Matins Devotion: May 21, 2025

Luke 12:35-53

When Jesus says that He has come not to bring peace but division, He doesn’t mean this in an immediate sense, of course. God didn’t send His only begotten Son into the flesh because He wanted to make mothers hate their daughters and fathers hate their sons and things of this nature. Rather, Jesus means this in a results kind of way. Jesus has come to build a kingdom that is so glorious, so merciful, and so utterly contrary to sinful man’s thinking that it will tear the most precious and intimate of family relationships apart. Jesus knew this when He came into the world. He knew it would happen. And He wants you to know that it’s worth it.

Jesus knew that Jewish parents would hate and despise their children for leaving behind their trust in the Pharisees and the commandments to find free salvation in the wounds of the Savior. But salvation was worth it. Jesus knew that Roman women who embraced Christ would be despised by their unbelieving children, that Muslim women who cast off the lies of the devil for the truth of Jesus would be put to death by their own husbands and fathers and brothers. But salvation was worth it. Jesus knew that your own children, your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers may well hate and despise you for refusing to bless their sins, for choosing the righteousness of Christ over the unrighteousness they wanted to pretend was purity and love. If that happens, He knew it would happen. But He wants you to know that His salvation is worth it.

Don’t lose trust in the One who has given you the family of faith, the fellowship of the saints, a family that will never betray you or leave you because He will never betray you or leave you. Don’t lose hope. If your loved ones gnash their teeth at you, though it will break your heart, it will not break the fingers of the Lord who holds you tight, the Lord who still has you in His grasp, the Lord has made you His own.