Matthew 10 34-42 2 2008
Matthew 10:32-42
June 29, 2008
“Radical to the Extreme”
"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came 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 MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, last week we talked about the trouble that will come into our lives because we are Christians. We remember that God’s knows our trouble and that He has made us a very special promise, that we need not fear. Even as the Lord knows when a sparrow falls to the ground and we are more important than the sparrows.
Today’s text is the continuation of Jesus sermon on discipleship. He continues to paint a very vivid picture of Christian life and faith.
Picturing the Christian faith. That’s something a lot of people like to do. They do it in many and varied ways. There are pictures we like better than others. If you want to picture the peace of believing, well, that is a comforting picture, we like that. If someone talks to us about our security in Christ, that’s easy to listen to, we like that. If you want to hear about the joy of believing, oh my! This is a wonderful and comforting thing! These are all great pictures. But they are not complete pictures. Today’s text completes the picture for us. It is a picture that is much harder to swallow, if you could swallow a picture. In it Jesus pictures for us the cost of discipleship, the difference between believing and not believing — it is a radical picture, radical to the extreme.
It is radical religion. Lately we have been hearing a lot about a radical false religion. We have been hearing about radical Islam. Frankly, I don’t like it when the press and our government agencies talk about Islam in this way. It doesn’t do them justice. Those people that are practicing Islam in a radical way are being true to their religion. What the world wants, what we want, is for them to tone it down a bit. We want them to practice their religion a little less fervently. We want them to be a bit more secularized, that is to fit into the world culture. Yeah that’s what we want. I can go along with that. But guess what? That is exactly what the world wants of us Christians. This is because if we practice our faith, it will bring confict and trouble…here comes trouble. You see, what Jesus talks about in our text for today is radical, radical to the extreme. The world, yes even our own government would rather have us keep it toned down. Jesus doesn’t tone it down.
Jesus starts our text with familiar words about confessing Him before men. The demand seems reasonable to us -- even if the tone seems just a little tough. But it gets tougher and far more exacting with each sentence. Finally, we have to admit that Jesus paints the picture in black and white. There is not a lot of wiggle room and compromise. Jesus is radical to the extreme.
Jesus is demanding. This is a no-holds barred look at the Christian faith, not the warm-and-fuzzy sort of Christianity we have grown used to in our society — perhaps even here in our church. Jesus talks about war. He talks about setting Christians up against the world, against people even in our own households. He talks about crosses and how if we love someone more that Him we are "not worthy" of Him. This doesn't sound like that Christianity we hear about so often, where it seems harder to miss out on going to heaven than it is to get there.
When Jesus talks about the faith, He describes it as something that is totally absorbing. This is not a religion that you fulfill by showing up for a Sunday Service two or three times a month. This is a religion that can cost you your life. There are great potential benefits, but the dangers are just as great. Try to find the easy way in this faith, and it sounds like you will miss out entirely. This religion Jesus describes is not something else in your life, something on the side, but something central — something that will consume your life.
In fact, it is radical, and it brings trouble. Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword. He came to set a man against his father and a woman against her mother, and so forth. These are not words of peace and comfort and the status quo. If we knew nothing else about Jesus, we would have to conclude that He is speaking about something revolutionary. From this perspective, it is easy to see why political leaders throughout history have found Jesus and His church to be threatening, unless it is reigned in and expressed in ways that are non-threatening.
Jesus was telling the truth. He always does. Even when it doesn't fit into our preconceptions, Jesus is always telling the truth. This, not the comfortable pews and convenient services we are used to, is what the Christian faith is and what it is about. There is nothing "pretend" about the Faith. It is a "pedal to the metal", full-tilt, all or nothing, life consuming faith. Jesus tells us that nothing can be more important in our lives. If parent or child is more important, you are not worthy of Him. If getting along with others is more important, you are not worthy of Him. If personal comfort, or well-being, or even your own life is more important to you, you are not worthy of Him.
By this point, you should have recognized that this is not a "gospel" passage. This is Law and Judgment. Here Jesus says "Measure yourself against this standard." The Law is true. It is as sharp as a spear, and is able cut us to the quick of our hearts. For us as Christians, when it accuses us of sin, while it has no power to condemn us because we are under grace through the Gospel, non-the-less, the Law is true. When Jesus tells us that we cannot cling to anything more than to Him, this is absolute truth. When Jesus says that you must take up your cross, that is His judgment, not merely an opinion or an over-zealous thought.
