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“He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” –– Isaiah 2:4
“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
–– Isaiah 9:6
“Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
–– Matthew 26:50-52
““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; and one's foes will be members of one's own household.” –– Matthew 10:34-36
Among the four scriptures listed above, it would seem to be only the last one of which we can confidently say, “Well, Jesus, mission accomplished.” Just a cursory review of the day’s headlines can leave you feeling like you’ve been dragged into an alley and beaten with bag of baseballs.
“Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
…I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
…I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
…I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.” –– A hard rain’s a-gonna fall, Bob Dylan
A song released in 1963 speaks not only to its time, but to all time before and after. Conflict transcends time, setting, and population. Is our chosen mandate –– Where two or three are gathered, conflict will be in the midst of them? A Senate hearing, a homeowner’s association meeting, a domestic argument, the caustic hate-filled diatribes and merciless snark of social media from the White House to the high school to the doom scroller’s den. Should our courageous firefighters and police officers be recategorized as Second Responders? Because the volleys of blame, anger, and conspiracy are flying before they can even get to the scene. Rise up, O men of God? Part of me says, I hope not because history has been thoroughly stained by the blood of our failures to represent the Prince of Peace –– Holy wars? Inquisition? Endorsement of slavery, Jim Crow, political corruption, and a resurgent hatred toward those Jesus called neighbor?
History has sometimes experienced progress but it has also known regression of a type we now see on display. Jesus may have said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword,” yet he wasn’t talking about forming a militia. He was speaking about the reality of the violence, power struggles, and hatred that would mark human relations apart from his kingdom. Jesus was referring to the inevitable resistance to the demands of love and to our stubborn deafness to the truth. I am regularly cognizant of a pastor’s retelling of one woman’s response to the question, Who has represented Christ to you? Her answer –– “I’m trying to think of someone who told me the truth about myself so clearly that I wanted to kill him for it.” Jesus was not naive. Jesus understood that apart from his self-giving sacrifice on the cross, we will always be resistant to the demands of love and deaf to the truth about ourselves. The path to peace begins at the cross, making possible the hope of our prayer –– Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. May it be so.
“Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” –– Colossians 1:20
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