Wormwoods

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household. “Whoever 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; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns. (Matthew 10:34-11:1)

This reading is one of Jesus’s cryptic sayings and commands. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”  This is one of his more difficult-to-understand sayings. But it makes sense.  Those who challenge the status quo are “troublemakers” making those not wanting change uncomfortable and even angry.  They fear change representing the unknown. They may turn to violence – the sword. Jesus knew he was upsetting the apple cart through his teachings and commandments. Follow him, and we might share the slings and arrows he faced and endured – or the cross on which he suffered and died. 

Families and friends can be torn apart by those who follow Jesus and those who do not.  Demons among us are skilled at creating and driving that wedge sticking into and tearing away at our sides like painful thorns.  St. Paul felt that pain.

Peace upon earth is hard to find never mind attain. Prayers for peace are laughed at by despots and dictators who thrive on chaos and lies. They prefer swords especially the ones that cut deep and gravely wound. 

Our nation is divided with each side being at sword points.  Vitriol flows like burning Icelandic lava scorching the landscape and making it desolate and hellish.

C.S. Lewis in his book “Screwtape Letters” (1942) identified Screwtape as a high-ranking demon in Hell. Wormwood was his incompetent nephew, a junior tempter trying to corrupt the soul of his ''Patient’ [us].  Screwtape said to Wormwood: “We want cattle who can finally become food; He [God] wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below [Satan] has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy [God] wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.”  Screwtape is a representation of evil and the banality of evil.

Too many of us are like Wormwood listening to Screwtape.  Too many of us prefer the sword, or the gun.

Deacon David Pierce