Jesu Juva
St. Matthew 10:34-42
July 2, 2023
Proper
8A
Dear saints of our Savior,
Get ready! Get set! Go! What we hear from Jesus today are the words of a send-off—the final words of His great missionary discourse. For the very first time, men were being sent out on a mission to proclaim good news—to preach that the kingdom of heaven had come near in Jesus of Nazareth. The Twelve disciples were being sent out to confess Jesus Christ before men—with the promise that Jesus would confess them before His Father in heaven. The harvest was plentiful; and the workers were few—but those workers were on their way. They were bolting from the starting blocks, equipped with nothing more than the great good news that Jesus Christ had come into the world to save sinners. Get ready! Get set! Go!
I can remember when I first got my marching orders from Jesus 27 years ago. Fresh from the seminary and still wet behind the ears, my biggest problem was unrealistic expectations. I already knew that I had the best job in the world; I just couldn’t anticipate all the pitfalls and perils of being a pastor. Half the congregation was related to the other half; and most of the members had been members of that one congregation for their entire lifetime. They knew nothing else. Some of my most senior members were living in the very farmhouses where they had been born. And then along came twenty-seven-year-old me with a slew of thoughtful suggestions about how we might change things up. I was naïve to the Nth degree; and my slew of suggestions were (How shall I put this?) they were not favorably received.
No one can say that Jesus didn’t prepare the Twelve for the pitfalls and perils they would encounter on their first assignment. The Jesus they were proclaiming wasn’t just another religious teacher; He was the Son of God. Jesus could be followed in faith or rejected in unbelief. He could either be worshipped or despised. But there could be no ambivalence—no middle ground. Either He is God and Lord; or else there’s an imposter—an idol—on the loose. And if there’s an idol on the loose—well, that’s a big problem.
Those sent out by Jesus eventually have to do battle with these idols. Jesus highlighted for the Twelve some of the most difficult idols they would have to confront: 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. It’s the idolatry of family!
Jesus was teaching the Twelve—helping them to understand—that even God’s very best gifts (including children, parents, and spouses) can devolve into idols. Jesus wanted them to see that idols are much more than figures carved from wood or stone. Idols—the things that come between you and Jesus—idols are most often people—beloved people—but people we fear, love and trust more than Jesus. Let’s not be naive: All of us are idolaters at heart. By nature, we do nothing better than accept good gifts from heaven (like family) and then turn those gifts into gods—into idols that demand everything from us.
Let me give you a trendy example of how God’s gift of family can become an idol. When the Christian child of Christian parents embraces a sinful lifestyle—and those parents choose to condone the sin and affirm the sin and support the sin. It could be as commonplace as when a child chooses to live together with a significant other, without the benefit and blessing of marriage. It could be when son or daughter chooses a spot on the sexual spectrum and announces that he/she is L or G or B or T or Q or “plus,” and the parents simply say, “We support you.” Rather than confess Jesus (and honor marriage), rather than echo Jesus (that we should lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do), rather than confess Jesus (and how He has given us our very bodies and all our members), rather than confess Jesus (that our bodies—from head to toe—are temples of His Holy Spirit) Jesus is denied. His teaching is denied. His truth is not spoken in love.
It’s all about idolatry. Those examples are just a tiny fraction of the ways we all commit idolatry. We all break no commandment more often than the first: You shall have no other gods. Because we do not fear, love, or trust in God above all things, all things (including gifts from God) have the potential to become sinful idols—including the gifts of sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives.
But hear this: We don’t love our family any less by loving Jesus more. No, in fact, the deeper our love for God, the deeper our love for our children, our parents, and our spouses will be. Love—Biblical love—is living for and serving others. Our love for our family members goes off the rails into idolatry NOT when we love them too much, but when we love them too little. For how can love be true love when it’s working against the God who is love? How can we say we love our children when, at the same time, we make them into idols? How can you say you love your spouse when you love your spouse more than you love God? No, we’re not loving too much when we commit idolatry; we’re loving too little—for it’s our selfish, self-loving side that transforms these gifts into gods—these people into idols.
This is the mess that sin creates. This is the mess which disciples and pastors and parents and spouses are called to confront in love. Get ready. Get set. Go! We are all sent by Jesus to some significant realm of responsibility—to call for repentance and reconciliation—telling people to confess the mess of sin; and turn to Jesus and live. This isn’t easy; but difficult. It’s part of a prophet’s pain—a pastor’s pain—a disciple’s dilemma—to witness the horrific effects of sin and its wages. Sometimes it just breaks your heart.
This is why your life always returns to, and revolves around, the Man from Nazareth. His bleeding wounds, suffered on the cross, are the only remedy
Get ready. Get set! Go! But as the disciples of Jesus get ready to go, the Lord gives good news. His missionary discourse concludes by laying out the privileges and promises that carry pastors and prophets along in their difficult and perilous work. Jesus says: Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent me. What does this mean? It means your pastors are just delivery men, delivering Jesus and His gifts to the door of your lips and heart. When you receive and welcome these gifts—when you delight in the absolution we speak in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ—Jesus has been delivered and received. The good news has gone forth. Faith is fortified. Forgiveness received. Heaven opened. It’s a done deal.
And did you hear what Jesus said about rewards for those who hear and believe? For all those who hear and receive and welcome the messengers of Jesus, a prophet’s reward awaits you. A righteous person’s reward awaits you. Even the humblest, simplest act of hospitality shown to a messenger of Jesus comes with a reward: And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. Here Jesus calls His messengers “little ones.” Whoever bears the gospel of Jesus to others is just a “little one,” unimpressive by the world’s standards. But when you show a simple act of kindness to someone who brings Jesus to you, your reward is sure and certain. When you deliver a cup of cold water to one of your pastors when he’s preaching on a hot July day, that’s a very good thing—something worthy of a reward in God’s eyes.
Get ready! Get set! Go! There is no better calling in all the world than to be sent by Jesus with the good news that God has reconciled the world to Himself in Christ, not counting our trespasses against us. In Him we have the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. That work is both my pain and my privilege as a pastor. Thanks for receiving that good news from my lips—and for bearing and sharing that good news to others. There’s nothing more rewarding.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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