June 23, 2002 -- FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST -- Proper 7
Matthew 10:24-39
Color: Green
Title: “Fear Not”
24 "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it 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!
Whom to Fear
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. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So 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; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
Not Peace, but a Sword
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.
37Whoever 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; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Jesus continues his missionary charge to his disciples. “Fear” is the theme of this periscope. Three times in verses twenty-six, twenty-eight and thirty, the disciples are told not to fear. Of course, Jesus is not forbidding the experiencing of the emotion of fear, but teaching his disciples that they are not to be paralyzed by fear, cowered by it, or prevented from accomplishing their mission because of it. Fear of God is different from fear of humans. Fear of God is appropriate, given his awesome power. But, also given his awesome love, fear of God does not paralyze, but liberates. Fear of humans has no foundation in fact, real fact, that is, from the eternal perspective. If anything is going to prevent the spread of the message, it will be fear of humans and of human opinion. Jesus dismisses such fears as baseless and to be overcome by concentrating on the bigger picture, the eternal perspective.
These verses provide examples of how Jesus would take a general principle- be it a proverb, a “like the old saying goes,” or some form of conventional wisdom- and apply it to a specific situation. For Jesus, it was not enough to be wise in one’s head; one should be wise-in-action. The context here is the daunting challenge of preaching and living a message, not one’s own but Christ’s, to a hostile world.
In verses twenty-four and twenty-five Jesus is laying down the principle "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. Christ’s relation to believers is presented by three figures: disciple and teacher, servant and lord, master of the house and members of the household. If Jesus himself received ill-treatment, his subordinates could hardly expect to fare better.
Verse twenty-six, therefore, do not be afraid of them: In Jesus applied what was considered a general principle, conventional wisdom, to a specific situation. The principle is “like the sender, so the one sent.” An authorized messenger was the equivalent of the person who sent him, acting in his name. This same principle comes out in our own proverbial saying, “Like Father, like Son.” Jesus is saying that if he is like his Father and acts in his name, so those whom he sends are like him. If so, then they can expect to be both received and rejected, just like he is or was. “Like master, like servant.” Thus, if the Pharisees accused him of being the messenger of the devil, acting in consort with evil, they will accuse his disciples, his “sons,” of the same thing. The disciples are not to be so afraid of this bad publicity that it paralyzes them, prevents them from acting in his name, i.e., from healing and exorcising.
concealed…revealed: In Luke 12: 2-9 these very sayings were used in a slightly different context, that of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. There Jesus applied the general principle, the conventional wisdom that the truth will eventually come out, to teach the folly of hypocrisy. Pharisees might put on a good act, but some day, certainly on or before the Last day, they will be exposed for the frauds they are. Thus, even worldly wisdom counsels against hypocrisy. Here in Matthew, Jesus uses the same principle, namely, that the truth will out, to advise the disciples not to be afraid of false accusations from the enemy’s side. Whatever is not true will be seen one day in the light of day. They will be vindicated on or before the Last day if they are innocent of whatever charges.
In verse twenty-seven, whispered, proclaim on the housetops: The disciples are not to wait until truth eventually comes out, but are to deliberately and boldly proclaim it at all times. Housetops were the natural platforms for broadcasting. The things Jesus explained to them in private in Matthew 13 and Mark 4 they are now to make public knowledge. The message of Jesus is not for a chosen few, those on the “in,” or “in the know.”
In verse twenty-eight, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul: “Soul” translates the Greek psyche. In both the Old Testament and New Testament it means: 1) the life principle, common to all living things; 2) the seat of thought and emotions in humans; and 3) the real self, as here. Jesus is not taking a position here on whether the person is composed of two separate and separable entities, body and soul. He is simply using common parlance to say that persecutors may be able to separate the “soul,” or life principle from the body, by killing it, but they cannot separate the person, abbreviated here as “soul,” from God, by putting the person into hell. The general principle, accepted by thoughtful people, was that there is more to life than existence. As Jesus applies it to the topic at hand, he says that fear or cowardice can rob one of life whereas death can only rob one of existence. Therefore, fear God, yes. That is healthy and appropriate. Do not fear humans. That is attributing to them powers they do not have.
In verse twenty-nine, are not two sparrows sold for a penny: The “penny” translates Greek assarion, one-sixteenth of a denarius. A denarius was a day’s wages for a manual laborer. This was a really small price. Sparrows were sold for food, although rich Romans kept them as pets. Sparrows represented the cheapest meat one could buy at the market.
