How Jesus Handled Conflict

Thomas Paine wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls. . . . Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." When we are going through trying times, Jesus' example can help us cope. How did the Lord handle conflict?

Sometimes he created it. Jesus angered the religious establishment by claiming to be the Son of God. He challenged ultra-conservatives by challenging their traditions. He irritated the liberal Sadducees when he declared, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God" (Matthew 22:29). He bewildered political opportunists like Herod and Pilate because he spoke the truth regardless of the consequences.

Sometimes he confronted it. He drove the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple because they had trashed God's house instead of treasuring it. Weary of the Pharisees' hypocrisy, he boldly denounced their sin. When even a loyal friend like Peter tried to derail Jesus' mission, the Lord told him firmly, "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men" (Mark 8:33).

Sometimes he calmed it. Have you ever known someone who seemed to thrive on stirring up conflict? "As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife" (Proverbs 26:21). Jesus was often controversial, but never quarrelsome. When a conflict ensued because James and John asked for special places of honor in the kingdom, Jesus called his indignant disciples together and patiently taught them about servanthood. When his accusers challenged him with one tough question after another, Jesus answered so wisely that eventually "no one dared ask him any more questions" (Mark 12:34). At the Last Supper when the disciples argued about which of them was the greatest, Jesus took a basin of water and a towel and calmly washed their feet.

Sometimes he walked away from it. Someone wisely observed, "I don't have to attend every quarrel to which I'm invited." Many controversies are best ignored. "It is to a man's honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel" (Proverbs 20:3). Another biblical word-picture says, "Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own" (Proverbs 26:17).

Jesus knew when to walk away from conflict. After he taught a controversial Bible lesson in his hometown synagogue, the people of Nazareth angrily tried to throw him from a cliff. "But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way" (Luke 4:30). After he fed the 5,000, a crowd of zealous followers tried to make him king by force, but he "withdrew again to a mountain by himself" (John 6:15). Several times Jesus escaped from those who tried to arrest him (John 8:59, 10:39, 11:54). At his trial he refused to answer Herod's curious queries (Luke 23:9).

Ultimately he took the brunt of it. Conflict reached its climax on the cross of Christ. Scoffers mocked him. Friends abandoned him. Darkness surrounded him. Nails tore his hands and feet. The sins of the ages bore down on the sinless Son of God. But in those terrible moments a divine reconciliation was being accomplished once and for all. "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).

"He himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14).

There is "a time to be silent and a time to speak . . . a time for war and a time for peace" (Ecclesiastes 3:8). The secret of dealing with conflict is knowing what time it is—and following in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace.