Sent Out Without

The scriptures referred to are Matthew 9:35-10:8.

If you want to recruit people into some activity, one way is to say, “Everyone is doing it.” We are social animals and often that's all it takes to get most people to go along with anything. Like pouring ice water over your head in a video. But you could do the opposite and say, “This is not for everyone; it's just for special people.” Folks love to feel like they are part of some exclusive or elite group. For decades the Marines made a success of recruiting people by saying, “We're just looking for a few good men.” And while it may have attracted some who think without justification that they are special, it does discourage lazy folks from applying.

Jesus goes the Marines one better. In today's gospel he tells the twelve disciples, “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves...” Unlike the Marines, he isn't loading them up with equipment, like money, spare clothes and food. He's stripping them of those. He isn't even giving them weapons, like a staff, when sending them into danger. At least not physical weapons. Instead Jesus says, “...be as wise as serpents...” In other words, use your head, not your fists. A lot of atrocities would never have happened if more so-called Christians realized Jesus tells us to use our brains rather than brawn.

The weird thing is that Jesus says to be “as wise as serpents.” Serpents are usually symbols of evil, especially in the Bible. The villain in Genesis chapter 3 is a serpent, who is described as “crafty” or “cunning” in many translations. But the Hebrew word there can mean “shrewd” or even “sensible or prudent.” It's used in that last sense several times in the book of Proverbs. The Greek word used in our gospel passage has the same range of meanings. What makes us bad is not our smarts but our hearts. So Jesus qualifies his advice to be as wise as serpents with the phrase “and innocent as doves.” In other words, Jesus is saying, have pure motives but don't be naive. Use your brains.

Sadly, sincere Christians often get portrayed as clueless to the ways of the world. As much as I enjoyed the character of Father Mulcahy in the TV series MASH he frequently came across as naive if noble. In the original novel he is not that unsophisticated, as you would expect of someone dealing with soldiers at war. For that matter, Jesus doesn't come across as someone who missed anything when observing the world. We need to be like Jesus.

The problem is that taking a clear-eyed view of the world can lead over time to cynicism or despair. You give up on the world or you give up on yourself. Neither is healthy, but neither are they unavoidable if you keep the right perspective.

Let's look at Jesus. He is the Son of God. He is sent to save the world. In his temptation in the wilderness, he is given 3 shortcuts to doing so. He can use his powers to make food magically. He can kick off his ministry with a big splashy miracle. He can just submit to the devil and gain power in the world. Jesus rejects all 3. (Matthew 4:1-11)

What's wrong with magically making food scarcity disappear? Unfortunately it's not like people starve because there is literally no food for them. Here in the US, the USDA estimates that somewhere between 30 to 40% of the food supply goes to waste. According to the FDA website,“Wasted food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills...” And yet 17.4% of US households are food insecure, not knowing when or if they will eat next. The problem isn't lack of an abundance of food; it's getting that food to those who need it. Which means the real lack is in human beings' use of their creativity and, frankly, in their willingness to make a basic necessity available to people who are poor. Prepared foods in the grocery store have at least a 40% markup, butcher meats can be marked up by 50%, fruits and vegetables up to 75%, and bakery goods 100%! And we wonder why poor people, especially those in neighborhoods where the big grocery stores choose not to locate, go to the convenience store and get calorie-dense junk food.

Jesus' reply to this temptation? “It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” And God's word talks about out duty to the poor hundreds of times. So Jesus wasn't going to be the magic bread machine when the problem is that people should be more creative and less greedy about sharing the food we already have.

Nor was Jesus going to jump off the top of the temple and glide harmlessly to the ground to kick off his ministry. Yes, that would attract people. And, as we see in Jesus' ministry, people demanded more and bigger signs and miracles from him. Such things bring in people who want to be wowed, but not necessarily people who will listen to words of moral wisdom. Jesus didn't want the kind of audience a magic show attracts; he wanted followers who were hungry for the truth, however hard to understand. That's why, excluding the resurrection and ascension, all but 2 of the remaining miracles attributed to Jesus helped people. And 75% of them were restoring people to health.

Jesus came to make people better, physically, mentally and spiritually. He didn't come to entertain them. His reply to this temptation was, “Once again it is written: 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.'” Those are words to remember when people are tempted to show off their faith in some needlessly reckless manner. On Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal used to do a character whose catchphrase was “It is better to look good than to feel good.” On the contrary, God would rather we do good than try to make him look good in flashy but unnecessary ways.

Finally his adversary drops all pretense and just asks Jesus to worship him. If he does so, Jesus will be given all the political authority in the world. Sadly, that is a temptation the church has succumbed to often throughout its history. It started when the church became the favored religion of the emperor Constantine and later the official religion under Justinian. It got worse when the emperor lost half of the empire, leaving the bishop of Rome the most powerful person in the West. The Pope was the one who negotiated with the invading tribes and in fact the Ostrogoths used their influence to get certain men of their choosing elected to the papacy. Symmachus even resorted to bribing King Theodoric the Great to appoint him Pope over his rival. And later the Pope became in effect a secular king ruling over the Papal States, the middle portion of Italy, for 10 centuries. Sociologist of religion Rodney Stark speaks of there being 2 churches, the church of power and the church of piety, and whichever is dominant determines if the key feature of a given period of church history is corruption or reform.

