“The Great Divide”
Text: Matthew 10:34-42
6-28-2026
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. What an amazing statement Jesus made in our Gospel lesson. No, maybe a better word than amazing would be shocking, or confusing, or disturbing. I mean, I thought Jesus was called the “Prince of Peace”? On the night He was born, didn’t the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” And yet today He says in verse 34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Then He goes on to describe the divisions that He will cause between people. Does that sound like the same Jesus who hugged little children and who is gentle as a dove?
Well, yes, it is the same Jesus. And maybe we wouldn’t be so disturbed by what He said, if we understood what was really at the root of this division Jesus says He brings. In fact, if we look more closely, we’ll see that it’s a good thing as it relates to our eternal salvation.
Jesus says “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.” The word in Greek for “set against” is actually quite violent. It literally means to “cut in two.” Just like you’d cut a piece of paper in half with a scissors. You divide it and therefore, cause a division. So, in other words, Jesus is saying He will “divide” the unity of a father and son, a mother and daughter, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Maybe you’re thinking that “division” between you and your mother-in-law isn’t so hard to understand. But notice that Jesus puts that “division” right on par with the division of parent and child. And that list is not exhaustive. We can safely extend that same division to brothers and sisters, friends, and even husband and wife.
Do you remember the movie “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby? There’s a song in there that the two sisters sing. It’s hilarious when Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye do a lip-sync to it later. But anyway, the song is about the closeness of these sisters and their love for one another. The one line goes, “Lord help the mister, who comes between me and my sister!” The whole idea was that nothing and nobody would come between the bond of these two sisters. I’ve seen that kind of unity fiercely defended. I can fight with and pick on my brothers or sisters, but Lord help the outsider who does! The same is true with many husbands and wives. When I was a police officer, we were well aware of this on any domestic disturbance. A husband and wife could be at each other’s throat. But quite often, if we tried to arrest the husband, guess who would jump into the fray to try and stop us? The wife!
And yet Jesus says He came to divide these close relationships. How are we supposed to interpret that? Well, all you have to do is read on in our lesson and you’ll find the answer. In verse 37 Jesus says, “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.” That’s really the whole point. If you’re a Christian, no other close relationship is allowed to come between Jesus and you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a good and healthy relationship or a bad one. Jesus says your love and devotion to Him must come first. Otherwise, He will be the great divide between all of our earthly relationships.
Once, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Please notice the order there. The bond between you and God must be first and then your bonds of love with other humans comes next. You see, the good news is that your love for God and your love for the people who are closest to you are not mutually exclusive. It’s not that you can have one but not the other. No, you can have both! But the order of those relationships is the key. The neat thing is, if you have that tight bond with God first, it strengthens your bond with others. And yet the opposite is not true. If you have a tight bond with others first it will ruin your relationship with God. It will divide you and Him.
What I’m about to say might shock you almost as much as those initial words of Jesus, but this division also applies to the Christian Church. I get tired of people saying, “The Christian Church is all about peace and unity. We must have unity at all costs.” Umm... maybe they skipped reading these words of Jesus? If there is untruth or false doctrine being taught that will come between us and our bond of love with Christ. If it causes division between us and other Christians, so be it. Christ will not allow for anything to come between us and Him; not even unity, as desirable as that may be. That’s true of our unity between denominations and even within our own Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Don’t get me wrong. Unity is a good thing within the Christian Church. But we cannot compromise on God’s truth in our effort to achieve it. Listen to what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” It sounds to me like Paul is saddened by divisions in the Church, and yet, since we live in a sinful world he recognized that they’re necessary.
But there is an even more painful and uncomfortable division that Christ brings. More painful than coming between our close relationships. More painful than divisions in the Church. And yet, it’s even more essential than all these others, because it has to do with our own salvation. Christ causes a great divide within you; a division between your soul and sin. That’s not comfortable or easy because our sinful nature is intertwined in every part of our being. It hurts to be separated from it, but it’s spiritually healthy and necessary for us. Paul reminds us in Romans 6 that in our Baptisms we died to sin. Our old sinful nature was killed, and yet it clings to us like dead flesh. We need to shed that dead, old sinful nature daily as we live in the power of our Baptisms.
My younger brother had a deep puncture wound that got infected, and do you know what the doctor did to heal it? He first took a sharp scalpel and cut away the dead tissue. Then he sterilized it, added antibiotic ointment, and covered it with a bandage. My brother would then go back regularly to have this process repeated. And do you know what happened? Eventually the new, healthy flesh emerges until all the dead, infected flesh is gone.
That’s a good illustration of how Christ causes the great divide between our souls and sin. Jesus says that He came not to bring peace, but a sword. What’s this sword He’s talking about? Well, Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Word of God is like a sharp scalpel in the hands of a doctor. With it, Christ cuts deep within us, all the way to our souls, to separate us from the dead flesh of our sinful nature. It’s painful, and yet Christ does it out of love. He does it so that nothing within us will come between us and Him.
When we hear God’s Law preached, it cuts deeply. Do you remember how the people responded to Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost? Acts 2:37 says, “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” God had used the Word of His Law to cut them deeply so they could see the deadness of their sin. He wanted to separate them from it so they could be saved. Sadly, some of them refused to listen. You have that same option. You can ignore God’s Word which cuts deep and condemns your sins. But that sin will cause a great divide between you and God. And on Judgment Day, that sin will send you to hell where you will be separated from God’s gracious presence forever.
The good news is that on that first Christian Pentecost, many did listen. God’s Word cut deeply to separate them from their dead, sinful way of life. And God then applied the antibiotic ointment of His forgiveness to heal and protect their newly cleansed souls. God offers that healing ointment of forgiveness to all repentant sinners. Like Peter, God gives me the privilege of announcing that healing forgiveness to you. The division between us and our sin is actually what sent Christ to the cross. There, a great division took place. As Jesus suffered and died, there was a division between Father and Son and it was because of sin. Not the sin of Jesus. He is holy and perfect. But when He went to the cross He bore all of our sins. And those sins caused a huge divide between the Father and the Son. So huge that Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He took the sin that was dividing us from God upon Himself so that nothing would ever come between us and God and interfere with that bond of love again.
Praise God, Christ didn’t stay dead after He suffered the damning punishment for our sins. He rose again. Now, our lives are wrapped up in perfect unity with the life of Christ. As St. Paul says in Romans 8, now nothing can “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because we are united with Christ, now we can have the peace and unity with God through Christ Jesus we so desperately desire. And because of that tight bond with Christ, we can also begin to experience peace and unity between parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and our fellow believers. That tight bond of unity with Christ unites us with one another. And that unity is visible as He calls us to unite here at His altar and share in the very body and blood which unites us with God our Father. Praise God for that great divide that separates us from our sin, and unites us with Him, for now and for all eternity. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!