The Christian faith is a faith that requires everything. It is not casual. It is not easy. It is not something you can successfully play at or toy with — it is not a hobby or something to do because it just seems like the right thing to do. It is not something that we do just because it is what our parents did. It must be your life, the price is the CROSS. You can expect to pay a price in pain and personal sacrifice if you are one of Jesus' people. If being Christian is easy and natural and causes no problems in your life, it isn't the Christian faith - at least not the one Jesus was speaking of.
With those demands and expectations, you might well ask, “Is it worth it? Do I want to be a part of something that guarantees pain and trouble? Do I want a part of a religion that promises to set children against their parents and parents against their children? Do I want to be a part of something that claims to be more important than anything else in my life and even more important than myself? You gotta ask yourself, sometime . . . somewhere. Is it worth it?
And that is a question that only you can answer. Only you can make that judgment for yourself. Many people say no. The price is too high. They want their things, or their pleasures, or their family. They aren't about to lose their relationships with family members because of religion. The Christian faith is not religion, it is life itself…and it brings crosses…dirty nasty things that bring death and pain and suffering.
When it comes to the crosses we are tempted to think, the cross is for Jesus, not for me. But Jesus says the cross, the burden of bearing and sharing the Christian faith, that will bring conflict and trouble into our lives, is our to share with Him. Many people say that it is just not worth it to them.
We have been given a very special gift. As Christians, baptized and Holy Spirit filled, we understand the sacrifice that has to be made, must be made. Though our earthly flesh and sinful nature way us down we know and understand the gift and grace of God that has been given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The answer is 'the forgiveness of sins.' He offers a resurrection from the grave unto everlasting life in glory with Him. He offers peace and joy. What He offers is so much better than anything we experience on this earth that we take it by faith. This faith is based on God’s promise to us.
The promise is, “He who finds His life in the things of this world apart from God and Jesus Christ, shall lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it. That is what Jesus offers as a gift. Your life will be given back to you, never to be lost again. You won't lose it to sorrow or sickness or pain. You will never loose it in the trouble of this world. It will be fully yours, and without end.
That is one way of answering the question, Is the Christian faith worth it? Another way is to look at the price paid for you. Jesus went to the cross for you. This faith not only requires that you take up your cross, but that Jesus also took up the cross — a real, wooden one, for you. What He asks of you, you can fulfill by His power and Spirit working with in you. We can never be worthy of Jesu Christ in a worldly sense, but by repentance of sin, recognizing our sinfulness, and by clinging to Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for us, we become more worthy than we could ever know. Jesus gave so much. He took the guilt of your sins, and endured the punishment you deserve. He bore the wrath of God against sin for you, and died the death your sins required, so that you could enjoy that life without end in His presence. He died for all, the Bible says, so that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Maybe you don’t know that you have and will continue to experience trouble in your lives because you are His, because you are Christians. The crosses that we bear are many. They vary from time to time, from place to place, and from person to person. Has your Christian faith brought you trouble? I know it has. Even coming here today was not easy. If it were, many more people would be here. Trouble…it comes even in small ways that give us grief. We ask our sons and daughter, “Have you done your memory work, do you want to go to Sunday School and church…we are greeted by a roll of they eyes and they ask if there is going to be communion…why because the service will be longer…trouble because of our Christian faith. Have we ever asked somebody to come or go to church, have we been asked the very same question and then…the shades of “I rather not talk about that” come down. Hearts are broken and families are divided…trouble comes. When it does, even in these small ways, it is what Jesus is talking about, hoe He brings division and conflict and the cross.
He has counted you worth the price. That is the reason you are here, the only reason that you can even contemplate the demands. For you, the door is open. Now you can consider the cost of discipleship, and ask yourself if it is worth it. And it is. Of course, none of this is done to earn our way. Whether we do this or that, or count ourselves as living up to it doesn't make us Christian, and it certainly doesn't make us fit or deserving of salvation. All that Jesus has told us is to give us a way to look at ourselves and see if we are truly Christians, or just hypocrites, or just fooling ourselves.
And our text tells us that Christianity is Radical to the extreme. It is a full-time, full-throttle, everything else comes second to Jesus and His Word kind of thing. If you don't find this text challenging you, you aren't paying attention. This is not easy listening Christianity. It is not pretty picture Christianity. There is nothing fuzzy and warm about the picture Jesus paints of the faith. This faith, described by our Lord Himself, is radical to the extreme. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. After R. Fish
