To Be Worthy of Jesus

 March 12 2023

Matthew 10:16-39

         Today we begin the third week of this season in the church that is known as Lent. This is the season when the days grow longer and we join Jesus on the road to Calvary. During this season, as most of us know, people fast from something, usually something that they love, for the forty days of Lent. This could be like giving up chocolate ice cream or maybe coffee and the reason to make such a drastic gesture is that people want to imply that even though they may love chocolate ice cream or coffee, or whatever a person’s love might be, their love for Jesus is greater.The subtle message behind this fasting exercise is that even good things like chocolate ice cream or coffee in which there is nothing wrong with in and of themselves, even these can become something that we can love too much. The question that is behind all of this notion of fasting is, do I love Jesus most of all?

         These very same ideas is what we find in a difficult passage of scripture found in the tenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Here, Matthew, has recorded the second of five different talks that Jesus gives to his disciples, the first of these being the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the very fundamental teachings of Jesus and what we find is that the rest of the talks in some way rest upon what Jesus first taught to his disciples. We can never believe that once we are done hearing what Jesus said up there on the mountain side that we are done with all of that and we can now move on to something else, hopefully something a little easier to put into practice. No, truth be told, as we continue in our story of Jesus and his disciples, things just get more difficult once we move on from the peace and quiet of the mountain top and head down into the valley. You see, once the disciples learn that the kingdom of God has come with the arrival of Jesus they are authorized by Jesus, to not only go and announce that God’s kingdom has come but they are also empowered with heavenly power so that they can back up their claim with signs and wonders that demonstrate that heaven has indeed invaded earth.

         As we heard last week, the dilemma facing Jesus is that he saw the crowds that surrounded him and he saw that they were being attacked from all sides and what was painfully obvious was that they were sheep in need of a shepherd to protect them. So, Jesus asked his disciples to pray to the Lord of the Harvest and ask him to send out laborers into the harvest. It becomes clear, then, that they do pray and the ones sent out are the answer to their own prayer. The ones who the Lord of the Harvest is going to send into the harvest fields is none other than themselves. What is very interesting about the sending of these disciples into the fields in need of harvest is that Jesus charges them to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost in Samaria and the rest of the nations were off limits, at least for now. What is intriguing about this message of Jesus is that he calls the sheep of Israel, lost. Now, this is a word which the disciples most likely would have remembered. This word was used in a teaching of Jesus up there upon the mountain, one where Jesus spoke about two very different roads upon which to travel. There was one road that was very narrow and the going on that path was difficult but it was, nonetheless, the very path which led to life. Then there was another road, one which was wide, and the going on that road was easy but where this road led was not to life but instead to destruction. The Greek word translated here as, “destruction,” is derived from the word Jesus uses to describe the sheep found in Israel, those that he described as being, “lost”. So, these sheep were not just not where they should have been, which was true, but worse, they were sheep traveling on the wide way that leads to destruction. The Greek word in both cases concerns being cut off from what could be or should be. When we understand the full extent of what is meant by this word sublimely translated as being, “lost”, we begin to understand the heart wrenching concern of Jesus. 

         What is also very interesting is that these sheep, this house of Israel, this was the very people of God. They had the sacred writings, thousands of years of hearing from God and interacting with him. They had the holy Temple and the priests, the very means of the continual restoration of the relationship that these people alone, out of all the people on earth, had with Almighty God. It was these very people that Jesus states are heading for destruction, in danger of being cut off from what they should have been or could have been. When we consider that it is the very people of God who were the ones headed for destruction, this should make us wonder just how such a tragedy could ever have happened. Such a dilemma should make us wonder if we, the ones who share those same sacred writings of these people of God, the ones who because of Jesus and his forgiveness have been grafted into these same people, could we end up lost as well? I think that what has been recorded is not to just point fingers at this sad condition of the people of God before the arrival of Jesus but rather what is written here is given to us to help us stay on the narrow way because this is the very task of the disciples. By announcing that the kingdom of God has at last come here on earth, it is hoped that some might make a U-turn on that wide road they are traveling on and choose instead the way that is narrow that leads to life. 

