Matthew 10:24-39
Intro
This morning’s passage is a difficult one to hear, let alone one to conceptualize actually living out. We hear these words and we wonder how the savior whom we worship could ever say such things. They sound harsh. They sound strident. They sound divisive.
What we need to remember, however, is something that is so very easy to forget: the culture that Jesus is speaking of, is not the culture that we are living in. To put it another way: Jesus wouldn’t use these examples, at least not all of them.
The verses this morning, at least as I read them, come to us in a reverse order. Basically, the stuff that we hear first, is actually what will happen if we follow the advice that Jesus is giving in the latter portions of the passage. So let’s start at the end.
These words talk with us about what we’re connected to and what’s important to us. For the people of Jesus time what was of supreme importance was the family. That was the center hub around which the rest of one’s life operated. What Jesus is telling his disciples is something quite different: he’s saying that God has to be first. The language that he uses to get his point across sounds overly stinging but remember he’s creating a new way of thinking. Jesus is trying to get his disciples attention. My guess is, if our reaction is any indication, he did pretty well at waking them up.
So as you hear these words, remember where Jesus is taking us. If you do that, these words might begin to take on the meaning that they were intended to have, as opposed to the words that we have made them out to be. The scripture reads this way.
Matthew 10:24-39
24
"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25 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!26
"So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 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. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.32
"Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.34
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 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; 36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.37
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; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."Straight = Turn Around"
When I put together a service for Sunday mornings, one of the things that I consistently try and do is make sure that all of the pieces fit together. I want to make sure that the hymns match the scripture, which matches the prayers, which matches the Psalter reading, etcetera, etcetera. On a Sunday like today that also means incorporating the special recognitions like we’ve had with the graduates and the commissioning of the Guatemala missionaries in a few moments. On the surface you wouldn’t think that this would be able to happen especially considering all of the different directions that the service could head off in. At the very least, that’s what I thought when I was trying to find the string that would pull all of these things together: then I sat down and starting diving into what was being said through the Gospel of Matthew and (at least I hope) I found what I was looking for.
As I mentioned earlier, when you first hear these words, you have to shake your head because what it sounds like Jesus is saying does not fit into the picture that we have created of the savior whom we worship. That’s why it’s important to read this passage through the context of the last verse. It is here that we are told, "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." Both of those statements are completely antithetical: if you’ve found it, you’ve actually lost it…and if you’ve lost it, you’ve really found it. To think of it a little bit differently, it’s like having someone who is giving you directions say to you, "if you want to go straight, you’ve got to turn around." What?! It feels like I’m on a road in New Jersey.
But that is exactly what Jesus is saying to everyone who will listen. What this meant was that for the people of his day, his contemporaries, was that, "your families have got to be moved down the pecking order a rung. The world does not revolve around your family. It revolves around God. If you are willing to trust me this shift will take you where you want to go, your families will be cared for, and your lives will begin to reach the fulfillment that you long for." And again, this was an idea that was completely against the societal grain, so much so that it would set husband against wife, parent against child, sibling against sibling, and, just as shockingly, invite those who were once considered enemies to live within the family home. Jesus understands what the shift he is asking for will cause: it will feel like the sword has come and the world as they knew it was ending. What Jesus was asking for was not something small: it was huge and the language that he uses shows just how large the shift is.
Now as we said earlier, what Jesus said to his contemporaries would not necessarily be what he would say to us, in our particular time. My guess is that what Jesus would say might sound something like this: "you’ve got to break free of the mold that you have created for yourself and has been created for you. You’ve got to break free of the mold of the world that says that you are the most important, that you are the only one who matters, that you need no one else besides yourself in order to succeed."
All you have to do is look around to realize that we have separated ourselves off so that the center of our world is not the family, as it was in Jesus’ time, but ourselves. Everything is personalized. Everything is centered around our wants and desires, our likes and dislikes. In setting up this sort of a model our sense of community has become more and more fragmented, and our families have become more and more distant (and I’m not talking about the number of miles that may separate us). There are way too many times when we look at ourselves as the only hope for what we need. We’re trying to get to this place of peace and this is the latest rendition of how to get there: do it yourself.
What Jesus would say to us is, "It will not work. You are not your only hope. Look to my Father, look to me, and begin to see that when you place your reliance in the Almighty, then you will begin to find that which you are seeking, that which you could have never found of your own volition." "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." In order to go straight, you’ve got to turn around. Will this shift to God put you in conflict with the world? Invariably. It certainly did with Jesus as the Pharisees said that Jesus was in league with Satan, aka: Beelzebub. However, the sacrifice that you make in regards to the world will allow the peace that you long for to ultimately be given to you because you were willing to turn your life over to God.
This is a message that we all need to hear, especially if your graduating from High School or going on an international mission trip (it took me a little while, …but eventually I got back to where I was hoping to go!).
For you graduates, and I say this because all of you are headed off to college, the life that you are entering into is going to give you all sorts of advice as to how you should live. You’ll get it from the administrators, your professors, and absolutely your classmates. Unfortunately, very little of what you will hear will sound like, "turn your life over to God, for in that turn around, you will be given all that you need." I graduated from college eleven years ago and the school that I attended had a strong Christian presence. You want to know the message I heard most often? "It’s your life, make it want you will." You, you, you. I admit that such a message may have been because of the people that I hung around with (all those crazy religion and music majors) but it really felt like God was an afterthought, and not the preeminent thought as Jesus has called us to have. Listen to the call of God, turn around and welcome in the Almighty. It will lead you straight to the life you need.
As for the mission trippers, this message acts as a reminder that you keep at the heart of your work the reason that you are there: you are there to serve the risen Christ, show his love for the world, and allow his kingdom to be built. One of things that I have felt inside myself, and absolutely seen take place on the mission trips that I have been a part of is that it’s real easy to think that you are the one who’s doing all the good work. I get that.
In the same breath, what is being done, is being done through you. You are the hands and feet, the heart and voice, the very presence of God as the Holy Spirit works through you to accomplish all that will be done. Continue to listen to the call of God to turn around and welcome in the Almighty. It will lead you to accomplish all that needs to be done, straight away.
As for all of us who don’t fit into either of those categories, the question still remains: what’s your focus? What we hear in our passage this morning is that if you take the time to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit so as to turn around and welcome God into the center of your life, then you will be able to head straight toward a life of fulfillment. You might not find the comforts that the world calls for us to acquire, but you will be granted a sense of contentment that is truly a gift from God. Don’t be afraid, you are so precious to God that even the hairs on your head are counted. That is how precious you are to God, and that is why God longs so desperately for us to turn around and head straight to the Almighty.
After Sermon Prayer
Holy God, You have called to each of us to make You the center of our lives. We know that this can be easier said than done, but God we trust that with You, we might be able to begin to take steps to make that happen so that we’re able to understand just how loved we are and how important we are to You and the world around us. Lord, let it be so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.