How do you define peace?
In today’s sermon text, we hear Christ describe himself as bringing division. It’s a bit unnerving as earlier texts refer to Jesus as the one who will bring peace. How can this be?
The short answer is both are true. Jesus brought peace and division.
Our human nature has very different expectations of peace. We most likely picture singing around a campfire, or on a grander scale, no more wars or conflicts. But those pictures of peace exclude the Creator. They’re ideals of our own self-image; not the image of God, which is in direct conflict with God.
God’s idea of peace is all-encompassing. It is based on the reconciliation we have through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. His death and resurrection made us whole with God. There is no greater peace than knowing that.
Unfortunately, the world at large rejects this peace just as it rejected Christ, and our sinful flesh remains focused on satisfying itself. So when Christ refers to the divisions he brings, he’s talking about putting us into conflict with the world, our flesh, and the devil.
But when we need a “peace that surpasses all understanding”, we can only find that in God’s love. His love is beyond expression. It is always new and never ceasing.
May you find peace in Him. Thanks be to God!
Here is today’s sermon text from Luke 12:
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”