Today’s Gospel lesson is one that many of the TV preachers and the happy-clappy churches don’t want to touch. The reason is that for many Christian Churches today, the only Jesus they want to talk about is a pre-packaged Jesus who is the Jesus they want Him to be instead of the Jesus who is revealed to us in the Bible. They follow the practice of quoting Jesus all over the place when He says something nice or something that won’t offend. But when the words of Jesus start to sound not quite so happy – or when those words start sounding kind of judgmental – they don’t and they won’t talk about it.
During the 30-plus years that I was in the life insurance business, the concept of product packaging became more and more important with each passing year. Basically there are only a few different types of life insurance products, and they all operate pretty much the same way. When a company wants to introduce a new product that hopefully will rack up big sales, a lot of people spend a lot of time and effort on the packaging – or to put it another way, on the marketing details. You try to package a product that appeals to just about everyone and offends just about no one. You want to start with a catchy product name, and then tweak a few standard product details to make them just a little bit different than what your competitors are offering. Even though you have to actually die to collect on a life insurance product, the brochures that they give you – and I was responsible for creating those brochures for a long, long time – are carefully but legally worded to sidestep the real issue of death while mostly talking about nothing but good things. Happy things, like the money the beneficiaries will collect after the dearly departed is actually dearly departed. The pictures all show nothing but happy, smiling people. Sure, they’re pictures of real people. But they don’t look like real people who have just suffered the death of a loved one.
The same thing is true when people try to package Jesus into someone who will appeal to just about everyone and will offend just about no one. When you reduce it to the simplest terms, this pre-packaged Jesus is pretty much limited to:
- The happy, smiling Jesus – the Jesus we see in pictures with little children. And there’s nothing wrong with that per se – we Lutherans also see Jesus as one who loved little children and who called them to be with Him. So far, so good. But that brings us to:
- The happy, smiling Jesus who’s your best friend, your role model, your guide, your advisor, the guy who wants you to be happy and healthy and wealthy and a champion and all of the clichés that they use over and over again. That’s not at all the Jesus of Scripture, but it is the Jesus being packaged and sold to us today. Just watch some of the popular TV preachers and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.
- The suffering Jesus. They bring Him our briefly at Easter but after that he pretty much goes back on the shelf, because a Jesus who’s suffering and dying really doesn’t meet our expectations of Jesus #1 and Jesus #2. These folks will even say that Jesus died for our sins, but they really don’t want to talk about sin because – well, let’s face it, people want to hear that we’re all basically good and the mere suggestion that we might not be quite so good isn’t something we want to hear. Remember – effective packaging appeals to everyone and offends no one.
That, for all practical purposes, is the pre-packaged Jesus who’s being marketed today. And just like a well-marketed product, people are going for it. Going for it by the millions. Traditional Christian denominations like us Lutherans are slowly getting smaller in numbers, but many of the big nondenominational mega-churches are growing by leaps and bounds. They’re growing because they are founded on carefully-researched marketing techniques so that people will hear things that they want to hear. This is what Jeremiah was talking about in our Old Testament lesson when he said: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.” If you sit down and honestly analyze what they’re teaching, it all boils down to feeling good about yourself and having a good time. And not hearing or worrying about words like those that Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel lesson.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus says: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” No two ways about it – those are difficult words to hear and difficult words to understand. After all, Jesus is often referred to as the Prince of Peace. When Jesus was born, the angels sang about the newborn Messiah bringing peace to earth. Luke tells us that when Jesus appeared to the disciples for the first time after His resurrection, he greeted them with these words: “Peace to you.” And we close our worship service every Sunday with the Aaronic benediction, which ends with these words: “The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” So when Jesus says that He came to bring division to the world rather than peace, it’s no wonder that we’re more than a little bit confused. Because it’ not just the big mega churches that don’t want to deal with these words – it’s us, too. We don’t understand what Jesus is saying. His words make us uneasy. And truth be told, we too are sometimes guilty of wanting only a pre-packaged Jesus who tells us only what we want to hear.
There’s a parliamentary maneuver used in legislatures and Congress known as a “call for a division of the house.” It’s basically a method of putting pressure on elected officials. Many legislative votes are voice votes, and they’re popular because they are anonymous. But when a division of the house is called for, you’re put on the spot. You have to stand up and be counted. It can be embarrassing if you’re a congressman voting yourself another pay raise. It can be agonizing if you’re casting a vote you believe is right but which you know will be unpopular with the voters back home. A call for a division of the house forces you to take a stand and, perhaps, to face the consequences.
That’s the kind of division our Lord causes. People must take a stand about Him, either for or against. There is no neutral territory, no safe ground. Everyone must take a stand and face the consequences. You’re either a believer – or not. “For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” I think we all realize that Jesus isn’t just speaking in generalities here. Too many of us have seen this type of division take place among our friends and family members. When it happens it is painful. It hurts. We want everyone to get alone, to agree, to be at peace with one another. But sometimes there is no peace. Sometimes there is only division.
So don’t even try to find some pre-packaged Jesus in these verses. Don’t try to find a Jesus who tells you only the good but never the bad, who only tells you that you want to hear but never says anything that you don’t wants to hear, because He’s not there. When Jesus returns on judgment day and divides the sheep from the goats – divides believers from unbelievers – we’re talking about a division that is permanent and final and eternal. There won’t be any second chances or do-over’s.
Jesus knows that when we take a stand for Him, things won’t always be easy. Today’s Epistle from Hebrews describes the hostility Jesus himself experienced and tells us that we can expect hostility, too. In chapter 12 verse 3 we read: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” The more committed you are, the more hostility you can expect, not only from the unbelieving world, but also from those who want only their pre-packaged happy Jesus and don’t want you disturbing their peace with words like division or sin or damnation. The Church member who publicly witnesses to his faith can be called a fanatic. If you’re struggling against your sinful nature, you might be called a goody-two-shoes. If you dare to challenge the evil in our society by speaking against abortion or gay marriage, you will be accused of forcing your values on others. If you tell a friend or family member that he or she needs to come back to church with you, you may be rejected.
Yes, my friends in Christ, we can expect – we must expect – hostility and division. Hostility and division in our world, hostility and division in our own communities, hostility and division even within our own families when some stand for Jesus and others stand against Him. People tend to think of peace as a total absence of trouble or conflict or hardship, but Jesus most certainly did not come to bring that kind of peace on earth.
But He does give us true peace – peace with God. When our sins had condemned each and every one of us to eternal punishment in hell, God sent His Son to suffer and die for our sins. Jesus suffered the agonies of hell so that we don’t have to. In the words of our Epistle lesson, we look to Jesus as “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” Shortly before His arrest, trial and crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that He could be your best friend, your role model, your guide or your advisor. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that you can be happy or healthy or wealthy. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave to grant you forgiveness of sins. Jesus died on the cross to forever heal the division that had been caused by sin – the division between God and His beloved creation. The real problem of focusing on a pre-packaged Jesus instead of the true Jesus who is revealed to us in Scripture is that we run the risk of focusing so much on earthly peace that we totally miss out on the real peace that Jesus gives us, the true and eternal peace with our Heavenly Father. Peace with God. Peace that no one can ever take away from us.
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