The Unarmed Truth--June 28, 2023

The Unarmed Truth--June 28, 2023

[Jesus told the disciples:] "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 [Gehenna]. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from from your Father. And even the hairs on your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." [Matthew 10:28-31]

Okay, we've got to be real clear about two things right off the bat here, or else we're going to get lost and pointed in the wrong direction.  

The first this is this: the One to "fear" isn't the devil here--it's God.  And "fear" isn't like the gnawing insecurity that there might be monsters under the bed or a divinely lightning bolt hurled your way if you don't keep checking behind your back.  This is a big deal, because when Jesus says, "Don't fear those who can only kill your body, but rather fear the one who can destroy both the physical part of you and the spiritual part of you," some have thought he was talking about "the Evil One"--the Tempter, the Accuser, the one we sometimes call the devil or Satan [which just means "Accuser"].  But Jesus isn't telling us to substitute one fear of a small villain with a bigger fear of a supervillain.  Rather, Jesus is saying that the One who really has the power and the perspective that matters is God, not any lesser authority or threat.  And when Jesus talks about "fear" here, it's in the same vein as the Hebrew Scriptures which talk over and over again about "the fear of the LORD" as the beginning of real wisdom.  When the Scriptures talk about cultivating "the fear of the LORD," it's more like the awe of standing before a rushing river of rapids or with your feet at the edge of the Grand Canyon: it's not there to hurt you, but you would be wise to watch your step.  So Jesus isn't saying that the "real" boogeyman, the devil, should keep us up at night with fear--but rather that the One who has the real power over life and death, creation and destruction, is the same One he invites us to call on as "Father" in the next breath, the One whose care watches even over sparrows and hairs on our heads.  It's a "Don't be afraid--God is bigger than any threat you might face" kind of statement, not a "Let me give you something to fuel your nightmares" sort of thing.

Now, once we're clear on whom we do--and do not--have to fear, there's another point we need to talk about here in this passage many of us heard this past Sunday. Jesus has been preparing his disciples to be truth-tellers and good-news sharers out in the towns and villages around them.  And along with the instructions to heal, cast out evil spirits, raise the dead, and announce that God's Reign had come near, he is also bracing them for the very real contingency that they'll meet with resistance.  After all, if Jesus has been rejected, mocked, and turned away [and he has been], then Jesus' spokespersons should be prepared for the same.  Jesus was scorned by the Respectable Religious Leaders who were incensed that Jesus ate and drank at dinners with "those tax collectors and sinners," and that he seemed to think that God's Reign included a whole bunch of unacceptables and outcasts.  And he was deemed a threat by the political so-and-sos of the day as well, both the Romans and Herod, because he announced the arrival of a different sort of Kingdom which exposed theirs as hollow frauds.  So of course, Jesus says, his followers are in for the same kind of reception, presumably for the same reasons [again, like we said earlier in this week, we don't get to cry "persecution" for just being jerks, bigots, or self-appointed know-it-alls].

Okay, so taken together, Jesus has been telling his disciples first, that they should be ready to meet with rejection, harassment, and exclusion from both the religious and political powers of the day insofar as we have been following the way and embodying the character of Jesus, and then, second, that in the face of that hostility, God has our back even when the powers of the day do their worst.  The worst they can do, after all, is kill us--but God insists on getting the last word and holding onto our lives even through death into resurrection life.  And if God is even aware of every last songbird's tumbling through the air, then of course, Jesus says, God is aware and cares when we meet with trouble, rejection, or persecution.  And God reserves the right to have the last word--even if they do their worst and string us up on crosses, which is exactly what they did to Jesus, after all.

But you'll notice in all of this what Jesus doesn't think we need in the face of hostility and threats--there's no mention of needing to arm ourselves to fight back or prevent the persecution that might happen.  Jesus doesn't say, "The Empire won't like the message of a different Kingdom, so you've got to stock up on swords and spears to be ready to fight 'em off when they come for you!"  Jesus doesn't say, "If your words don't persuade people of the Gospel's truth, maybe your weapons will convince them!"  And Jesus definitely does not say, "We have to defend God, and righteousness, and truth, so you'd better be armed!" There is no strategy to avoid persecution, to shield our vulnerabilities, or to attack preemptively in order to keep the "bad guys" at bay.  There is instead only the call to stare down that hostility and danger, continuing to speak the words Jesus gives us, and to answer hatred with love, evil with good.  Jesus is convinced that God doesn't need our help or protection even from the mortal threat of the crucifying empire, and he is convinced that we don't need any additional defense other than the God who won't let evil or death win the day.  After all, even if they do their worst, God can raise us up to resurrection life--and that is exactly what God did when the powers of the day did their worst to Jesus.

It is easy in our day and age to think that we need to back up our faith with firepower, and to respond to fears of some ominous "THEM" who are out to get us with more and more weapons.  There are lots of voices insisting that Christians need to be "ready" to attack enemies or defend ourselves in the name of protecting God or preserving righteousness.  And those voices can be persuasive.  It's just that they're not listening to Jesus.  Like Stanley Hauerwas says it, "Any time you think you need to protect God, you can be sure that you are worshipping an idol."  Or like the old line puts it, "You defend God like you would defend a lion--by getting out of the way."  Jesus knowingly sends us out vulnerably into a hostile world, without promising us that nothing bad will ever happen, but convinced that the way we witness to God's kind of power is like Jesus: without returning evil for evil. We will face the hostility of the world with Jesus' kind of love and truth-telling, rather than needing to "get them before they get us."  We will believe that God's good news is compelling enough that we don't have to coerce people into it.  And we will live without fear of what anybody can do to us, because even if "they" do their worst, God has promised that resurrection gets the last word.

Today is a day to take our calling as Gospel truth-tellers seriously--and with that, to take seriously that God's promise is all we need to bear that unarmed truth for the world.

Lord Jesus, give us confidence in your promise of God's life-giving power so that we can face even the worst the world can do, with your death-defying love.