The God who can destroy in hell, and so should alone be feared, is also the God who cares for the sparrow and so should be revered. Nothing in the world is outside His concern or ultimate control. No creature is insignificant to Him, if He lets sparrows and disciples die, it not because they are worthless. Physical death is not an evil in itself, but a part of God’s providential plan.
In verse thirty, the hairs of your head: Jesus gets quite specific in order to drive home the general principle of divine providence by highlighting an otherwise impossible detail. Humans don’t even know how many individual hairs there are on their own head, but God does. The implication is that a human cannot love him or herself more than God does. He knows details of a human being- unknown and humanly unknowable.
In verse thirty-one, you are worth more than many sparrows: Returning to the sparrow, Jesus highlights the difference between the human perspective of what is worthwhile and the divine perspective. Humans might think sparrows without much value because they are without much price, but not so God. If that be so, how much more valuable is the human person. Now, the general principle, “The human person is of incalculable value,” is applied to the specific situation of a martyr’s death. Jesus is teaching that just because a disciple “falls to the ground,” and dies, does not mean that the person is without value in God’s eyes. The way a person dies, no matter how ignominious, is no measure of worth in God’s sight. Rather, it is the way a person lives that matters to God. Thus, fear of humans or human opinion should not regulate Christian behavior, and especially in a life-and-death crisis.
In verses thirty-two to thirty-three, acknowledge…deny: The fear of humans, looked at from three different angles in 2-27, 28, and 29-31, could cause a disciple to fail to acknowledge Jesus before humans. In effect, to deny him. There is a worse fate than persecution and that is to be repudiated by Jesus himself before his Father. So the disciple must choose which solidarity he prefers, Jesus’ or humans’.
These two verses sum up the general thought of endurance in mission. In this context they apply the general principle of reciprocity, e.g., “The measure you measure with will be measured against you.” We would say, “What goes around, comes around,” to a specific situation, that is, final judgment. Jesus will take the same stance at final judgment that the disciple took at times of crisis. If the fear of humans causes the disciple to fail to acknowledge Jesus before humans, it will cause Christ to fail to acknowledge that disciple before God. There is a worse fate than anything humans can do to a person and this is it: to be repudiated by Jesus before his Father. To acknowledge Jesus means to affirm solidarity with him. So, the disciple must choose which solidarity he or she prefers.
Sermon
The human emotion of fear, or any other emotion, for that matter, depends on one’s perception of a situation. If the external circumstances are perceived properly, then fear can be an appropriate reaction. And it is a reaction, quasi-automatic. It is not a response or a rational conclusion drawn after consideration of the arguments pro and con. Fear, like all other emotions, is almost instantaneous and really beyond rational control. That is why the law courts have long held, “detached reflection cannot be demanded in the face of an uplifted knife.” Thus, it is common not only to fear but to fear fear itself. We humans do not like being out of control. Ironically, the experience of fear puts us out of control by putting us under its control and paralyzing us or shrinking us to the point where we cannot act or where we run away, either freezing or fleeing. In psychological perspective there are two basic responses to fear: fight or flight. Jesus recommends highly the first option.
We fight fear itself when we temporarily suspend the emotional turmoil and panic that fear brings and raise our sights to consider the matter in the light of eternity. Since we cannot control the external circumstances or change them and since this “perception,” has resulted in a link between them and our emotional matrix, we have but one alternative, one choice. We can change the way we look at the situation or, at least, challenge our first impression. As our perception broadens beyond the immediate, we have a greater chance of seeing the circumstances in a different light, thus producing a different emotional reaction. We may not lose the fear altogether, but we will most likely reduce its intensity. Having done that, we are less paralyzed, less shocked, less frozen in place, and we can act in spite of the fear.
If we consider fear to be
False
Expectations
Appearing
Real
Then we can examine the expectations in the light of Biblical reality.
That is what Jesus is showing his disciples. He is showing that that when they look at things in the broader perspective of eternity, they will see things differently, not see different things. When one applies the general truths that a servant, an imitator, of a master will be treated like the master, the shock and surprise of maltreatment significantly diminishes and gives rise to the challenging questions, “What else did you expect?” The general principle that the truth eventually comes to light reduces the fear produced by false accusations and empowers one to act in spite of them or the mere risk of them. The Master says again, “Did you expect different treatment than I got?” The general principle of God’s providential care and love, when applied to how specifically God knows us and watches over us, to the point of being able to count the number of hairs on our head, presuming we are not bald, of course, the threat of physical death loses its force or, at least, a goodly portion of it. The awareness that not everybody will actually like us, have positive emotions towards us, no matter what we do, empowers us to do and say things that others might not like or like us for doing. We lose the paralyzing fear to incur hostility in others at all costs, peace at any price.
