Worthy of Christ’s Love

Matthew 10:34-42

34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  35 For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 

40 “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.  41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.  42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

Although the man attended church faithfully, he never participated in the Lord’s Supper.  After several years he surprised the pastor by coming forward to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  After the service the pastor asked the man what had moved him to the Lord’s Supper on that particular Sunday.  “Well, Pastor,” he said, “every week I try to live my life as best I can.  I kept trying for a perfect week so that I can be worthy to go to the Lord’s Table.  But some­thing always happens—I do something wrong or say something I shouldn’t have said.  But this week I didn’t do anything wrong.  This week I was wor­thy to go.”

            What a disappointing answer! This man who struggled so hard to be sinless did not understand that Christ had already won the forgiveness of sins in his place.  There are too many times when Christians think they are able to make themselves worthy before God (Eph 2:8—10).  The only thing that can make us worthy is faith in Jesus Christ.  Unworthy as we are, his death and resurrection make us worthy of his love.

I. Christ is worthy of conflict (vv 34—36).

A.To our surprise, the Prince of Peace promises a sword of division in place of peace on earth.  While Christ has brought about peace between man and God by his death and res­urrection, these same events also create a sharp division between believer and unbe­liever (v 34).  Luther says, “We must be guid­ed by the principle that one must obey God rather than all men, be they parents, govern­ment, preachers, yea, even the whole church, if it were possible for it to oppose Christ” (Plass, 1956).

B.     This division may even reach the members of the same household.  The tension between Deborah and her mother-in-law on the TV program Everybody Loves Raymond is noth­ing compared to the tension created by believers among unbelievers (vv 35—36).

C.      Christians must realize that they may have to give up everything to follow Christ, includ­ing the members of our own families.  General H.  Norman Schwarzkopf hit the nail on the head when he said, “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do.  The hard part is doing it” (Leadership, Spring 1997, 73).  Satan will do his best to make it difficult for us to do the right thing.

D.  Christ is worthy of this kind of conflict, no matter what the cost.  From the beginning we have been compelled to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37).  This may even require sacrificing the god of “family” or the American epidemic of “the children come first.” How can we do this?

2. Christ is worthy of being first (vv 37—39).

A.     Through his suffering and humility, Christ has been given “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9—11).

B.     We are commanded to love our families, but if we love our families more than Christ, we are not worthy of him (v 37).

C.      

Illustration:  In William Styron’s novel Sophie‘s Choice there is a terrifying scene where Sophie, upon her arrival at a concentration camp, is forced by a Nazi soldier to choose which of her two children to keep.  Who could make such a decision? As much as we love our families, Christ must be loved even more.  He earned that love on the cross.  (The story of Abraham and Isaac could also be used here.)

C.     Loving Christ above all makes us worthy to take up the cross (v 38).  Bearing the cross is not to be confused with self-inflicted trou­bles.  People complain that people and situa­tions are their crosses to bear when this is not so.  Bearing the cross is suffering for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Illustration: “A cross is not a parasol.  But it is also important to see that a cross is a gift, it is called here something a person ‘accepts.’ A cross is not something one goes out to get; a cross is some­thing that is given to one to accept” (Bruner, 395).

D.    Loving Christ puts our lives on the line (v 39).  It turns the old childhood rhyme upside down.  “Finders, keepers; losers, weepers” is not true anymore.  We may also turn to Rev 12:11: ‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

3.      Christ will make us worthy of his love (vv40—42).

A.        We are worthy of Christ’s love each time we receive a messenger in his name (vv 40—41).

The world will welcome or persecute those who come in the name of the Lord.  There is no middle ground.

B.        We are worthy when we are faithful in small ways, dispensers of cool water (v 42).  This verse points us to Matthew 25 as Christ com­mends the faithful for feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and bearing cups of cold water.  “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).  As we follow Christ’s loving lead, we are worthy of his love.

C. There is no act so small that could fail to be noticed by our Lord (v 42).  Think about the people who pour the juice at vacation Bible school or visit the sick or the homebound.  This is twenty-first-century foot washing.

Illustration: After Cassie Bernall was killed for her simple confession of faith in the library at Columbine High School in 1999, her pastor said of her, “It’s not a question of doing great deeds, but of being selfless in the small things” (Misty Bernall, She Said Yes [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999j 137).

Illustration: “And Jesus adds yet one more grace to their lives.  He seals them with the promise that no one shall serve them, His messen­gers, in vain; even the least, the most effortless service man can render them, the cup of cold water given to the thirsty traveler, shall not fail of its reward...  .  Jesus points them to the wilderness through which they must pass; but He also gives them a pillar of cloud and of fire to protect and to hearten them on their hard and helpless way (Franzmann, 97).