Jesu Juva
St. Matthew 10:21-33
Proper 7A
June 25, 2023
Dear saints of our Savior~
Jesus said: What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. When was the last time you were up on top of your house? Hanging out on the roof isn’t something that most of us do very often—if we can help it. In fact, if you are on your rooftop, it usually means that something bad has happened: the roof is leaking, shingles are missing, the chimney is collapsing. As for me, I’ve
So it sounds a little strange to hear Jesus telling His disciples to proclaim things from the housetops. You might conclude that Jesus is just giving us another of His famous figures of speech—happily dabbling in a little hyperbole—exaggerating to make a point. Jesus doesn’t literally want us climbing our ladders and shouting things from our rooftops, does He? Well, don’t be so sure!
Jesus is being more literal than you might imagine. Back in First Century Palestine people proclaimed things from the rooftops all the time—every day. How so? Well, first of all, most rooftops in arid Israel are flat—and therefore not nearly so dangerous to navigate. What’s more, at a time before there was air conditioning, the rooftop was a great place to hang out to catch a cool evening breeze when the house itself was uncomfortably warm. In this way, rooftops became a place of socialization, where neighbors could converse and kibitz and pass along the latest scuttlebutt. Rooftops in Israel were a lot like the front porches of small town America back in the last century. It was where people were social before there was social media.
In Matthew chapter 10 it’s the Twelve apostles that Jesus has directed up to the rooftops. He was sending out the Twelve on their first missionary journey. They were being sent to the lost sheep of Israel—only to fellow Jews. (Gentiles would be targeted later.) Jesus was sending them up to the rooftops to give maximum publicity to His teachings. What Jesus had been teaching them in private, they were now to preach and proclaim in public. The Twelve were to seek out those places which would afford maximum exposure. That makes perfect sense—like something from a marketing textbook.
Now, this is all very interesting, but how does it apply to us? After all, Jesus was talking to the Twelve about a specific ministry assignment. When Jesus describes how they will be hated and persecuted and maligned—we can safely assume that Jesus was talking mostly to the Twelve and not so much to us. But Jesus then suddenly expands His audience. Unexpectedly, He turns away from the Twelve and looks right at us: So everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Not only the Twelve—not just James and John and Judas—but you and you and you—everyone must either confess the Christ, or deny Him.
In the Bible, to “confess” is to say the same thing. To confess Jesus before men is simply to speak and say what Jesus has already spoken and said to us. You confess Christ every time you echo, repeat, and profess the teachings of Jesus—as when we confessed the Apostles’ Creed a few minutes ago. If Jesus says that all who believe and are baptized will be saved, then we confess that—we echo and repeat that. If Jesus says that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life—that no one comes to the Father except through Him—then we confess that. Whatever Jesus has said; so say we. Why? Because we want others to share in this same confession and be saved. We want other people to know and receive the blessings that come to all who confess Christ.
Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Confessing Jesus and His Word is never easy. Down through the centuries countless Christian have been martyred and massacred for the “crime” of confessing Christ. In today’s Old Testament reading the prophet Jeremiah simply sought to confess God’s Word to God’s people. And for that “faith crime” Jeremiah found himself on the receiving end of a sixth century BC Twitter mob: Denounce him! Let us denounce him, say all my close friends, waiting for my fall. With “close friends” like that, who needs enemies? And don’t forget what Jesus plainly told the Twelve as He sent them out to confess Him before men: You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. What do you do? What do you do when faithfully confessing Christ and His Word turns family, friends and neighbors into enemies? Now more than ever, confessing Christ in the wrong place before the wrong people will put a target on your back. What do you say when God’s gift of natural marriage is rejected in favor of some unnatural, same-sex arrangement—when florists and bakers are hounded and hassled for courageously confessing Christ rather than going along with the mob? What do you say when God’s gift of bodily identity—when God’s gift of maleness and femaleness—is rejected, and little children are taught to hate the body God has given them? Or what about the man and woman who are living together (under the same rooftop), but doing so while rejecting the blessing and benefit of marriage? What about when God’s gift of life in the womb is being massacred daily by Planned Parenthood—especially when most of the little lives they brutally end are black lives. Do they matter? Jesus says they do. Are you ready to speak up and confess a better way, a better choice, a loving alternative? Are you ready to confess Christ?
It’s easy to say nothing. It’s easy to do nothing. It’s easy just to keep your head down and your mouth shut. It’s easier still to go along with the mob and so deny Jesus. But there’s no courage in that. It requires no faith to do that. People will applaud you if you do that. But confessing Christ and His Word? That takes courage. That requires faith. And it will not earn you a round of applause or a standing ovation. People—perhaps a whole mob—will denounce you.
But Jesus—He will never denounce you. He will never disown you. He will confess you before His Father in heaven. You are named and claimed by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For every disciple who dares to confess Christ from the housetops—for you who seek to faithfully bear witness to the teachings and love of Jesus—our Lord says: Be not afraid. In fact, in today’s Holy Gospel He says it three times: Have no fear of them. . . . Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. . . . Fear not for you are of more value than a multitude of sparrows and even the hairs of your head are numbered.
The fear that quiets us—the fear that keeps us from confessing Christ and His Word—Jesus wants us to leave that fear behind. Trust Him. Follow Him in faith. What you hear whispered from the pages of your Bible, proclaim from the housetops. Because—come hell or high water or the end of western civilization as we know it—your body and soul are in the safe-keeping of Jesus the Christ. If He knows when a single sparrow falls to the ground—if He knows the number of hairs on your head—then He also knows just the help you need. For you, He suffered at the hands of a ruthless mob. For you, He was denounced and put to death on a cross.
The wages of sin is death—it’s true. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. He was killed on Good Friday. But by that death your sin was done away with. By that death He destroyed death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. And that free gift of salvation is offered to all people—to every son and daughter of Adam. All are invited; none are excluded. The forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting—that’s God’s free gift for you and for all who believe.
But some people—perhaps someone in your life—they may only come to know and receive that gift because you cared enough to confess Jesus—because you cared enough to head up to the rooftop to speak the truth in love. Jesus died to save sinners, of whom we are the worst. We’re not perfect, but we are forgiven in Jesus, and that makes all the difference. That’s the good news that we are privileged to proclaim from the rooftops—to friend and foe alike. God has reconciled the world to Himself in Jesus.
That’s what we call the gospel. If you’re a Lutheran (and most of you are), then you come from a long line of courageous men and women who confessed the Christ. 493 years ago today the Lutheran Church was born when a fearless group of princes and professors confessed their faith before the Emperor in a German city called Augsburg. Their confession—the Augsburg confession—is the defining document of Lutheranism. They risked everything for the sake of the Gospel. They did not fear those who could kill the body but could not kill the soul. Rather, they confessed Jesus, who had saved them in both body and soul by His death and resurrection. You follow in their footsteps. God has joined together their voices and our voices in a chorus of confession that rings out until that glorious day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
