The Prince of Division

Photo by Tim Mossholder

“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, 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 daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51–53 NIV).

But I thought Jesus was the prince of peace? So many of you reading this article might be saying to yourself right now. What would it mean, then, that Jesus can describe his own mission as bringing about not peace on earth but division?

This passage taken from the Gospel of Luke comes just one chapter after Jesus is accused by certain religious leaders of performing exorcisms by the power of Satan rather than the power of God. Interestingly, in the parallel passage found in chapter 10 of the Gospel of Matthew, this saying is included in a larger discourse whereby Jesus commissions his disciples to proclaim throughout Israel a message of repentance in view of the coming kingdom of God. Jesus predicts here that in attempting to fulfill their commission his disciples will inevitably experience persecution.

Jesus affirms accordingly, “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul [another name for Satan], how much more the members of his household!” (Matthew 10:24–25 NIV).

In the Gospel of John, Jesus states it this way: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also” (15:18–20 NIV).

I think we have found our answer as to why Jesus’ mission—and thus that of his followers—was an inherently divisive one. A good number of people simply do not want to believe who Jesus was and do not want to do what he said. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case not merely for “outsiders” but even for many within the professing church.

Why? Well, let me contend that at its root what we have here is a clash of “orthodoxies”—the one ushered in by Jesus and those of the various cultures of the world. By “orthodoxy” I am referring to the body of accepted beliefs that inform the attitudes and actions of persons or groups. All of us have been shaped in some way by the established orthodoxy of the cultures to which we belong. But what happens when the teachings of Christ and the historic Christian tradition—that is, Christian orthodoxy—directly conflicts with that of our culture?

It causes division.

It causes division because some of us will choose to obey Christ and others of us will choose to obey the orthodoxy of the culture. And this division is capable of ripping right through the closest of social bonds we have. As the prophet Micah whom Jesus quotes in our Luke passage said, “for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; your enemies are members of your own household” (Micah 7:6 NRSV).

Whether it is outright disregard for the Christian tradition or radical reinterpretation of Christian teaching to make it more palatable to one’s cultural sensibilities (apparently, some in the church believe it is necessary to “progress” beyond the historic teachings of the church), what differentiates the true people of Christ from those who are not is a refusal to stand down and make peace with falsehood.

In the 2nd volume of Luke’s work, the book of Acts, we see such staunch commitment of Jesus’ apostles in the face of forces seeking to stop them from proclaiming the truth. What Peter and the other apostles claim in this narrative should be as true today—in contemporary America or anything other country on earth—as it was in first-century Israel: “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29 NRSV).

If the church of Jesus Christ is to continue to be the church, then division will be the order of the day. This was the inevitable consequence of Jesus’ coming and it will continue to be so until he comes again.