Not Peace, but a Sword (Matthew 10)

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” From the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34.

     In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Here we have another uncompromising, rather alarming statement of Our Lord. “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” We think of violence, war, and all the suffering that comes with the sword, which we all understand to be a weapon, an item made to maim and kill, which can’t possibly have any peaceful purpose. These are not words that we would expect to come from the mouth of Jesus, whom our tradition calls the Prince of Peace, but there they are. What are we to do with these words? How are we to understand what Jesus is saying here?

     Today’s Gospel reading is extracted from Jesus’s instructions to the Twelve, which take up all of chapter 10. It seems to me that all of this chapter could have been selected as the reading for today. It provides a list of instructions to the Twelve on how they are to conduct themselves, what they are to say, and it lists what kind of authority the Twelve are to have. The main instruction is, “Proclaim the good news. The kingdom of heaven has come near,” in verse 7. Jesus gives the Twelve authority over unclean spirits, and over sicknesses, and warns them not to be surprised by the hostility they will encounter. Jesus goes on to promise family conflicts and says that anyone who loves family more than him is not worthy of him. And he wraps up these promises, alarming as they are, with the final promise that “those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” All these remarks are one way to understand the sword, the lack of peace, which he promises in this reading.

     As we know, these remarks directly contradict what Jesus says about peace in John’s Gospel. In chapter 14 of that Gospel, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus is making a distinction here, between his peace and the world’s peace, but, overall, the theme is peace, unlike the theme in today’s Gospel, which is one of conflict and loss. We have to reconcile these conflicting themes somehow.

     The very first appearance of the word “sword” in the Scriptures is in the book Genesis, chapter 3, verse 24. “He drove out Adam, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” The sword is flaming and turning on its own. There are paintings which show the sword being held by angels, but the Scripture doesn’t actually say that it was held by anyone. The sword represents a spiritual reality, the loss of Paradise and the apparent impossibility of return.

     But is return impossible? We usually take the flaming sword to mean that the way of return to Paradise is closed to us, but is that the only meaning of the story? In fact, the sword is also showing us where the entrance to Paradise is, showing us the way back to the Tree of Life. The flaming sword is not only a barrier; it’s also a beacon. We can, in other words, begin to find our way back to Paradise. The flaming sword is showing us the way.

     The sword that Jesus is talking about is not just a symbol of conflict, a practical, realistic, this-world reference to the violence and conflict which we all know. The sword is also a symbol of the entrance to Paradise, to the Kingdom, to the peace which Jesus talks about in the Gospel of John. We can understand the sword of Jesus, in today’s Gospel, as that sword at the entrance to Paradise, which Jesus brings, not to create worldly conflict, but to lead us away from a false peace, which is nothing more than an absence of conflict. Jesus says, “I do not give you as the world gives.” Jesus realistically portrays the conflicts that his followers will experience, but those conflicts are not the end of the story, and the image of the sword shows us the way beyond it.

     What else can we learn from Scripture about the nature of the sword which Jesus mentions? To learn more, we can turn to the Letter to the Ephesians, where the Apostle advises us to “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Here Paul identifies the sword with Scripture, and also with the Incarnate Word, Jesus himself. Paul takes military imagery and turns it into spiritual teaching. Scripture is the sword which Jesus is brandishing, if that is the right word for it, and Scripture, the written word of God, also points to Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God. Scripture is, as it were, the flaming sword,  the beacon at the entrance of Paradise. It is the shining flame which shows us the way of return to the Kingdom. Jesus, and Scripture, proclaim the Good News, the Gospel, that the Kingdom of God is near, that we are near the entrance to Paradise. Jesus has opened the door to the Kingdom, indeed, he is the door to the Kingdom. The flaming sword has become the Light of the World. Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, by his presence in the world, has shown us that the Kingdom is already present. We have, in other words, stepped with Jesus through the entrance to the Kingdom. Jesus, when he says, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword,” is realistically telling us that many people will resist the return to the Kingdom, and is also telling us that he is that sword, that flaming light, that will guide us to the Kingdom.

     In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
(2014 Adv.. 25.VI.17 TSP)