The Prince of Peace Carries a Sword

Continuing our series on Jesus’s “I Have Come To…” statements, Erik preached his surprising, disconcerting clarification: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” How could the Prince of Peace promised by Isaiah say this? Because true peace is divisive:

There’s an illustration from the book of Jeremiah: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” If you break a bone and don’t re-set it, your body will heal around it. It’s called “malunion” and often you can just live with it, though the bone will never work like normal and is prone to reinjury. The only way to fix a malunion is to re-break the bone and re-set it – a corrective osteotomy. People with malunions are understandably hesitant to have them fixed: easier to live with a broken bone that’s healed than re-break the bone. Jeremiah tells us peace is like this. Sin breaks our relationships with God, one another, and creation, but we find ways to build peace for ourselves around those broken relationships: from avoidance to violence; don’t-ask-don’t-tell or mutually assured destruction, ideological sorting to well-armed police. It happens in families, communities, nations, and churches. Understandably, we prefer this peace to fixing what is broken. But it is “healing wounds lightly,” and saying “peace, peace” when there is no peace.