatever you want,
just believe it sincerely and we can sit around, hold hands and pretend we are
all heading to the same nice place.
But
let me ask you. For Christians who hold
such a view, what is that other than denying Jesus and His work? I mean if all paths lead to heaven - if many
religions can lead to eternal life - then what in the world was the Son of God
doing there on the cross? Certainly
didn't need to be there paying for my sins - after all I could just become a
good Mormon or a Jew or Muslim or Buddhist and take care of my sins myself. Universalism is a denial – at least for
Christians – of Jesus and His work.
Of
course all this "universalism" talk arises out of that great new virtue
of the day - "tolerance", right?
Now I'm all for being respectful towards others - being respectful of
the Muslim or the Jew bearing in mind they are a fellow sinful human being whom
Jesus did die on the cross for. But to
pretend all is well as they go down the path to hell as they reject Jesus who
is the way, the truth, and the life?
Then no, I am not for "tolerance."
You
see we must not think we have to apologize for God's grace in Jesus as revealed
in God's Word. We must not think we have
to apologize for proclaiming THE TRUTH
of God's grace in Jesus - THE one and only way of salvation. And if that means we are branded by the world
as "intolerant" or close-minded - then so be it. For in our Gospel reading for today Jesus
even says, "Do not think that I have
come to bring peace to the earth. I have
not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Of
course this reading is what we might call one of Jesus' "hard
sayings". After all, what Jesus
says here is very much opposite of what the world wants Jesus to say and
opposite even of what we might want Jesus to say. Instead of a peaceful, user-friendly,
compliant, tolerant Jesus, here we find a very controversial, divisive
Jesus. While many today want to avoid
division among different church bodies and religions, the truth is that this
text says Jesus divides. While Jesus'
purpose certainly is to bring the good news that through him sinners can have
peace with God, the fact is that in a sinful, fallen world, this good news, it
cuts like a sword, it divides. Jesus is
the great divider.
And
this division, it cuts very deep. In
fact it brings division not just among the human race as universalism hates,
but it also even affects that most basic of human institutions - the
family. Jesus says, “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. A persons enemies will be those of his own
household." I imagine that if
we were each to list those things that are most important to us in life, "family" would be towards the top of all of
our lists. But even one's relationship with their family, is to be subservient
to one's relationship with Jesus. Now I know
I have certainly been fortunate to be blessed with a Christian family - one
that was even highly supportive of my decision to enter the Seminary and serve
as pastor. And so I cannot
imagine
the
pain
that many do go through whose family ridicules or even disowns
them for holding to the Christian faith. In fact in many Muslim countries today
our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are commonly turned into the authorities
by their own parents or children for rejecting the dead religion of Islam and
instead trusting in Jesus. .... Maybe you have experienced at least a taste of this
division or pain in your life. Maybe some
in your own family regard you as foolish or weak for insisting on going to
church. Or maybe you've experienced that
pain and separation that can occur when you try to restore a child or sibling
who is in danger of straying away from the faith or who is refusing to repent
of their sin. The truth is that following
Jesus can bring pain into our relationships - even those closest of
relationships.
There
is a belief often promoted that says, "Jesus is all about
relationships." In other words,
Jesus is all about bringing people peacefully together. But in our Gospel text Jesus says "No,
that's not true." It's not about
"relationships" - it's about one relationship and one relationship
only - the right relationship between a sinner and Jesus. As Jesus says, "Whoever loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me." Yes Jesus is
the great divider. …
But
as hard as that is for us to hear, I must warn you that our reading for today
gets even harder. For in addition to
those family relationships that must be made subservient to our relationship
with Jesus, even eliminated if needed, there is one more that must be also if
you are to follow Him. “Whoever does not take up his cross and
follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever
finds his life will lose it." ... You see, one's relationship with
oneself must also even go - "denying oneself" as Jesus calls it
elsewhere in Matthew.
But
of course it is this love of self that tends to be the last one to go in favor
of that life-giving relationship with Jesus.
