Part 19 – Adjusting Missional Expectations – Matthew 10:16-42
August 11, 2019Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Most parents are familiar with an experience such as finding your child with cookie crumbs around their mouth after you’ve told them not to eat one before dinner, and when you inquire, they respond, “Why, whatever gave you that idea?”
When Jesus says, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword,” we might be tempted to think Jesus’ mouth is surrounded by cookie crumbs. I think the disciples were tempted to think that.
If you’ve been with us in our series in Matthew’s gospel, you could recount a lengthy list of reasons why the disciples might have supposed that Jesus came to bring peace. He gave them plenty of reasons to suppose he had. But this is just the third of three bombs that Jesus drops in this week’s text – though admittedly the most jarring. These “bombs” are designed to clear up possible, even common, misconceptions about Jesus’ mission and our part in it.