Matthew 10.24-39

Pentecost Four (Revised Common Lectionary) | 06.25.23 | Matthew 10.24-39 | Pr. Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.  If they have called the master of the house Beel-zebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.  What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.  And 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.  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  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.  And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.  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.  And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

    [English Standard Version]

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”                                                                       [Romans 6.4]

  In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Three Sundays ago, the Church observed the Festival of the Holy Trinity.  On that day it was strengthening to once again be drawn into the powerful and mysterious workings of the Father, Son and Spirit!  Such holy workings hover over and under the six month season of Pentecost which is underway this month.  These workings enable the Lord’s parish communities to be the places where, in sharp contrast to the corrupt and cutthroat life of this world, the Lord’s people can find the assurance, the safety and the meaning that is unique to the Holy Trinity.

When we come into the Church’s liturgies from now into November, we come from a world that is stumbling around, confident in its arrogance, but tormented by deep anxiety, clinging to its created gods, but in a rage when they let us down.  Thankfully, the Father, Son and Spirit are constantly working from the places of their Scriptures and their Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist to see to it that their parish communities are faithful carriers and reflectors of the Life that the Son brought to this world through his birthing, living, dying, rising and ascending.  The Holy Trinity enables its parishes to be the places where people who are fully wrapped up in themselves can recognize how severely flawed they are and how much they need the restoration that is provided only by the crucified and resurrected Son.

Last Sunday the Father, Son and Spirit took us to the beginning and the center of the  ministry initiated by Jesus, the one passed on to the Twelve Apostles and the one that has extended to all those baptized and ordained into the Church’s ministry for more than two thousand years.  Today’s Gospel continues from Matthew 9 and 10, filled with specific instructions from our Lord, instructions that are fresh, startling and reviving!  This morning’s passage comes after Jesus has detailed the persecutions that will come to his Apostles and followers as they carry out his ministry.  This is not surprising because the Life Jesus brings from eternity is totally different from the world’s life.

Today’s reading opens with the end of that section (verses 16-25) before encouraging Jesus’ followers to have no fear and to be reminded he has not come to bring peace, but a sword.  The chapter closes with Jesus detailing the rewards that follow from his baptized and ordained people carrying out the instructions he has given them.

In all these sections there is a certain heaviness to them.  Because they are a series of instructions from the center of our Lord’s Life, we who preach tend to look for “hooks,” thinking they will help us understand and absorb them.  The “hooks” come from familiar realities in the world’s life and their apparent connections with phrases in these instructions.  We think that bringing out such “hooks” will help with the communication of such instructions, but it doesn’t always work out that way.  That’s why it is better to confront them fully in spite of the difficulties absorbing them.  It is true that the instructions are tough and that they may cross with our understandings of the ministry being exercised in the Church today.  Still, we attempt to press through the heaviness of these sections.  In order to hear and receive Jesus’ instructions more fully this morning, we will concentrate on the three paragraphs printed above and dig into the key words surfacing from them.

In the first paragraph Jesus comments about the relationships that exist between a disciple and a teacher, between a servant and a master.  These relationships are healthy.  But then he also mentions the relationship that exists between Beel-zebul and his household.  Who is this Beel-zebul?

The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Volume One) has intriguing background on him.  The English word comes from the Hebrew name for the “god of Ekron,” (Baal-zebub).  Ekron is one of five principal cities in the region of Philistia, an area west of Jerusalem, but closer to the Mediterranean Sea.  It is an old Canaanite town to which the Philistines had brought the captured Ark of the Covenant.  They returned it quickly though because of all the illnesses that were surfacing among their people!

“Baal” means “lord” and “zebub” means “flies,” (“lord of the flies”).  The name was used

derisively by the Hebrew people because this god was an adversary (antagonist) of

the real God.  As its usage expanded into the Septuagint and the New Testament, it referenced demon possession and the evil one (Satan).  The mention of this god’s household in the first paragraph will surface again in the third paragraph though in a different context.

The second paragraph is dominated by Jesus’ comments about having no fear of the serious persecutions being thrown on his baptized and ordained people.  Our Lord points out that everything which is covered will be thrown off, that what is hidden will become known, and that which is whispered will be proclaimed openly.  He again urges his followers to have no fear, reminding them (quite stunningly) that those who kill the body are not able to kill the soul.  Instead, today’s baptized and ordained are urged to fear the One who destroys both soul and body in hell (hell being the reality of complete separation from the Father, Son and Spirit!).

Jesus reminds his followers of their high value to his Father, pointing out that the Father is aware of a cheap sparrow’s death and that he has numbered all the hairs of our heads!  Because of such high value we are not to fear anything!  He then reminds us that, in recognizing Jesus in the presence of others, we receive his recognition in the presence of his Father.  He also points out that, if we deny him in in the presence of others, this leads to him denying us before the Father!

Jesus’ instructions bring us to the third paragraph.  When he states flatly that he has not come to this world to bring it peace, but a sword, he is revealing the sharp distinction between his Life from eternity and the world’s life.  The sword will cut through all the relationships that exist in families and households.  The sword will sever the connections people have with the world’s gods, positioning them for a much better and healthier connection with the LORD God!

Jesus points out how the world’s gods operate when they clamor for children and parents to make their relationships more worthy than their relationships with Jesus.  Again, he notes that such clamor (even though well intended) breaks down the relationship which is intended to exist with him.  The worthy relationship with him results from us taking up his Cross and following him, carrying out the instructions from these two chapters.  Those who drive for their own lives will lose them, but those who let go of their lives for Jesus’ sake will find them.

This matter of taking up Jesus’ Cross needs to be thought through.  Obviously we see it most clearly on Good Friday when, surrounded by air, our Lord suffocated to death.  His death, though, slid into the mysteries of Holy Saturday and then, through the powerful workings of his Father, re-emerged in the stunning Life of Easter Day.

To take up his Cross means to be continually imbedded in those three Holy Days.  The world births us to care only for ourselves, a birth generating all the chaos occurring in this world.  Baptism into the Father, Son and Spirit gives us a new birth, one that breaks and loosens the world’s grip on our lives, one that enables us to carry and reflect the Trinity’s Life to the hurting and distressed people in our self-absorbed world.  Taking up Jesus’ Cross means that every time the Lord’s people step into the Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and the Eucharist, his three Holy Days are wrapping into and around our lives.  Such wrapping loosens the world’s grip on us and firms us up in the Life of the Holy Trinity.

Taking up Jesus’ Cross, then, pulls all his instructions together in these two chapters.  Taking up Jesus’ Cross keeps us centered in the assurance, the safety and the meaning that is unique to the Holy Trinity!  Taking up Jesus’ Cross enables parish communities to be faithful carriers and reflectors of the Trinity’s Life to the exhausted and dispirited people of an arrogant and lost world!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

   hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

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Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com