We say we want to follow Jesus but then we want to do so based upon our
terms - according to our schedule. We
base our decisions not upon God's word, but upon our wants. Jesus becomes an item on our to-do list and
when we get around to him, well he's supposed to thank us for being so faithful
to him. ...
Jesus
has called each one of us to follow Him.
And for most of us here today it was at the baptismal font that our Lord
first set us upon the path of following Him.
But does our following of him often times seem to stop at the exit door
of the church - or at least until it is convenient? Does our faith become a
"comfortable" faith in a likeable kind of Jesus?
But our
Gospel lesson for this morning is not about making you or me more comfortable -
Jesus is not an item on a to-do list, Jesus is not about convenience or about
affirming whatever options you or I might come up with for our own personal happiness. Jesus is about Jesus and Jesus is about being
the only way, the truth and the life.
There is no other. There is no
middle ground - no dividing of our loyalty - no straddling the fence - no
part-time followers of Jesus. Jesus
isn’t just one slice of our life, He IS our life. "Follow me," He says. "Follow me whatever the cost and don’t
look back. No one who puts his hand to
the plow and looks back is fit for service in the
Now we may
say, That seems rather impractical or even demanding. But truth is, Jesus call to follow Him, actually
it is called grace. It is called
grace. It is God being gracious. He didn't have to send His son to die for a
humanity that is hell-bent on doing things our own way. He didn’t have to rescue us from our own sin
and death. But He did. He did.
And
because He graciously did, He now graciously invites you to follow Him. And as those who have been invited to follow
Him, our Gospel lesson for this morning not only has a stern warning, it also
has a comforting promise. Jesus says, "whoever finds his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." You see while the message of Jesus brings a
sword that divides us from the fallen world, it also brings peace with a
gracious God. It brings that one peace
that matters - that peace that surpasses all human understanding. That is what Jesus is all about - bringing peace
between God and man.
Of course
that peace cost Him a great price. In
fact it brought Him division - caused Him to be at odds with the world. He was considered an outcast, a radical, even
His own family thought he had gone off the deep end. He didn't have a place to lay His head. He was laughed at and mocked, beaten and
whipped. He suffered and was murdered by
being hung on a tree of execution. But
as the prophet Isaiah declares, "The
punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are
healed." By Jesus life and
death, His resurrection on the third day, you now have peace with God. And indeed there is no better place to be - no
better relationship to have. None.
And so it
is that that relationship, it now shapes all of your life. "To
lose one's life" as Jesus says, is to place one's life and
relationships under Him - to subject them to His will – let all of life be
shaped by His Word. To lose one's life
is to follow Jesus alone as the way, the truth and the life - no matter the
cost. By nature we highly prize our
physical life in this present world; we make every effort to sustain it with
food an drink, enhance it with treasure and pleasure, prestige and social
position. But that is not what life is
about. There is more – so much
more. Life in Christ. Life in Christ both here in time and there in
eternity – that is life. And it is that
life that God has given to you through Jesus and His cross. That is the life you have been given through
the waters of Baptism and reapplied to you through His Word of absolution and through
the body and blood of His Supper. Your
life is a life in Christ both now and forever. …
I
came across a quote from a missionary who would later die a martyr for his
faith in Christ. But he said, "He
is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot
lose." We live in age when we are
encouraged to focus on what we cannot keep.
But it is a joy - yes even an honor - to give up our hold on the
temporary pleasures and things of this world knowing that in Jesus, you have
gained the eternal treasures of heaven.
As
And
so yes, these words of our Gospel text for this morning, they are some rather
hard words. Jesus warns us it won't be
easy. Divisions with the world will
come, relationships with family may even suffer, worldly pleasures will ultimately
vanish. Following Jesus means anything
but peace with a sinful, fallen world.
Jesus has warned you. But Jesus
has also prepared you. He has prepared
you by giving you the good news that by His cross and resurrection, you have
life - you have the only life that matters - life forever at peace with the one
true God. That is yours. That is yours because in Jesus the Great
Divider, you also have Jesus the Great Savior.
Amen.