Text: St. Matthew 10:16-33
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In today’s Gospel Jesus prepares his disciples for suffering over the long haul of life, including the possibility of martyrdom. He says trouble will come from opponents outside and inside, from the Gentiles and from within one’s own and the church family, “brother against brother”.
Jesus’ message here is one of his most frequent: Fear not. He tells his disciples not to be afraid; that when they are put on the spot to give testimony, the Holy Spirit will speak through them. They are not to worry about refining their speeches; they are to be concerned that they have settled the matter of being Christians at the bottom of their minds and hearts. Through that commitment, the Spirit of his Father will give them voice.
Jesus shows his disciples what true courage is made of. Courage is not rashness or bravado. It is possible to be meek and courageous. Courage arises from a sober reflection upon our priorities, on what we really ought to fear. Jesus puts this starkly: Fear not those who can kill the body but after that have no more that they can do. Rather, fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
This is blunt, but when things come to a crisis, that is how they are. We don’t like to think of it radically, and we suppose we can afford to feel this way; because in America we aren’t likely to lose our lives for being Christians.
A martyr complex is not a good thing. It is an unhealthy desire to die under the cover of a cause. None of the great Christian martyrs wished for or rushed to their deaths; they did everything possible to avoid it. But when things came to a critical point, it became an issue for them that we can understand. That is the issue of identity: Who am I? What is my life about, what is its meaning and purpose? Where am I going? Where is my identity, my integrity?
The martyr is in a radical position. But “radical” means “root.” The martyrs in their witness shed light on the rest of life. Their radical witness goes to the root of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We may not be called upon to give our lives in the sense of shedding our blood for our faith. But we are called to live our lives for Christ, every one of us, from the time of our baptism to the last moment of our lives here on earth. As the Lord says in today’s Gospel with its list of advice on this matter of facing trials: He who endures to the end will be saved.
In living our lives over the long haul for the faith, the question of courage arises every bit as much for us as it does for those who look into the face of a death threat. There are all sorts of crises that challenge our integrity. You can lose friends and associates, you can lose money and jobs, you can lose position and status, over questions of truth and honor, over doing your duty, over speaking up for the good and the right, sometimes over resisting or even only declining to participate in evil. All these virtues and graces stem from belonging to Christ. The question is, Who, What rules my life? That is the question the martyrs faced, put in its starkest form in a crisis; and it is the question we all face.
Over twenty years ago, as I was starting out in the church I served as Rector before coming to Saint Thomas, the Head of the school associated with that church, a venerable priest now long retired, told me in a lunch conversation that he regarded it as a great triumph to be able to finish one’s days with, as he put it, a decent measure of one’s integrity still intact. His understatement added impact to what he said and echoes the Lord’s own: He who endures to the end will be saved. A scholarly commentator on this passage underlines the understatement, “The endurance is patient acceptance rather than active resistance. The ’end’ must not be death by martyrdom but rather the end of the sufferings associated with the coming of God’s kingdom.”1
Jesus told the disciples to fear not by teaching them to have their fears in the right order. First and foremost, fear God, he said. This means, Fear turning your back on God and thereby letting go of God’s love. Fear losing the very thing that makes you tick, your faith and the integrity that stems from it. It is your most basic identity. Fear losing that. Imagine letting go of the love and grace of the person you love and honor most: a spouse, a friend or family member, a cherished mentor or guide. Now raise that love and grace to the second power, and you begin to see what it would mean to lose God by letting go of him. Yes, I say to you, said Jesus, Fear him, love and trust him, above all else, and then you fear other things less and in the right order.
May God give us the clarity of mind and the courage in our hearts to live and to bear witness to our faith wherever we are. Jesus counsels that we be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. If the great matter of Who am I? is settled in our souls in favor of Christ, if we are clear on that matter, then we ourselves are prepared to live the good and happy life, let circumstances fall out however they will.
When the Lord prepared his first disciples for the possibility of undergoing suffering, loss, and death, he pointed the way to life and joy through these trials. He showed us how to live, whatever stage on life’s way may be ours. He showed us how to be happy. We can choose life and joy. We can believe in God, take the Lord Jesus at his word, trust in the providence of the Holy Spirit, and take courage. Fear not! In the end, it is the Son of man, Jesus Christ our Savior, whom God has appointed as the judge of human life. As he said, everyone who acknowledges him before men, he will acknowledge before his Father who is in heaven.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
