The experience of conflict is known to all of us. We talk of ‘a conflict of personalities’, of ‘conflicting opinions’, or even ‘internal conflict’, when we find ourselves torn in two directions and can see no easy solution to our problem. This experience of conflict can be tragic, or it can be healthy and creative. A conflict of personalities can ruin a social gathering, a local community, or even the fellowship in a Church, when people who do not get on well together refuse even to try, or refuse to forgive an old insult that may have marred their relationship for many years.
Conflicting opinions, especially if they are badly or carelessly expressed, can sour and even destroy any meeting or gathering. To say that is not to plead for uniformity of opinion or of expression. It would not necessarily healthy if we all agreed with each other all the time. The interaction of varying opinions can be a very healthy thing indeed, causing us to view some aspect of reality in a new light. The important thing is that we are not offensive in expressing our own point of view to someone else who thinks differently.
Internal conflicts can perhaps be most difficult of all. It is usually very difficult to admit, even to ourselves, that we do not understand ourselves. But conflict is not simply a lack of understanding. On occasion it is right and healthy that we should experience internal conflict. Anyone who always knows what to do in every situation, I suspect, lacks the necessary moral sensitivity to see both sides of the question. For life is not a series of simple black and white decisions. One of the prayers we use in Church asks, "if we have to choose between two evils, give us at least the will to do right, and the assurance that even when we are at our wits’ end we are never out of reach of your mercy."
Experience of internal conflict is not to be avoided by the expedient of coming quickly to a decision. We have to live with our decisions, so it is best if the decisions we make are ones we can live with! One of the most meaningful stories in the Gospels tells of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here, in a profound picture of internal conflict, we are told of how he took Peter, James and John to be with him,
and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch.’ And going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.’
These words, and the story that follows, speaks of a vast internal conflict. It is as if he doesn’t know what to do next, and all the calm control that is so typical of his life and ministry is gone as he turns first one way and then another under the pressure of internal conflict. He leaves most of his disciples behind, but takes three with him. Then he leaves the three, and goes off alone to pray. He returns to chide them for falling asleep. Again he goes off alone, but comes back to chide them a second time. Then the whole scene is repeated as he goes off to pray and returns to chide them a third time. It is only at the very end of this unusual chain of events that he seems to have resolved his conflict, and has decided to face up to those who will shortly arrest him.
Out of the turmoil and conflict, inner peace is created. The figure who goes to the cross is altogether stronger and more calm than the one who knelt to pray in the garden; who expressed his turmoil both in his prayer and the whole series of actions, running backwards and forwards between his prayers and his disciples. That is an excellent picture of inner conflict, a running backwards and forwards among all the angles that present themselves as a part of the problem that has to be faced.
St Luke 19.41-48 presents other pictures of conflict. For Jesus, there is great conflict between his love for the city and his knowledge of being rejected by it and its leaders - a knowledge that leads him to predict its downfall. Then in vv 45-46, Jesus comes into conflict with those who trade in the Temple. Jesus understands that there is a deep conflict between the purpose of the Temple and the unashamed profiteering that went on there. Vv 47-48, depicts the other side of the conflict into which Jesus had entered. Here we read that while he was busy teaching day by day in the Temple, ‘the chief priests and the scribes and the principle men of the people sought to destroy him’.
It is not possible to go through life avoiding every experience of conflict, as if conflict were necessarily a bad thing in itself. There is a sense in which involvement in conflict at the right time and in the right situation can be a healthy and strengthening experience. Yet we should not enter into conflict with others too readily or thoughtlessly.
Finally, internal conflict is often a sign that we are mature enough to see both sides of the question and unwilling to make up our minds before examining all the evidence available. But watch out. Conflicts should not go on for ever, and once we have made up our minds about something, as a general rule the conflict should cease. Once our decisions have been made we should be prepared to live with them. Returning to the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, this seems to be his example. Although he is portrayed as one who endured great turmoil and conflict, in the end he won through to a decision, and so he was able to embrace the future with great courage, although it meant his death on the cross.
Printable Version