GodReflection: Conflict Zone.
Newsflash—we don’t have to say everything we think, feel or know. Jesus calls us to be women and men of peace. We are to join with The Holy in being Peace to those on whom his favor rests. (Luke 2:14).
Yet there is another side to our coin. It gives us one more reason to be quiet. There are times when Jesus steps in to break the peace. Dr. Luke tells us about one of those times as he shares the words of Jesus.
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.
From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12: 49-53).
Jesus’s message by its very nature places us in the Conflict Zone. To follow Jesus will cause conflict
within our family and among our friends. Scorched into my memory is a time six decades ago when I told a young cousin that I was moving to another country to plant churches. Then came his immediate response, “Why in the world would you go do that?”
To him there was no satisfactory explanation. We found ourselves in the middle of a Conflict Zone. It was one of those times where we discover that we are in a situation when on the part of two people Maybe Unspoken Truth Is OK.
Obviously, neither I nor anyone else can know the number of times during your own walk across earth that you may encounter this specific Conflict Zone. You can be sure that Jesus and his ever-present Holy Spirit is alert and ready to guide you to make a wise choice.
I think of a time when Jesus finds he is smack dab in the middle of this Conflict Zone with his own family. I suspect that either they need him for a family chore or feel compelled to rescue him from the crowd.
While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12: 46-50).
Jesus is on his Father God’s mission. He does not give his mother and brothers a response. At least none is recorded. Let me speculate since what I am about to say is not in the text. I suspect that Jesus is not ready to leave those who are listening to him.
There may yet be important lessons and challenges the crowd still needs to hear from his father God. He is in the Conflict Zone between the love he has for his mother and brothers and a yet his more important need to obey his Father God who he also loves. Therefore, he decides that Unspoken Truth Is Ok. By not responding I will not run the risk of creating an argument with my mom or my brothers.
What do you think? Maybe Unspoken Truth Is OK. Even if it places us inside the uncomfortable feeling of the Conflict Zone.
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection: Maybe Unspoken Truth Is OK.
God Reflection 