What Exactly Does It Mean When Jesus says “I Have Come to Bring a Sword on Earth?”

Jesus famously declared that He had come to bring a sword on earth (Matthew 10:34–39). Now, before you think this only applies to Christians, hear me out.

A sword implies a fight. The wielder of a sword either is the protagonist or the antagonist in a fight. The protagonist in a fight could be the person on side of justice, or the person seeking to inflict an injustice. Ditto an antagonist involved in a fight.

The point?

When you observe two people wielding swords and fighting, knowing the protagonist and the antagonist, knowing sizes of swords, and knowing the skill with which the swords are wielded does not tell you who exactly is on side of justice.

Consider the Second World War. We all know Germany and Japan were on the side of injustice, seeking domination of everyone else. If they had been seeking to emancipate, as opposed to dominate, it would have been obvious, small countries such as Holland perhaps would have been glad.

Suppose, however, we pretend not to know which armies were on side of justice. If you judged the conflict by sizes of…