§ 8. Jesus' Ministry in Galilee Continued

God Comes First

The Law of Moses introduced the idea that service to God comes even before family. A passage in Deuteronomy gives instructions with dire consequences when a family member tries to lead the rest of the family astray from the Lord.

Deuteronomy 13:6–11

If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

We no longer live in a theocracy. Christians do not go to war in the flesh for the faith as the Jews of old were instructed to do, and we seek no civil penalties for erroneous religious beliefs today (1 Corinthians 4:3; 6:7). But the spiritual point of the passage in Deuteronomy remains clear: faithfulness to God is the most important relationship in our lives.

In the gospels, the current reading in Matthew is among the first to record Jesus prioritizing service to God over service to earthly relationships, but it is a recurring theme.

Luke 8:19–21

Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

John 7:5

For not even his brothers believed in him.

John 19:26–27

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Peace with God and Peace with Men

Peace with man is not necessarily the same as peace with God.

For example, Jesus does in fact bring peace between God and men, but often men do not recognize it as peace.

Luke 19:41–44

And when he drew near and saw the city [of Jerusalem,] he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes….
…You did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus also speaks of His peace as different from what the world may term 'peace.'

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you….

John 16:33

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.

Finally, the peace of God comes as a result of spiritual—not carnal—warfare.

Romans 16:20

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

2 Corinthians 10:3–4

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

What does Jesus mean by "a sword?" Where Matthew says, "a sword," Luke says, "division" (Luke 12:52). Luke's reading makes clear there will be division in a household between family members over the religion of God.

Luke 12:52

From now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.

Jesus here quotes Micah 7, saying He Himself will bring about the circumstances Micah describes. We get a fuller understanding of Jesus's teaching when we consider the larger context of the passage He quotes in Micah.

First, the leaders of Israel have been proclaiming a false peace, bringing swift destruction.

Micah 3:9–12

Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
    and make crooked all that is straight,
who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    its priests teach for a price;
    its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the LORD and say,
    “Is not the LORD in the midst of us?
    No disaster shall come upon us.”
Therefore because of you
    Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
    and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

When we come to the place Jesus is alluding to in Micah, we find the people have reached a state of utter rebellion. Micah despairs of finding even a single godly person in Israel. (Perhaps Jesus does, too.)

Micah 7:2–4

The godly has perished from the earth,
    and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
    and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
    the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
    thus they weave it together.
The best of them is like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
    now their confusion is at hand.

It is at this point that the theme Jesus alludes to appears.

Micah 7:5–7

Put no trust in a neighbor;
    have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
But as for me, I will look to the LORD;
    I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.

Earlier in Micah, the LORD Himself had declared a true peace "in the latter days" by speaking of a highly unusual peace on earth. Perhaps the words of Jesus are meant to correct any misunderstanding of Micah's vision of peace: it is a spiritual metaphor.

Micah 4:1–3

It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
    and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore….