June 21, 2020
Scripture and Meditation Matthew 10:24-39 Faith in Families
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.
Are you feeling uncomfortable right now? Are you wondering who this Jesus is that did not come to bring peace but the sword? Is the idea of Jesus coming to set man against his father a disturbing thought? I am right there with you. I don’t like this passage. I want to skip over it and get to something much more caring on this Father’s Day Sunday. But this is the lectionary passage of the day and I wanted to wrestle with it and not just ignore it.
This passage is part of a larger Missionary Discourse that Jesus is sharing with his disciples in the hopes of addressing the responses the disciples might encounter as they carry out their mission and the principle of discipleship. We too are asked to do mission and to be disciples. We may not encounter the sword and death for preaching the gospel, thank God, but I believe there are lessons here, nonetheless.
Jesus is painting a picture of some of the things the disciples will face while sharing the gospel. While Jesus is with them, they have faith and courage, but soon Jesus will entrust the spread of the gospel to these few people. One commentator writes, “Jesus’ mission discourse is a “get-out-the-volunteers” campaign like no other. On the one hand, the disciples are granted remarkable powers to heal, exorcise demons, cleanse lepers, even to raise the dead. But he also denies them money, pay, extra clothes, a staff for protection, even sandals. They are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God (10:8-11), even knowing that they face arrests and beatings, opposition even from family members, and hatred and persecution” (Stanley Saunders, Working Preacher). Jesus is preparing them for what lies ahead.
I see three lessons that might help us today.
The first lesson is about fear. Jesus knows what these disciples will face, and fear will be the biggest hurdle. Four times he mentions fear or being afraid. Fear of dying for the gospel is a very real fear. Today we do not die for the gospel, but the fear of death is very real right now. We have never faced the threat of a virus like this before.
This week I realized I was feeling out of sorts and I reached out to a counselor I had seen years ago. I found it helpful to talk through the realities of this time and how I am thinking and feeling about them. It was so liberating. At the end of the session with my walls lowered I stopped to feel, deeply grieve the loss of so many people to COVID-19. And I cried. We all know and talk about this, but are we truly feeling the grief and the fear that comes along with it. Do we sit with the tragic loss, allowing grief to swell in our hearts? We try to be strong, to trust all will be well, but the fear remains. It is OK to be afraid. To say it out loud, to cry and grieve for those we have lost. And to acknowledge that we might not feel safe. I think that is what Jesus was trying to help the disciples do. To feel the reality of suffering, fear and death they might face, in the hopes of helping them not be paralyzed by it, but to name it and be empowered by faith to move through it. And should we get sick with the virus, to lean into our faith. For it truly is our faith in God that will see us through. The virus can destroy our bodies, but it cannot kill our souls because we have faith in God through Jesus Christ.
The second lesson is you are valued by God. Jesus responds to the disciples’ fear by reminding them God knows the number of hairs on their head and protects the sparrow so how much more will God be with you? Let’s pause here. Do you know how valued you are? How loved you are by God? How precious to God you are?
Many of us first find our value in the eyes of a parent, a loving mother or father who teaches us how to love and to be in the world. They teach us we have worth simply because we breathe. Sometimes we say she is the apple of his eye.
This phrase comes from Psalm 17:8,”Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.” On this Father’s Day I want to share a story I found with you, “Ever since I can remember, I’ve been told I was the apple of my daddy’s eye. When I was growing up, in addition to his office at the university, my dad had a desk at home. It seemed huge to me, made of dark wood and covered with important things. I used to play under that desk, hiding for hours with my dolls and my imagination.
Why was I drawn to that old desk? In addition to the papers, pens and blotter on top of the desk, there was also a polished wooden apple, inset with a delicate brass frame. That frame held a picture of me. It was a physical representation of how my father felt about me. This reinforced how precious I was to my dad and how much he loved me.
Many years later I began to wonder about the origin of this saying and learned that it originated in the Bible, specifically the Old Testament. Not satisfied, I dug deeper. I learned that the apple of the eye is the pupil of the eye and that this saying was actually a word picture about relationships. It’s a picture of being so close to someone that you can see yourself reflected in the pupil of their eye.
That picture brought tears to my own eyes, as I remembered how much I meant to my earthly daddy and how much I mean to my heavenly father (Guidepost, Edie Jun 23, 2015).
In the face of our fears, Jesus powerfully reminds us of God’s love for us! Your value in God’s eyes. So even when things get tough, cling to the value and worth you have simply as a child of God, forgiven loved and freed.
The final lesson is the primacy of Christ. All of the talk about father against son, mother against daughter- or the one I like the best is daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law- being singled out that way sure has been lived out through the centuries! But what Christ is saying to us here, is not to forego your family, but rather to place Jesus first. We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ and just like a disciple is not above a teacher or a slave above the master, our family cannot be above our love of Christ. To be worthy of Christ is to love Christ the most, beyond all others. But this is a two-way street. We love Christ above all others because we are the apple of God’s eye, because we have value in God’s sight. We have protection in the shadow of God’s wings. Our fears are calmed because of God’s personal care and love.
We will soon taste that care and love when we join together in the heavenly feast Jesus has prepared. Bring your fear, your value in God’s eyes, and the primacy of Christ with you to this meal so that all can be bathed in divine light and we be strengthened for what lies ahead. Amen.
