Priorities, Swords & Sparrows

Swords and parents

What is the most common command in the bible ?          Do not murder?     Love one another? 

It is .. Do not be afraid - or do not fear

No 1 command when an angel appears and Jesus tried to warn and calm his discples a lot about what was to come.

And it was proved to be founded after Jesus left them as they suffered in unimaginable ways simply for passing on the good news.

Well we know they were persecuted for their faith. They were laughed at, hunted down, tortured and killed.  

Well we know they were persecuted for their faith. They were laughed at, hunted down, tortured and killed.  

Its easy to think perhaps that was bad enough -

but Jesus also goes one stage further and warns about families ..

He says ‘do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth , I have not come to bring peace but a sword.. For I have  ‘

hang on a minute, what is Jesus saying - he seems to be contradicting many of his teachings in one passage! 

No peace?  family members fighting each other?

Of course thats not what Jesus was saying at all - the new testament has a great deal to say about loving each other and caring for your family. 

And we can’t say that Jesus means that anyone who follows him should be cut off from their family - many of the apostles took spouses with them on their travels. 

So what is going on? 

But - These are direct , challenging words that we cannot ignore though. 

So what is going on? 

Well this passage is a direct quote from the old testament and the book of Micah (and this would have been known). The prophet Micah warned that when God does a new thing in our world terrible divisions occur. Not just Romans against Jews or Jewish faction against Jewish faction. Micah prophecies that even families will be in disagreement about this new thing God is going and that divisions will occur. 

What Jesus is doing by quoting Micah he is saying - is to things:

The old testament prophets are talking about me and therefore

don’t be surprised if it happens -

God IS doing a new thing through him and therefore expect division, even amongst your families. 

So its pretty grim news for them then, who would want to be a first century disciple? 

They are to be laughed at, hunted down, tortured and sometimes killed .. and their own families will not always understand why

And whilst acknowledging that Jesus says simply not to be afraid - easy to say you think ! What reasons does Jesus offer not to be afraid?

He starts by saying they should not be afraid because the truth will come out before God. Justice will prevail. That they may look mad, crazy and laughable to their peers and families but God knows that the truth will win out in the end. 

He looks at the bigger picture and says look - they cannot separate you from God. They can’t take your faith away from you. 

Better he says for you to live with integrity, acting out what you believe in. You may physically perish but you will get what you choose - to be one with God at the end of it all. The other option is to renounce God, spend a life for short term gain but ultimately get what you choose after death .. separate from God. 

We know their were false teachers around Jesus day trying to tempt people away from following him - this was a serious warning. The church as we know it rested on these men and women. They had to get it right.

They had to have the correct priorities in life  - Jesus came first EVERY thing else came second. 

Then comes the bit we like to listen to - that God loves us so much he counts the hairs of our head - that he knows even each sparrow that falls so how much more does he love and know them? 

So DO NOT BE AFRAID ! 

So, how does this help us? 

We won’t be persecuted physically for out faith - I guess we may be ridiculed these days. 

However, there is a lot we can take from these instructions from Jesus and you may well have already been making your own connections. 

And the biggest of that is to constantly question / reassess our priorities. 

We are undoubtedly busier as a society that we ever have been.

Life is one constant whirlwind of getting things done, and thats even before we start on church …

But we can become apathetic towards some of the things that really matter in life. We may be busy but we generaly have it it easy, we are not questioned about our faith that much. We are certanly not persecuted.

We are free - and we can totally take that for granted and let everything else crowd out our realationship with God.

Jesus knew it - even those first apostles needed to be focussed and have their priorities spot on if they were to suceed.

Example of Demi - birthday present on the side - handful of sweets she didn’t want to let go.

But what sometimes happens is that we get too busy our mind goes off what is really important, we forget why we even started some things in the first place and then we take on more, and more and more.   Our handful of sweets mean that we haven’t got time for why we are really here. 

When I was a parish administrator in my old church I had to ban talking shop on a Sunday because it was such a busy role I ended up spending most of the morning sorting out rotas, checking equipment, organising payment. One day I sat down and thought - I haven’t actually worshipped for over a month. What am I doing this for?  So I stopped talking about it on a Sunday.

Even church duties can get in the way of our relationship with God - so I think we need to constantly re-evaluate our lives. have I forgotten why I am doing this? Have my priorities slipped? Do I need to juggle things around, make some space or even sometimes say ‘No’..

Jesus modelled this himself - throughout his whole journey he knew he had to get to Jerusalem - the gospels tell us. Sometimes he deviated to heal someone or at someones request and sometimes he said NO.. he would not deviate from his overall plan.

Take the words of Jesus - and DO NOT BE AFRAID.. let go of the sweets and make changes if you have to .

Jesus tells us that God loves us so much he knows the amount of hairs on our heads! 

We cannot even begin to comprehend the enormity of that love and that kind of love demands a response.