Sometimes, what we hear read to us on a Sunday morning from our Scriptures can be rather hard to hear. Today’s Gospel reading is one such difficult to hear passage and most especially:
34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For 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; 36 and 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.
These are hard words and portray Christ as some sort of disruptive influence bent on causing strife amongst those who follow him and those who do not. And, further to that between those we do follow him but interpret what he says in different ways.
Yet, if one carefully reads what is written in our Christian texts one can often find, almost in the same passage or paragraph something that takes the hard edge off the hard sayings. And, that applies to today’s Gospel. In the midst of that difficult Gospel reading there are a couple of redeeming sentences that put it all into context:
“29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by 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.”
Despite everything we are reminded God loves us so much that even the hairs on our head. That’s how much we are cared for by our Creator. Even though millions of us human beings have lived and will live we are all unique and equally special to God. Just as our loved ones may love every inch of us so does God and God will never forget us even when we have left this mortal coil and gone to glory.
Knowing that one is loved so much by God, I hope, gives you much joy. You are not anonymous or unimportant to God, in fact the reverse is true. YOU ARE so important to God that nothing about you will ever separate you from his love, even if you chose to reject it. God will always love us and even in the midst of any strife that some of the sayings of Jesus cause us we must not forget the ultimate heart of the Good News; that we are loved, acceptable and wanted by God, even when others might try to tell us otherwise.