Question of the Day, Friday, June 19, 2020

The Question of the Day helps prepare you for next Sunday’s focus text in worship. These questions are posted here each day offering an opportunity for discussion. (Just click in the title of this post and you will be taken to the discussion window.) Try it out for a week and see how Jesus will use your time of pondering upon God’s word to deepen your faith.

Today’s question is: What does Jesus mean when he says that he has not come to bring peace to the earth?

This week’s text for the Third Sunday after Pentecost: Matthew 10:24-39 (NRSV)

Jesus said to the twelve: 24“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
?35For I have come to set a man against his father,
?and a daughter against her mother,
?and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
?36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

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