The Love We Find by Letting Go (Matthew 10:24–39)

What do you do when you encounter a difficult passage in Scripture? Explore this week’s Gospel reading and consider what it means for us today.

Each week, we post a passage from Sunday’s Scriptures; share links to resources that give context and inspire new ideas; and offer a few questions to get you thinking about what we’ll read together in church.

The Gospel for June 21, 2026

Matthew 10:24–39

Jesus said to the twelve apostles, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Read all of Sunday’s Scriptures

Step Into the Story

3 Ways to Go Deeper

Commentary

Professor John C. Holbert addresses the complexity and nuance of this week’s passage — and the danger we encounter when it’s taken out of context. “The ‘sword’ that Jesus brings is hardly literal,” Holbert writes, “it is the metaphorical sword of hard choices, of loving choices, of caring for all the world.”

Visual Art

There’s another well-known Bible verse about swords: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares . . . nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4). Iconographer Kelly Latimore depicts Jesus making the Prophet Isaiah’s powerful words a reality.

Poetry

Poet Jan Richardson speaks to the circular nature of God’s grace: “Lay it down / and it rises again. / Release it / and it returns.”

Reflection Questions

Take a Moment to Wonder

• What do you do when you encounter a difficult passage in Scripture?
• Is nonviolence central to Jesus’s message?
• What blessings have you found by letting go?