DAILY DEVOTIONAL – May 12, 2021
“The Piece(s) of the Lord”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You have saved us and taken us out of this world. May this time in Your Word of Truth encourage us as we walk as strangers here until You come to take us home. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 10:34-39
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 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. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever 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. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Devotional – “The Piece(s) of the Lord”
Even as Christians, those words we just heard from our Lord may be hard to hear. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” I thought Isaiah said that Jesus was the Prince of Peace? I thought he angels rejoiced by saying “peace on earth” when Jesus was born? Jesus did come to bring peace, and He in fact has brought peace, but not the peace anyone was thinking of or expected to find.
It’s been said that there are two things you should never discuss at the dinner table; politics and religion. I agree with half of that statement. I can’t remember the last time talking politics made my meal more enjoyable. However, I don’t think people have a problem talking about “religion”. I think if you were to have a general and nebulous conversation about religion at the dinner table, most of those conversations would go alright. No one really gets all that upset when you talk about Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius or even religious atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. However, bring up Jesus Christ, and chances are you’ll see everyone adjusting uncomfortably in their seats or hailing the check from the waitress.
No one bats an eye or takes issue with you if you want to believe in Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. No one gets personally offended if you say you believe in luck, in palm readings, karma, the power of the stars or any other superstition. But start talking about your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, as the Son of God who in fact did take on flesh, the God who came into our world and into history in order forgive the sins of the world and make a real and eternal difference for humanity, and now you have got yourself a real rodeo.
Only Jesus brings such division and controversy, because only Jesus is the Way, only Jesus is the Truth and only Jesus is the life. Even the famous atheist author and historian H.G. Wells acknowledged how Jesus’ power and influence was and remains unmatched. “I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
Why is anyone and everything else okay to talk about except Jesus, and yet His influence still dominates human history? Because Jesus is the Truth. He is the Light that shines in and exposes a darkened world that loves the darkness. Unlike every other religion, religious figure or worldview, Jesus taught and testified to the fact that there is One truth, there is only One God, there is only One reality, there is only One morality and ethic, there is only One life to live before we all have to answer for our life before God, and there is only One way to be saved from the judgement we deserve because of our wickedness and sinfulness before God; faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and in His death and resurrection that has served as the perfect sacrifice and atonement for sin.
As American Christianity becomes more and more about civil religion rather than about the Truth of sin and salvation in Christ, it is increasingly popular for many Christians and preachers to present Christ and Christianity as the solution for world peace. I certainly am not suggesting that world peace isn’t something we should work for or pray for, but we must do so understanding what the peace is that Christ promises and that in the end this world will be judged and destroyed to make way for a new heavens and a new earth. That’s true for every human heart as well, for as Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Jesus did not come to bring nor did He ever promise world peace. In fact He promised just the opposite because He knew most intimately the depravity of humanity, and it was for that sinfulness and depravity that Christ depraved Himself of everything on the cross. Jesus told His disciples in John 15, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.”
God sent His Son, and Jesus as the Son of God came and died to bring peace between God and man, to restore the relationship we were created to have with our Maker but that was shattered by our sin and rebellion. The spiritual and everlasting peace of the Lord that Jesus promises to be ours by grace through faith in Him alone, is a peace that confronts our own sin and the sin of the world, and it is a peace that that both mends broken hearts and shatters to pieces those who have hardened their hearts towards God.
Lutheran theologian Martin Franzmann puts it this way, “He brings peace indeed, but it is God’s peace, which separates men from evil. And since men cling to their evil and refuse God’s peace, the coming of the Kingdom in Christ means for them judgement.”
When we surrender the fractured pieces of our sinful life to the Lord, when we trust in His will and in His perfect love for us, when we allow Him to rule in our relationships, in our homes, in our workplace and finances, only then will we know the peace that surpasses understanding and that surpasses the broken world in which we live. Only when we surrender all to Jesus will the broken pieces of our lives be made whole and replaced with the peace of His Truth and salvation.
Thanks for joining me for another time of devotion in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
