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This Week's Sermon The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost 19 August 2007 "Peace-Bearer or Divider" Luke 12:49-56 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah pointed to the Messiah as "the Prince of Peace." When Jesus was born the angels of God chanted, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2:14, ESV). Jesus often spoke of peace and encouraged his disciples to be peacemakers, yet Jesus' own words in our Gospel today cause us to ask, is he a "Peace-Bearer or Divider?" We seem to have contradictory pictures of Jesus.

This is important for us in these days of Islamic suicide bombers and the violence that is part and parcel of this so-called "religion of peace" because there are those who point to these words of Jesus and say, "See, he's no different than Muhammad. Christianity isn't peaceful because Jesus speaks of himself as being a divider." Usually these people like to accuse all religions of being war-like with Christianity being the worst of the lot. How do we answer these accusations? How do we square Jesus' words in our Gospel reading with his other words about peace?

First, there is not a single passage in the whole New Testament that advocates violence against other human beings. Even these words of Jesus about a sword cannot be understood as any kind of imperative for disciples to follow. They are, however, descriptive of what would happen to Jesus and to those who follow him.

JESUS BRINGS PEACE

What is the nature of the peace that Jesus brings? Much of the world looks in the wrong place because it does not recognize the cause of all unrest and conflict, which is sin. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, man's relationship with God and with other people changed. Man became a slave of Satan. He fell under his control. From the beginning God promised to send a Savior, the One who would re-establish peace with God.

Because of sin, man is an enemy of God. The Scriptures are quite clear about that. Man by nature is ungodly, which means that he does not want to find God any more than Adam and Eve did after they sinned. What is more, we were born spiritually blind, dead, and therefore, enemies of God [Ephesians 2.1-5; Romans 8.7; 5.10]. Because of sin, man is at war with God.

Jesus came to remove the cause of our war with God, that is, he came to remove sin from us. It was for this specific purpose that God the Father in heaven sent his only-begotten Son to become incarnate, just as the Apostle Paul writes:

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:22-25, ESV)

Because Jesus was carrying in his own sinless body and soul all our sins, his innocent suffering and death on the cross propitiated God's wrath over sin forever. To "propitiate" means "to satisfy." It means that the payment of Christ's innocent life on behalf of the world removed the cause of the enmity and wrath that previously existed. God the Father was pleased with Christ's sacrifice, and therefore no longer looks on us as his enemies, calling us "friends" instead. In fact, the Apostle John writes of it this way:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10, ESV)

In his great sacramental hymn, O Lord, We Praise Thee [LSB 617.2], Luther sums up:

All our debt
Thou hast paid;
Peace with God
Once more is made

Jesus brought peace, not through an avenging army and bombs destroying mankind, but by his innocent death on the cross, thus restoring sinful mankind. On the cross Jesus destroyed the true enemy, Satan and his legions, as well as sin's result, death.

But why does Jesus warn that following him will bring division? Why will following Jesus cause people to fall out with Christians, even with members of one's own family? It is because of the means by which the peace is brought, the Cross. The Cross of Christ is the great divider.

THE MEANS BY WHICH PEACE IS BROUGHT CAUSES CONFLICT AND DIVISION

Islam is perfectly willing to speak in positive terms about Jesus, calling him a prophet. However, Jesus is subsidiary to Muhammad. Jesus is not the only-begotten Son of God and the only Savior of the world. Islam allows him to speak, but not of his cross and his death. Islam perverts the Christian Gospel in such a way as to deny that Jesus died on the Cross, that his death was the means by which God re-established peace with our world. For Islam, the Cross is seen as utter defeat because it sees success only in absolute submission, usually by means of violence.

We would rather blame someone else for our troubles and problems. We pick out others to blame. No one likes to look at himself and say, "I am the cause of my trouble." The world has great trouble saying, "I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment" [Confession, LSB, p. 184]. Even we have trouble saying that sometimes! And so, the reason for division goes to man's sinful heart.

What is on the Cross? Well, of course, Jesus is on the Cross, but something else is there. Your sin is also on the Cross. Your sin attached to the holy body of Jesus. Man does not want to confront his sin and admit his guilt for violating the two great Commandments of the Law, the fear, love, and trust due to God alone, and the love and service due to the neighbor. Sinful man reacts badly to the Law's accusations of sin, sometimes violently.

Luther said it so well in the Heidelberg Disputation:

A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is. [AE 31.53].

This is clear: He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works to suffering, glow to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil. These are the people whom the apostle calls "enemies of the cross of Christ" [Phil. 3:18], for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works. Thus they call the good of the cross evil and the evil of a deed good. God can be found only in suffering and the cross, as has already been said. Therefore the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross works are destroyed and the old Adam, who is especially edified by works, is crucified. It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God's.¹

The cross is the only place where God makes himself visible. What is unique about finding God in Christ crucified? It is really revelation. God reveals his heart. God comes out of his hiddenness. That is the entire content of faith. Today's Epistle speaks about that faith connection, of believing that which is not seen. Only in glory will we see God face to face. Yet, even though we do not see God face to face, he does reveal himself to us, and this is by way of his Word and Sacraments, by way of the Cross of Christ.

What happened to Jesus will happen to every Christian by one degree or another. Some Christians have met an early death because they confessed Christ. Others have endured rejection and hatred from others, even from members of their own families. They have suffered persecution for the name of Jesus. They have suffered discrimination and pain.

And yet, there is a day of reckoning for the world. For those who reject Christ there will be a judgment that will end in weeping and pain. Jesus warned the crowds to discern the times. As they predicted the weather by clouds and winds, so they should know that the judgment of God is surely coming on those who reject Christ.

Christianity has not ever and does not spread the Gospel by violence as Islam spreads its death. One does not find Christian suicide bombers out to destroy all those who have rejected Christ, but rather we find that Christians continue to implore others on the basis of the Word of God, for the love of Christ. We implore, we plead, we encourage but we do not threaten, hurt, and kill.

Each week in the Divine Service God brings his peace to you again in Word and Sacrament. Here is ". . . the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, [which] . . . guard[s] your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7, ESV) Here in the precious Gospel of peace you have life and salvation as well as the Holy Spirit's help to endure the world's hostility. You are here with your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are God's own family in Christ. You receive God's peace once again in the true body and blood of Christ, "given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins," and you are dismissed after the distribution with the words and the sign of the cross, "Depart + in peace."

2 Though Satan's wrath
Beset our path
And worldly scorn assail us,
While You are near,
We shall not fear;
Your strength will never fail us.
Your rod and staff
Will keep us safe
And guide our steps forever;
Nor shades of death
Nor hell beneath
Our lives from You will sever.

3 In all the strife
Of mortal life
Our feet will stand securely;
Temptation's hour
Will lose its pow'r,
For You will guard us surely.
O God, renew
With heav'nly dew
Our body, soul, and spirit
Until we stand
At Your right hand
Through Jesus' saving merit.
[LSB 714.2-3 Text and Tune: Public domain]

¹Luther, M. (1999, c1957). Vol. 31: Luther's Works, vol. 31 : Career of the Reformer I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (31:53). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.