Forsaking All - Trusting God
Notes
Transcript
This is one of those shocking passages in the gospels where Jesus says some things that not only raise eyebrows - but deeply disturbs those who are listening. It is the radical call of Jesus to anyone who would become his disciple - a call to forsake everything and trust completely in God.
This is not sugar coated, make you feel good, religion - this is a blunt, piercing lesson in what means to have your life radically turned around.
At this point in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has performed many miracles - signs that God was with him and that He had authority on earth as it is in heaven. For example, there is the healing of a paralytic whose friends had carried him to Jesus.
And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Many people were being drawn to Jesus. The crowds are growing. Interest was high. Yet how many would truly get it? How many would recognize the need to change and be fully committed to living life differently?
Jesus, meanwhile, is preparing his disciples, teaching them how to be faithful servants of the true God of Israel. He was on a mission to save the lost - and he knew he needed helpers who would do the work.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
I think we have experienced for ourselves what a worker shortage looks like - how many times since the pandemic have you gone to a restaurant to find that the wait is long, the service is slow and the food takes forever to come out of the kitchen. “Sorry, we are short-staffed tonight” at times has been a common refrain.
I just read this morning that OC is struggling to hire drivers and conductors for the popular trams that run up and down the boardwalk.
The demand is great, but the workers are few.
Jesus is going about much greater work, of significantly more importance - work that directly impacts every living being and holds eternal consequences. People lost in their sins, disconnected from the heavenly Father, causing harm to themselves and to others, often blind to their own condition.
What does he do?
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
He gives his authority to his disciples - go out and do what I am doing. Preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out the demons. He sends them out on a rescue mission - out into a hostile environment.
That is the context of today’s passage. People are in need of a new life. The life they are living now is not pleasing to God and leads to death. They are being subjected to spiritual attack by an enemy they do not see - and many are completely blind to it. They are wandering around lost - like sheep without a shepherd.
They need a radical transformation - the status quo is not good enough - but they first needed to see and experience for themselves what that looks like. The disciples were to go out - demonstrate the presence of God - show the world his power, and call people to repent and follow Jesus.
Such a call upon peoples’ lives is disruptive. Some will follow, many will not. Some will desire the change, others will think that they are crazy. Relationship will be fractured. Mockery, rejection, even persecution - could be expected.
Back in the Old Testament, in the book of Micah, the prophet looks ahead to the time of God’s salvation and what he saw was division, even among family members:
for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
Now in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is here, salvation has come, and Jesus warns his disciples of the troubles that lay ahead.
He does not say, “congratulations, you have called me Lord so now sit back and enjoy the praise of men and partake of the easy life.”
The coming of the Messiah was understood by many to usher in an era of peace, but instead what does Jesus say?
“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.
What does he mean by this? The Bible as a whole is pretty clear that we are to honor our parents, take care of our families, and love one another - so what is with this divisive rhetoric?
Tom Wright, in his commentary, explains it this way
Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–15 Jesus Causes Division (Matthew 10:32–42)
He is saying, loud and clear, that what matters is allegiance to him: allegiance to Jesus must come at the top of every priority list
Yes, honor your parents, love you family, praise God when the whole household believes, but your #1 priority is following Jesus. He demands your full allegiance.
In 1st Century Palestine, family division was a reality for a lot of believers. To follow Jesus meant that your family may disown you, that your business may fail because your customers leave you, that those close to you could turn against you. What would you do? Would you go back to your own life or would you follow Christ?
Today, it is rare that we experience that kind of response, but not unheard of. What may be more common is ridicule, or the breaking of relationships, or the pressure to keep your faith to yourself. How do you demonstrate your allegiance to Jesus in those situations?
Jesus does bring peace - he gives us his peace so that we can handle difficult situations - but experience also shows that faithfully following him can be divisive.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus demands our allegiance and warns that following him will at times be difficult. So what does he teach us in this passage that may help us stay true?
Question: Of all the commands that we hear in Bible, which one do you think is repeated most often?
Here is a hint: it is found in verses 26, 28 and 31 in our text this morning.
Do not be afraid!
Do not fear those who speak wrongly of you. Do not fear those who can kill you. Do not fear because your heavenly Father cares for you.
You don’t have to live in fear. If your perspective is right, if you have a grasp of the big picture story and can see with spiritual eyes open - you will find that fear does not need to take hold on your life.
This is possible because the Holy Spirit makes it possible. When we trust in Jesus and receive the Spirit, we experience the love of God: the God that knows every strand of hair on our head, the God who cares for a sparrow which is sold for a penny - and we are worth so much more to him.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
There is a verse here in today’s passage which is a bit confusing.
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.
Most theologians interpret this verse as Jesus saying, “fear God who can end a life and send a soul to hell.
However, I find myself in agreement with two other theologians, N.T. Wright and Ben Witherington, who read it differently.
Why would Jesus tell his disciples not to be afraid only to follow it with ‘here is who you should fear’?
The actual Greek text does not name the one who can destroy both body and soul. Yet looking at the context of this passage, we see it begins with Jesus saying that a servant should expect the same treatment that the master receives, so if they - being the outsiders - have called the master Beelzebul, then the servants should expect to be maligned as well. Beelzebul is another name for Satan.
Jesus then goes on to say do not fear those who kill the body, but also the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. He may very well be referring to Satan.
“Jesus believed that Israel was faced in his day by enemies at two quite different levels. There were the obvious ones: Rome, Herod, and their underlings. They were the ones who had the power to kill the body. But there were other, darker enemies, who had the power to kill the soul as well: enemies who were battling for that soul even now, during Jesus’ ministry, and who were using the more obvious enemies as a cover.”
Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 119.
What we do find in the passage is Jesus making it clear that “God is the one we do not have to fear.” He is the one we can trust, the one that knows us completely, the one who care for our well-being, the one who welcomes us into his presence.
He alone deserves our allegiance.
The cost of following Jesus will be high, it requires full allegiance, “to take up our cross and follow him”, but the reward is immeasurable.
So the question for each of us is this…
Does Jesus have your full allegiance?
What has following Him cost you? Have you been challenged, or have you stayed comfortable?
What is at stake is for more than your life here on earth - your soul depends on it.