How do you help a child prepare for a painful medical procedure? You talk about what will happen. You may even visit the doctor or hospital, play out what will happen, and read a story over and over about it. When people children trust help them know what to expect, they are less afraid and respond better to surprise or pain. Trauma is reduced or even done away with because difficulties are foreseen in the arms of trusting relationship.
The readings today are about God helping people face difficulties by talking to them beforehand to ease their fears and their surprise. Today, God tells us in his Word: Be Not Afraid.
Jeremiah 20:10-13
The circumstances are dire for Jeremiah in chapter 20. He’s been prophesying Jerusalem might fall to the Babylonians—to warn people to repent or prepare. But the high priest Pashhur did not want to hear it. He put Jeremiah in a stockade at the temple gate for 24 hours. When he released him, Jeremiah prophesied the same thing again to Pashhur in the verses just before today’s reading.
Then he had a little talk with God.
Part of that talk is today’s reading. Jeremiah tells God how his friends have turned against him. He’s pretty mad. “Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.” Harsh words. Not very Christian! But, then, notice what happens when Jeremiah has vented to God. From his sense of connection to God, he can say: “Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.”
In Chapter 21 God gave Jeremiah and the people a way out: leave Jerusalem, let it fall, give yourselves up. When Jeremiah proclaimed that message, things got even worse for him with temple leaders and the king. They saw him as a traitor for warning the people and suggesting surrender. Jerusalem did fall. Jeremiah survived; those who condemned him did not. He later went with some who were left behind to Egypt, where he eventually died. All through the book of Jeremiah and his book of Lamentations, Jeremiah was able to remain with his people, give voice to their pain, and hold them as steady as he and God could hold them.
God’s voice to Jeremiah held him steady when the world fell apart around him. Then Jeremiah did what he could to hold people in God’s mercy and hope.
Matthew 10:26-33
Today’s reading continues Matthew’s memory of what Jesus said before he sent his disciples-to-become-apostles out to preach, teach, and heal among the people. Last Sunday’s verses went through Matthew 10:8. In them Jesus told the disciples to go out. In the verses between Matthew 10:8 and today, Jesus both tells them how to approach each village and warns them that the mission they are beginning will eventually lead to persecution and death. Today, our verses tell the disciples (in spite of the suffering they will have as they spread the Gospel) to “Fear no one.” Do not even “be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot ill the soul.” The Father knows of their coming suffering and WILL NOT ABANDON THEM. He warns them, however, not to abandon their mission to spread the Gospel. Jesus’ exact words:
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
This little pep talk will continue in our readings next Sunday as Jesus names “take up your cross” and promises reward to all who help them carry their crosses.
Interesting. Very interesting. Jesus is giving his fledgling disciples power to teach, heal, and dismiss demons. But he does so with what we today might call a requirement of “informed consent.” He is saying in effect, “Guys, you might think you are going off to glory and power, but that is not the way it works. There is the great joy of teaching and healing—of helping people. Yes! But you are bringing the goodness of God, and the goodness of God comes along side of people in trouble and suffers, too. Your call to do God’s work is not an easy call.”
Still, be not afraid.
Romans 5:12-15
Our verses from Romans also follow last weeks verses. They tell us WHY we should be not afraid.
Last week we heard, “While we were yet helpless” Christ died for us. Now we have received reconciliation. To put those verses from last week in the context of our other readings today: The world is still filled with evil and acts from that evil—but Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection mean we are no longer caught up in the futility of that world.
We work from a different vision, a different hope, and different way of life. “The gift is not like the transgression…for how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.”
So: Be not afraid.
These verses go on to say: “Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
As I read that, it means: Be not afraid. The part of the work of changing the world that WE CAN’T DO has already been done. We go out. We bring the Kingdom of God by the way we live. We still suffer. That’s to be expected as part of life AND as our part in carrying Jesus’ cross. BUT, God is always with us in the struggles…as he was with Jeremiah, the disciples, and the early Christians.
Be not afraid. The world may struggle against the good of our Christian lives, but living them is both the privilege and cost of discipleship.
Applications
My nature is to be afraid of suffering and do my best to run from it. Today, God’s Word tells me three times: Be not afraid of the evils around me. While there is no prosperity Gospel (I cannot count on God to protect me from rejection, suffering, or even death), my mission as Christian is to be: live my life in ways that encourage people to see what living in the Kingdom of God is like.
What is that? My litmus test list is the Fruits and the Gifts of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control and holy fear, piety, courage, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and counsel. One list tells me how to live emotionally, the other list tells me how to think.
Neither list has a place for being overcome by the world. So, God tells me: Be not afraid. Not because there is nothing to be afraid of, but because God will be with me. Jesus did it first and shows me how. He prepares me, listens to me, guides me, continues to overcome the world through me. It’s my job as a Christian.
Prayer:
Lord, as I studied all this past week, many voices in the world around me today call me to be afraid. Those voices of fear are a big part of the polarities (and sense of righteousness in polarities) we have in church, nation, and world. Fear is a big part of why so many of us huddle together at the end of the spectrums of difference. This week, Lord, help me to recognize when I feel fear. Then help me examine that fear and put it in YOUR HANDS if it seems real, toss it to the side if it is media or imagined noise. Lead me, guide me, Lord.
