The peace of Christ comes after the struggle. First the conflict. Even as we consider this, we feel the conflict he has brought into our own lives, we fight it off, though we know it comes for our good. It is false peace, the self-satisfaction of the world that Jesus would destroy. Not that this world, torn as it is, is any too harmonious, far from it. But on one point all its conflicting members agree: that it is sufficient unto itself and determined to protect its wordliness.
Into this complacency, Jesus flings his sword, severing the very ties that seem to hold life together. He questions everything that humanly speaking is self-understood, even the closest ties of flesh and blood. Once the unrest of Christ has been let into a man’s heart, he becomes incomprehensible and a cause of scandal.