Brent Kuhlman

+ Jesu Juva +

Matthew 10:34-42

Now you know why some want nothing to do with Jesus.  Now you know why even some of the baptized and confirmed fall away from Jesus.  Mention Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world -- proclaim Jesus as the one and only God and Savior – preach Jesus who promises forgiveness, life, and salvation through His divine gifts of Baptism, Absolution, and Holy Communion in the divine service – AND PEOPLE RUN!  “No thanks Jesus.  I’ve already got a life.  I’m working on it.  Very hard.  Don’t need any interruptions from you Jesus!  Don’t want the kind of peace you provide.  I’m doing quite nicely on my own thank you.”

What is it that keeps you from Jesus?  One woman I spoke to not too long ago gave the pious reason of “quality family time.”  In other words, she was saying, “We won’t let Jesus get in the way of our family time.  Family comes first always.  We’re building a life together.  And that means no church.  No Jesus.  No Jesus.  Not even His gifts of eternal life on Sunday morning.  No Jesus.  No Jesus.  We won’t be having him interrupt.” 

Pardon the interruption -- but Jesus says:  “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me.”  The family is not to be your God.  Jesus is.  Jesus is God.  Fear, love and trust in Him above all things.

His word is like a sword.  His word brings conflict and division.  “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” 

Are you running for the doors?  Had enough of Jesus and His Cross?  Many in the world and the church have.  Can’t have a Jesus who’s a home wrecker. 

The cross of Jesus where He shed His blood to make peace for the world with God is either denied in unbelief or confessed by faith.  When Jesus interrupts our lives with His Good Friday death, a crisis of gargantuan proportion arises.  You either say:  “Thank you Jesus.  Thanks so much.  I’ll live from your dying and giving.”  Or:  “No thanks Jesus.  Won’t be having you, your death, or your giving interrupt my life!”  

You can’t take a neutral position when it comes to Jesus.  The line of belief or unbelief in Jesus invades every part of our life.  It even can divide the family.  Faith or unbelief severs family relationships either by blood or by marriage.  Faith or unbelief divides father from son, mother from daughter, etc.

But Jesus divides so that He can be in the middle.  Without Jesus as the Good Friday Mediator there can be no peace.  No lasting peace.  Father and son receive each other through Christ, not without Him.  Mother and daughter receive each other through Christ, not without Him.  Jesus shed His Blood on the Cross to reconcile us to God AND to one another. 

Jesus is the center of every relationship.  With God the Father.  And with every human relationship.  Replace Jesus as the center of everything and you commit idolatry.  It’s really that simple.  Only Jesus is God for you.  Not Dad.  Not Mom.  Not family.  Not even quality family time. 

Only Jesus gives salvation.  Our honor or life doesn’t.  Listen again to Jesus:  “And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” 

Everything that we are.  Everything that we have.  Everything that we think is SO, SO important – our idols and idolatry – must be nailed to the Cross.  Jesus is everything.  We are nothing.  Did you hear that?  Jesus is everything!  We are nothing!  That’s why Jesus says:  “He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.”  

True life is only in Jesus.  Faith in Him and receiving His gifts of peace.  And then, and only then is there true love for the family and the neighbor.  Faith in Jesus first.  That gives you peace with God.  That gives you eternal life.  He promises:  “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.”  Jesus promises: “Take and eat.  Take and drink.  My Body.  My Blood.  The New Testament for the forgiveness of your sins.”  And where there’s forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation.  So faith in Jesus.  That’s always first. 

That’s the foundation for the life you live now.  You don’t abandon your family.  You live in the family.  Because Jesus gives you peace and salvation, you do your fatherly, motherly, sonly and daughterly work for this life, not for the next. 

Family is not to be an idol.  Jesus is your God and Savior.  You now belong to Him as the Epistle says.  So that now the family is your place of service in the world.  Living not for yourself, but for the family in love. 

When faith in Christ is right, then love for the family is right.  Even if it’s just giving the little ones who believe in Him a cup of cold water on a hot, humid, Nebraska summer day. 

When you have peace with God for Christ’s sake, you have life.  The idolatrous life of the old Adam is put to death.  The life of faith in Jesus as Savior gives you a life where you live.  And the words of Jesus fuel your living:  “He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.”

In the Name of Jesus.