Jesus and the Sword
This post is about scripture and life. Or rather, it is about the way in which a particular scripture is applied to our lives in a way that I think is dishonest and spiritually dangerous.
America is involved in a period of armed conflict. Though we have tried desperately to avoid religious undertones in our motives for waging war, I have been quoted scripture by several people defending our right to go to war.
However, it is my firm belief that there is no text in Jesus’ message or in his actions presented to us in any of the gospels that can be construed as justifying the use of force to achieve one’s ends, physical or spiritual.
The scripture most often quoted, of course, is Matthew 10:34. I would like to spend a little time excavating this scripture and explaining why it is most definitely not a justification for Christians to wage war in Christ’s name.
Matthew 10:34 (NRSV) - "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword."
I often hear this verse as a justification for armed conflict. This use of Matt. 10:34 is not only textually incorrect, but is one of the better examples of ways in which our forefathers have mangled our theology almost beyond recognition.
There's a reason that verse appears only in Matthew's gospel. Matthew is the gospel written to rural Jews (btw, at the time they were called "pagan," which originally just meant "unsophisticated country bumpkin," but that's not relevant, but just interesting to me) by a Jew. Matthew's basic message is "Christ calls you out and demands sacrifice." The cultural setting of the text was to address the plight of Jewish Christians, still living among their traditional Jewish families and friends, who were being pressured to renounce this divisive new faith and rejoin their "proper heritage."
In Matthew's gospel, the words of Jesus are a justification for leaving behind your family, to exalt your loyalty to Christ before that of your family. Just as Jesus left his father to join us, Jewish Christians should be willing to leave their families (if necessary) to join him.
Jesus is the realization of prophecy. He fulfills the old and ushers in the new, and his message is about cultural change.
So let's put 10:34 back into context.
Matthew 10:27-40.
27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 34‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For 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; 36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 40‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
So what is he saying? Be bold before men. If people threaten you, do not fear them, for they can only harm your body. If you stick up for me here, I will stick up for you before God. If you deny me here, I will reciprocate.
Now the crucial part. Jesus is explaining that his teaching will cause discord in the Jews' families. His message will not bring peace, but the sword. To the Jews, the symbol of the sword is not one of violence, but of "splitting." The sword brought to a cloth parts it into two pieces. What Jesus is saying here is that his message will polarize relationships in the Jewish household. Some will see Him as messiah, others as a blasphemer. But when these conflicts occur, Jesus does not want family unity at all cost, he wants allegiance to him to come before the family, even if that means that sons will have to oppose fathers, and daughter-in-laws will oppose mother-in-laws.
There’s a reason those specific examples were chosen. The author is saying the younger generation (the Jewish Christians) may have to part with the older Jews (their parents). Jewish sons brought their brides into their father's household at that time, and it was a Jewish tenant that the son must honor his father's authority in matters of faith. But Jesus calls the young husband and wife to turn against the son's parents, if necessary, in order to pursue a relationship with Christ. The devotion to the "old ways" is not an excuse to not follow Christ's calling.
And so then read the rest. It's VERY anti-family. But again, it's just saying that Christ must be our first love and our first devotion. Anyone, even a cherished family member, who comes between us and Christ represents proof that we are not worthy of Christ or his message.
Matthew 10:34 is not a call to violence. It is simply a dramatic statement of how radical Jesus' message truly is. Christ first, family second, even if this order creates conflict in your family and makes your elders your enemy.
This verse has to be one of the most misquoted in the New Testament. Well, maybe not as much as the 1 Corinthians passages people use to argue that Paul thinks women should not participate in worship. Still, this one is pretty commonly taken out of context.
Why someone would choose to make Jesus say that conflict is the answer based on such a tortured misuse of scripture when his own actions in the garden seem to contradict any belief in violence for any reason is beyond me. When Peter drew his sword to defend his Christ against soldiers who were going to lead him to death, he was chastised. And Jesus' actions and opinions against violence appear all over each of the gospels.
Just think about who Simon the Zealot was. He was a revolutionary who had murdered people in order to attempt to being about the end of the Roman occupation. In our terms, Simon was a terrorist. But did Jesus seek to kill him? No, Jesus made him a disciple and a member of his own circle.
And Judas, the one who would betray him? Did Jesus kill him or even lift a finger to prevent him from condemning him to death? Of course not.
Jesus brings a sword to our lives. It is an instrument of division, should we ever doubt who commands our highest allegiance.