         What is surprising is that before Jesus sends his messengers out into the fields white for harvest, he warns them of the grave danger that awaits them. This is surprising because as we learned last week, the kingdom of God is governed by the holy love of God, a love that is found beyond the Law, beyond our abilities, a love which finds us in death and brings us back to life. This holy love is a love without expectations, a love with no thought of what we might receive in return for our loyalty and compassion to others. So considering that what is being proclaimed is that now is the time when love will reign, one has to wonder just why is their such a fierce opposition to being governed by love? Part of the answer to such a riddle is that Jesus tells his disciples that he is sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Here again the ears of the disciples would have perked up because Jesus had spoken about this wolf and sheep dynamic. Jesus had warned them then that there in their midst would be wolves all dressed up to look like sheep. These sheep in disguise would be false prophets, people who believed that they were speaking for God when in fact, God wanted nothing to do with them. Jesus told his disciples that the way that they could figure out who the wolves were is to see what kind of fruit that they produce, see what kind of life that they lived. The kind of life that a wolf is known for is a violent one so if they encountered a blood-thirsty sheep there was a safe assumption that this really was not a sheep at all. So Jesus is sending his disciples out into a world where there are those who believe that they speak for God but in all reality they are far from God because they live evil, violent lives. 

As they travel about in such a wicked world, Jesus instructs his disciples that they are to be wise as serpents and pure as doves. This is a rather odd statement but what Jesus is telling his messengers, is that they need to take what they had learned up there on the mountain and transform those teachings into practical living. To be about peacemaking in a violent world requires an active imagination, to hold fast to the truth of Jesus and allow this truth to shape their response to the evil that they were to encounter. This is what is meant when Jesus speaks of being wise stewards of his message. Jesus also tells his disciples that they had to remain pure. Here again, we hear an echo of the teaching on the mountain where Jesus told his followers that blessed are those who were pure in heart for they would see God. This purity of heart meant that they would love both God and every person, even those who opposed them, because this is the way that God loves. So when they would love with the love of God in the same manner that God loves then the world will see God for when they encounter his love they, in fact, encounter God. This is what Jesus has to remind his disciples because upon encountering the hatred and the hurtful crowds they would be tempted to react by throwing back at the crowds the very same poison that they had been thrown at them. To this, Jesus implores his messengers to remain pure, remain loving even when loving is difficult or even impossible. If they declared that the kingdom of God had come then the only response they could give to support their claim was love.

         As Jesus describes the violent response that will happen to his messengers as they go forth and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has come and is coming, it becomes apparent that he begins with the response of the nation. Jesus tells them that they will be delivered over to the courts and flogged in the synagogues. So, here we have the response of the pillars of the country, the law represented by the courts and religion represented by the synagogue. Then they will be dragged before governors and kings, those who claim the ultimate authority of the country. To all those who invested with the guarding and preserving the country, these messengers who speak of the coming kingdom of God pose a threat that requires an absolute and violent response. Even so, Jesus tells his crew that they must bear witness to the truth, a truth that causes those who live a false way of life to react with violence. We must wonder why such a terrifying response had to be expected especially among the very people claiming to be the very ones who know and love God. The only answer that makes sense is that they have made their nation something that they treasure more than they treasured God. The hope of these people of God was that they might throw off Roman control and at last create a sovereign country of their own. This was a good, and honorable hope however it was not the hope that God desired to give to his people and ultimately the world. The people of God were looking for a way to achieve the good life in the here and now and what God desires to give his people is a future hope of a rock solid unshakeable kingdom anchored in the security of heaven. Without securing our life in heaven all that is left is to try and create security for oneself here on earth which ultimately involves violence. The message of the kingdom of heaven rattles the foundation upon which the security of the good life rests because it reveals that the one true God will ultimately not be apart of anyone’s scheme of creating their own paradise in the here and now.