Of course, a side effect of the church choosing to exercise political power is a loss of faith in it by the average person. Christianity declines in nations where there is an official church or where the church either dictates or carries out the will of the government. The relationship of church and state will always be a tricky one, because neither operates in a vacuum. Moral issues have effects of society which government policies can either help or exacerbate. The church cannot be silent on issues and actions that harm people. Scripture says, “Open your mouth for the voiceless, for those who are condemned! Open your mouth, judge justly and plead the cause of the poor and needy!” (Proverbs 31:8) The church is commanded to speak up for those who are powerless and who are not being heard. But that doesn't mean giving the church power to govern society by decree. I am sure that the camel's nose in the tent of the church is the tempting notion, “But think of all the good we can do with that power!”

Jesus turns this temptation down as well. He says, “You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” We cannot serve two masters and we must maintain our independence from the state so we can serve God's kingdom. Some government policies may be compatible with certain values we get from Jesus but never will any human authority perfectly conform to all of God's commands. Other considerations will inevitably creep in. Jesus said that while some things fall under Caesar's purview, others are exclusively God's domain. Like him and the prophets before him, we must stay free to point out when those in power break God's law of love, justice and mercy.

So why did I seem to detour to another gospel passage from the one assigned for today? Because, as I said, Jesus is sending out the apostles while disarming them of any weapons they might be tempted to use to further their mission. And in confronting his temptations we see him also discarding the popular ideas of the church being primarily a social agency, a magic show, or a branch of the government.

What Jesus does give the Twelve is the power to heal and to preach the good news. Instead of weapons, he equips them to use their hands and words to heal people and heal the breach between human beings and God. The worst they are allowed to do is to shake the dust from their feet if a village does not welcome them or their words. And Jesus predicts that, maybe not for this particular mission, but eventually they will run into opposition. His followers will be whipped and tried. They are to see this as an opportunity to be witnesses to the good news before councils and governors and kings. Jesus also knows that following him would cause rifts in some families, between siblings and even between parents and children.

Why does religion cause such divisions? Because it is about ultimate values and it is about who and what you put your trust in. So it stirs up strong emotions and when people get very emotional, they often stop thinking. After all, what are the foundational beliefs and values of Jesus? That God loves everyone and is forgiving and that we should be as well. How can anyone oppose that? Because in Jesus' day it meant loving and forgiving tax collectors and sinners and Samaritans and even the Gentiles occupying your land. And today it means loving and forgiving government officials and people from different races and people from different countries and people from different faiths and people from different social classes and people from different political parties. And can you see how it would upset those closest to you if you start loving and forgiving people whom your friends and family and even your church think of as enemies of society or enemies of your country or enemies of your faith or enemies of people like you?

In our culture, the hero is the one who fights the bad guys. King Arthur, Robin Hood, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, the Justice League and the Avengers: they are all warriors. They win by defeating and usually by killing the bad guys. And we cheer when they do. Even when they sacrifice themselves to save others, as Harry Potter did, they don't ask God to forgive those about to kill them, as Jesus did on the cross. Forgiveness is something we heartily endorse—in the abstract. Or when we are in the wrong and want to be forgiven. But we really don't like to forgive those who wrong us, especially when they cause us or our loved ones harm.

And yet every time we say the Lord's Prayer, we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (Matthew 6:12) A more accurate translation than “trespasses” is “debts.” We are talking about what we owe God in terms of our moral duties and what others owe us. And we are to forgive others for what they failed to do for us if we expect God to forgive us for what we failed to do for him. Luke's version makes that much more explicit, saying, “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” (Luke 11:4) As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, love “does not keep an account of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:5) And love is the distinctive mark of the Christian. (John 13:35)

A lot of people think being a Christian is all about hearing over and over that God loves us, despite what we have done. But it is also being told over and over that we are to love others, despite what they've done. They think it is all about Jesus dedicating his whole life to saving us sinners. But it is also about us dedicating our lives to saving other sinners. They think it is all about Jesus taking up his cross for us. But it is also about us taking up our crosses for others. Jesus isn't asking us to do any more than he did. But he isn't asking us to do less either.

As C. S. Lewis said, “If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity.” Yes, we are to comfort the afflicted but we are also to afflict the comfortable, as Jesus and the prophets did. Jesus said we are not just to love those who love us. (Matthew 5:46-47) That's easy, Jesus said. And quite frankly, that won't solve any problems. Bonnie and Clyde loved their families. It didn't make them less lethal to others.

Jesus gave us a higher calling: to go beyond what comes naturally and easily to us. As G. K. Chesterton put it, “To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” We only learn what those things really mean when they are really hard to do. Just like you only learn the value of life and health when you have to fight your way back from death and disease. People who have naturally good health have no idea of the blessing they have been given.

Jesus stripped the disciples of all the usual things they would take on a journey so they would have to rely on God and on the response of people to their mission and message. He stripped them of any weapons because they only seem to achieve what you want. Weapons and violence don't bring peace; they bring superficial compliance and a lot of fear and resentment. Eventually that will boil over and destroy any real peace.

Real peace comes from faith, which is trust. Trust God and you will have peace in your heart. Trust each other and we will have peace in our families and in our communities and in our nation and in our world.

But trust is built up over time. Your history with someone lets you know if you can trust or rely on him or her. Have they backed you up or let you down? Have they kept their promises or not? We tend to treat people the way we have been treated.

Which means trust is difficult to establish when it hasn't previously existed. And somebody needs to be the first to try. And Jesus said we are the ones to take the first step. “So then, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24) First make things right with others and then approach God. But how?

Jesus sent the disciples out to heal and preach the good news. Because one way to make people trust you and listen to the good news is to heal their wounds. That way they know you are not all talk. They know they can rely on you to be as good as your word.

Look around you. We have a wounded world. We are awash in distrust. We have a history of breaking promises and of not treating each other in ways that engender trust.

And Jesus is sending us out. Without weapons and without illusions that it will be easy. Without any resources except his message and his Spirit. And if we rely on him, that will be enough.