He does not appear at any point in any of the Biblical narratives to condone violence as the solution to any problem, no matter what the stakes.
America is involved in a period of armed conflict. Though we have tried desperately to avoid religious undertones in our motives for waging war, I have been quoted scripture by several people defending our right to go to war.
However, it is my firm belief that there is no text in Jesus’ message or in his actions presented to us in any of the gospels that can be construed as justifying the use of force to achieve one’s ends, physical or spiritual.
The scripture most often quoted, of course, is Matthew 10:34. I would like to spend a little time excavating this scripture and explaining why it is most definitely not a justification for Christians to wage war in Christ’s name.
Matthew 10:34 (NRSV) - "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword."
I often hear this verse as a justification for armed conflict. This use of Matt. 10:34 is not only textually incorrect, but is one of the better examples of ways in which our forefathers have mangled our theology almost beyond recognition.
There's a reason that verse appears only in Matthew's gospel. Matthew is the gospel written to rural Jews (btw, at the time they were called "pagan," which originally just meant "unsophisticated country bumpkin," but that's not relevant, but just interesting to me) by a Jew. Matthew's basic message is "Christ calls you out and demands sacrifice." The cultural setting of the text was to address the plight of Jewish Christians, still living among their traditional Jewish families and friends, who were being pressured to renounce this divisive new faith and rejoin their "proper heritage."
In Matthew's gospel, the words of Jesus are a justification for leaving behind your family, to exalt your loyalty to Christ before that of your family. Just as Jesus left his father to join us, Jewish Christians should be willing to leave their families (if necessary) to join him.
Jesus is the realization of prophecy. He fulfills the old and ushers in the new, and his message is about cultural change.
So let's put 10:34 back into context.
Matthew 10:27-40.
27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 34‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For 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; 36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 40‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
So what is he saying? Be bold before men. If people threaten you, do not fear them, for they can only harm your body. If you stick up for me here, I will stick up for you before God. If you deny me here, I will reciprocate.
Now the crucial part. Jesus is explaining that his teaching will cause discord in the Jews' families. His message will not bring peace, but the sword. To the Jews, the symbol of the sword is not one of violence, but of "splitting." The sword brought to a cloth parts it into two pieces. What Jesus is saying here is that his message will polarize relationships in the Jewish household. Some will see Him as messiah, others as a blasphemer. But when these conflicts occur, Jesus does not want family unity at all cost, he wants allegiance to him to come before the family, even if that means that sons will have to oppose fathers, and daughter-in-laws will oppose mother-in-laws.
There’s a reason those specific examples were chosen. The author is saying the younger generation (the Jewish Christians) may have to part with the older Jews (their parents). Jewish sons brought their brides into their father's household at that time, and it was a Jewish tenant that the son must honor his father's authority in matters of faith. But Jesus calls the young husband and wife to turn against the son's parents, if necessary, in order to pursue a relationship with Christ. The devotion to the "old ways" is not an excuse to not follow Christ's calling.
And so then read the rest. It's VERY anti-family. But again, it's just saying that Christ must be our first love and our first devotion. Anyone, even a cherished family member, who comes between us and Christ represents proof that we are not worthy of Christ or his message.
Matthew 10:34 is not a call to violence. It is simply a dramatic statement of how radical Jesus' message truly is. Christ first, family second, even if this order creates conflict in your family and makes your elders your enemy.
This verse has to be one of the most misquoted in the New Testament. Well, maybe not as much as the 1 Corinthians passages people use to argue that Paul thinks women should not participate in worship. Still, this one is pretty commonly taken out of context.
Why someone would choose to make Jesus say that conflict is the answer based on such a tortured misuse of scripture when his own actions in the garden seem to contradict any belief in violence for any reason is beyond me. When Peter drew his sword to defend his Christ against soldiers who were going to lead him to death, he was chastised. And Jesus' actions and opinions against violence appear all over each of the gospels.
Just think about who Simon the Zealot was. He was a revolutionary who had murdered people in order to attempt to being about the end of the Roman occupation. In our terms, Simon was a terrorist. But did Jesus seek to kill him? No, Jesus made him a disciple and a member of his own circle.
And Judas, the one who would betray him? Did Jesus kill him or even lift a finger to prevent him from condemning him to death? Of course not.
Jesus brings a sword to our lives. It is an instrument of division, should we ever doubt who commands our highest allegiance.
He does not appear at any point in any of the Biblical narratives to condone violence as the solution to any problem, no matter what the stakes.