         Jesus tells us that not only would countries be shaken by the message of the kingdom of heaven invading earth but families too will be tore apart. You see, the message of the kingdom of heaven creates a response of violence from those who know of no other way to be in this world. The root of this violence is the honor of the family which is bound to their loyalty to their country and when the cause of the country is questioned then the honor of the family is shaken. The father of the household demands that honor for his family be upheld yet here in this message of the kingdom there is the voice of the Heavenly Father demanding obedience to his will. And so, families become torn apart. To those who accept the truth of the kingdom, the honor of ones earthly father must take a back seat to doing the will of the Heavenly Father, whose name alone must be made holy. Do you see how the dynamics that bind families together have suddenly begun to unravel upon hearing that God and his kingdom have drawn near?

So once again, just like when Jesus spoke of one’s country, here when speaking of families, we can honestly say that these are good things. Yet what Jesus wants his messengers and us to understand, is that these good things are not ultimate things, they are those things built upon sand which one day will wash away. If we take any good thing, it doesn’t matter if it is our country, or our family, and we treasure any of these good things more than we treasure God, then there will be trouble. The trouble happens when those things that we treasure more than God become those things we worship instead of God, when we find them worthy of our affection, our life and our power. When this happens we have taken things which may be good in themselves and made them something evil, idols which have taken the place of the one true God. We must not forget that the wolves that are so inherently violent are those who are false prophets, false because they are speaking for false gods. So, it makes sense that anything that would expose ones worship of a false god would be met by a violent response because people have invested their affections, their power, in fact their very life, all in something that was really no god at all. This is why Jesus tells us to have no fear of those who are worshipping these false gods because there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or anything hidden that will not be known. When the truth is spoken then that which is false will be eventually found out.

         Yes, the reaction of those who trust in false gods is violent especially against those who expose that what they are trusting in for the good life is not secure at all.  While Jesus bluntly warns of the danger that will be for those who speak about the kingdom of heaven all is not lost because Jesus also gives us some wondrous promises. Jesus tells us that when we are delivered over to the governors or kings, there is no need to be anxious about what will be said in that moment because the Spirit of the Father will speak through us. There, in the most frightening of experiences, comes an experience of even greater awe, the Spirit of our Heavenly Father speaking through us. This is how our Heavenly Father is with us, his Spirit blowing like a wind through us, forming words on our lips that have the imprint of heaven. Yet this is not all, for Jesus also says that despite all the troubles and persecution we who bear the message of the kingdom are to have no fear. The only fear we should have is the one who created us for only he can un-create us yet even so, we are certain that the one who has created us loves us. The one who is so close to his creation that he watches the birds with rapt attention this one we call Father is so close to us that he can see our individual hairs and count them as well. So, we have a Father who speaks for us, a Father who is intimately close to us all because he treasures us, our value being infinitely greater than any other part of his creation, even the sparrows.

         So, it is when the false gods of this world are encountered this is where we begin to see clearly the vast difference between the worship of false gods and the worship of our heavenly Father. Those who worship false gods, hearing that the object which secures their life is nothing of any substance, react with a violent reaction and hateful threats to force those who expose their charade to get back in line. Yet the truth will prevail. It is a truth that will threaten the false gods held fast within kingdoms or families. This truth is that the will of our Heavenly Father will be done on earth as in heaven. We should find doing the will of our Heavenly Father worthy of our affections, our power, and even our life, because he is a Father who speaks for us, who stands near to us, who lets us know that he treasures us. And this is why, we remember, we treasure him. We treasure him because he is the God who gives us a greater hope in which to believe in. We may not have the peace we desire just yet. The cleansing of people of their false illusions is difficult work. Even those we love may rather cling to what is nothing but a dream then to allow us to speak of the God who is true. These trying times, then, have a purpose in that they are times that force us to ask, is Jesus worth this? Is Jesus worth, the hurt, the pain, the loss of loved ones, the loss of honor and respect? Is Jesus really worth more than these? It is here at the end of this talk that Jesus first mentions carrying our cross. Is Jesus worth even this?All we can say is that Jesus carried his cross for us. He knew we were worth everything to him. The question remains, is Jesus worth everything to us? Is Jesus worthy of all our affection, our power, even our life? I pray that in this Lenten season that you will most assuredly find Jesus worthy of all that we are, our whole lives. Amen!