Courage, then, is not the absence of fear, but what we do in the presence of fear. Jesus gives us a powerful method to reduce fear enough that we can function courageously, no matter what the human consequences. He says that it is better to be repudiated by humans, a temporary inconvenience, than to be repudiated by himself, a permanent condition. We do, however, as always in God’s case, have a choice. No matter how great our fear of Him it, never paralyzes us. Paradoxically, the only really appropriate fear liberates us. Yet, when that emotion is inappropriately linked to a human or humans it has the opposite effect. It makes “slaves,” in both cases, but, oh, what a difference. The eternal perspective, when activated, lets us pass through the fear-provoking details of life because we are so set on, so focused on, the goal, the end point, that the details pale in significance. They remain there, only they do not matter as much. Thus, we can proceed, like pioneers through the untamed forest, explorers through virgin lands, missionaries through mine fields, undaunted, undelayed, undeterred by fear. That is the way Jesus wants it and that the way it will be if we consciously carry him with us.
Fearing human beings is a form of self-imposed slavery.
Fearing God, while reverencing him, liberates us from the enslavement all other fears cause.
Reverencing God is enables us to both speak and live the truth despite the consequences. When humans experience harm it does not mean that God considers them worthless. Whoever recognizes and respects God’s rule while on earth will be acknowledged as a friend of Christ upon entrance into eternity.
Origins of Fear: As children we had to memorize language and become so familiar with words and their use that we did not even have to think about speaking. At some point in our growth and development we no longer had to look in our memory for the right word or phrase. It was right there on our lips almost simultaneously with the thought in our minds. However, in learning the skills of language we also learned something else along with them. We learned the values that our society assigned to those words and phrases. The “matters of fact,” that make up our world are freighted with “feelings of value and worth.” Thus, we not only learned the price of a pound of butter, putting butter and money together in one thought, we also learned that “butter is too expensive.” “Expensive,” is a value term. It expresses how a person “feels,” about the cost, not the butter. “I like butter, but I do not like margarine,” expresses how the speaker feels. It reveals little about the objective nature of either butter or margarine. Now, there are many things in our natural environment that we do not positively value- like flies, mosquitoes, tornados, even darkness, etc. We de-value them because of the negative effect that have or might have upon our lives. As long as, these things are not immediately present to us we remain emotionally stable. However, when they become present we react and that reaction is what we call “fear.” Besides the many things in our natural environment that we fear, there are tons more in our social environment we also fear. As we progress through life and inevitably appropriate the feelings our society have assigned to matters of fact we discover that these feelings of fear are virtually intractable and certainly inexplicable. We feel failure, given the esteem our society has for success. That fear can keep us from taking the necessary risks in order to succeed in the first place. Yet, we also fear success, for that means more responsibility, even more expectation to perform at a higher level. So, we sabotage ourselves or throw monkey wrenches into situations to ensure we do not succeed. Then, we beat ourselves up for failing! We fear being judged by others. Indeed, we fear all emotional pain, to the point where we will not risk loving others lest we get hurt in the process or get rejected. At the same time, we fear being alone or abandoned, so we do not express our true feelings lest someone else not like us. We crave intimacy, yet fear it, and fear even being embarrassed by intimacy’s informality and trust. And, of course, we fear the unknown, which constitutes the vast majority of reality. At the heart, at the root, of just about all our misery is fear. And what is fear? It is a closet of “costumes,” the desire to control wears in order to fool us and prevent us from getting our real needs met. It is a medley of mechanisms that distorts reality enough so that the lower brain will react so strongly and negatively that the higher brain has reduced chances of overruling it. Some fears paralyze us. Others cripple us. Others deafen us. Others blind us. All diminish us. All seek to rob us of our freedom to be and become fully human. All humans know that these fears exist in everyone. After all, we all live in the same polluted environment. So, humans can evoke these fears in others in order to control them or get what they want from them. The origin of fear is control, just as is the origin of sin.
Fear Not: Whenever God appears in Scripture his message begins with “Fear not.” Jesus both preached and lived that message. Our Savior knows that we cannot help but have emotional reactions of fear, but he says to us we need not be overcome by them. All we need to do is trust him. “Fear knocked at the door, faith answered, and no one was there.” Amen.
