Eight years after the shocking events of 9-11, the tragedy of our divided world remains a source of anguish among people of good will—not just in the United States, but all over the world. I’m reminded of two gospel passages that speak of how religion can be a source of either division or unity for our world.
From Matthew 10:34-36, we have a very troubling saying of Jesus: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against
her mother…. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”From Matthew 10:34-36, we have a very troubling saying of Jesus: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against
And from John 17:20-21, in which Jesus prays "for those who will believe in me … that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
On one level, these two passages seem to contradict one another. But when understood in their contexts—the gospels of Matthew and John—they rather stand in healthy tension that can enlighten the way forward into the twenty-first century.
The author of Matthew is writing to a community facing the very situation described by Jesus in this text. Jewish families in the late first century are being torn apart because some have come to believe in Jesus as the messiah. Others in the same families follow the teachings of other rabbis who do not accept that Jesus is the Christ. In this situation, Jesus became a source of controversy in Matthew’s community that shook individuals, families and communities.
In John, Jesus is expressing a hope that seems to contradict the saying found in Matthew’s gospel. How can Jesus bring unity and discord at the same time? But John’s passage draws Christians into a profound understanding of our unity “in Christ.” Christians believe that the Holy Spirit lives in us, making us one with Christ and, through Christ, with the Father.
John’s spiritual insight is for Christians both a source of strength and a challenge. If we live truly as the People of God, created by God and called to be in union with Christ, then Christians will be united together in holiness in a way that can’t help but draw the friendship and--dare I say it?--the admiration of people of good will across religious divisions.
The United States is a source of division in the world when it consumes more than its share of the world’s resources and when it is perceived by the rest of the world as going to war to protect its ability to continue its over-consumption. The Bible—both Old and New Testaments—insists that the People of God defend the poor and powerless, so Christians and Jews alike are in a position to witness to a way of life that counters the consumer attitudes pervasive in our society.
Perhaps, then, our nation can begin to diffuse at least some of the anger leveled against us in the name of jihad.
