Some believe that Jesus came to bring peace on earth. Here, Jesus said he did not. The misconception rests on the misunderstanding of who Jesus is and what he did when he came. The world has always had war, people fighting each other. The belief amongst many Jews was that the Messiah would forcefully stop the actions of those who were “sinners” and Gentile heathens, there would be a war, and many would die. Those who would remain would be on God’s side. Through this peace would come to earth. Or so they believed.
This thinking was wrong. The Messiah was coming to bring peace with God in a person’s heart, not between two opposing sides. A sinner is converted into a saint if they accept what Jesus did for them on the cross.
Jesus had been talking about his coming baptism, that is the crucifixion. Now he states that this would bring division. When faced with the cross and the implication of it a person has to make a decision, accept or reject. This binary decision causes division. Some accept.- some reject. The human conversion is from the love of God, not vengeance. The love of God is not forced on someone. The love of God seeks faith, hope and love. Some accept – some reject. Thus, division.
Jesus states that division will occur, even in families. Why? When a person accepts Jesus’s death for their sins, they become a member of the family of God. When a person rejects Jesus’s death for their sins, they remain in the house of Satan. These two sides are a division amongst mankind, even in a family.
