When You're Free (In Christ), Sacrifice Is No Burden!
Sermon
Sermons On The Gospel Readings
Series II, Cycle A
Object:
It takes a lot to be a Christian; you have to make your share of sacrifices. That is the popular version of Christianity. Megachurch pastor, Rick Warren, teaches, on the basis of our gospel lesson for today, that "each of us will have to give a personal account to God." Eternal rewards are at stake if we have served others with our lives.1
That is only part of the story. Those concerned with purpose-driven living make it too hard, but also too easy. The whole story is evident in today's gospel lesson.
Jesus was continuing what we read last week -- his commissioning and instruction of the disciples. Keep in mind that most New Testament scholars have concluded that the context of Matthew's gospel is the experience of persecution. The church that Matthew was addressing as being harassed by the Roman establishment. It was interpreted by Matthew as a sign of the end which is not far away (Matthew 10:23).
Of course this comes as no surprise to you and me. Being a Christian is never easy. So far it sounds like the purpose-driven scenario for Christian living. The onus is on you to endure the sacrifices for the sake of others.2 But Matthew has Jesus add another point about why Christianity involves its trials and sacrifices. In verses 24 and 25 of chapter 10 at the start of today's gospel lesson, Jesus says that the disciple is not above, but is like the teacher. It's the same with regard to the relationship between master and slave. And then Matthew has Jesus say, "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?" The point seems to be that to be a Christian is to get what Jesus gets. And since he endured suffering and needed to make sacrifices, that's the baggage we can expect.3
In the context of the persecutions and suffering, Jesus is concerned to offer comfort from our fears. In verse 26, he comforts his disciples with words of assurance, that they need to have no fear. In fact, he wants everything about the gospel message to be public, to be proclaimed boldly despite the persecution and the suffering that is all around.
In verse 28, Jesus proceeded to offer reasons why his followers need not fear in the midst of hard times and suffering. He tells us that we need not fear even those who would kill us, because while they may kill our bodies, they will never harm our souls. Christians are set free from threats to their physical well-being. They cannot destroy us.
Jesus next proceeded to offer further comfort, more liberation. Recall that Matthew is a gospel, like many narratives, which abolishes a sharp distinction between the time of Jesus and the time of the church, our own time.4 The comfort Jesus offers is his attempt to comfort you and me. I need that comfort. You need it too, right? That word of comfort sets us free. Start there. Nothing else about our purpose, about living as a Christian, makes much sense, if you forget this word of comfort and the freedom it affords.
Jesus proceeded with another word like that. In verses 29-31, he reminds the disciples and us that God the Father is in control of all things, even in control of where sparrows fly. But Jesus adds if God watches the sparrows that closely, he will certainly do the same for you and me, because we're more valuable to the Lord than the sparrows. If God so carefully follows the course of the sparrows, imagine what he will do for you and for me. In fact, Jesus claims, God the Father even knows how many hairs are on your head. He's counted them. That is how valuable you are to God! What a comfortable, liberating word. Trials, hardships, and sacrifices cannot take away the assurance and joy that Jesus' word of comfort affords. Oh how we need such comfort when we encounter life's hard times. When you have that comfort and confidence in God, you can face all the hard times.
Jesus' next comments involve applying this liberating, caring word to everyday trials and challenges. In Matthew 10:34, he makes references to not coming to make peace, but to bring a sword. This comment challenges Jewish expectations of the Messiah. It is Jesus' way of making it clear that God's acts convulse and alter the entire world. Since Jesus' entry in to the world, nothing is the same. You and I are not the same; we no longer share the world's ways.5
From this point, our Lord made some very controversial, almost troubling comments. He claims in verse 35 and what follows to have come to set men against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, to the point that your enemies will be members of your family. In fact, Jesus even goes on, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me ..." (Matthew 10:37). Whatever happened to family values? How can you and I live that way. What does Jesus want?
At least one prominent New Testament scholar contends that Jesus' words about setting men against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, is an emphatic, provocative way of affirming that nothing, not even family, may get in the way of our obedience to God. Conflict with one's family over loyalty to Jesus was likely to happen in the Jewish Christian context in which Matthew wrote.6 The message for us today is clear: Be willing even to sacrifice your middle-class values, the hidden lie that to be American, middle class, and Christian are synonymous. In fact, be ready to sacrifice everything to Jesus. But if you keep in mind Jesus' words of comfort and liberation, it will come more joyfully. It will be no burden!
The great French scholar, Blaise Pascal, described the human condition concerning this topic of sacrifice.
The true and only virtue is therefore to hate ourselves, for our concupiscence makes us hateful, and to seek for a being really worthy of love in order to love him.7
We can only be virtuous, truly sacrifice our selfishness for the sake of others, if we have an object worthy of love. Isn't that caring compassionate God of ours worthy?
I do think that Rick Warren, the influential spokesman for purpose-driven living, has a point in contending that "We are only fully alive when we're helping others."8 Where he's got it wrong, it seems to me, is that he hasn't appreciated how profound and radical the sacrifice we are called to make is. It is a total renunciation, which we can't really execute. Who can give up mother, father, child, and spouse the way Jesus teaches? It is not natural. It can only be done when your self is totally saturated by the only one who is worthy of love, whose love has so overwhelmed you that you forget about and get free from yourself.
God clearly does not intend our sacrifices to be so burdensome that there is no joy. I have shared with you previously that we are biologically geared to happiness when we find ourselves concentrating on projects bigger than we are. Concentrating on a holy object "worthy of love," gets the front part of the brain (the frontal lobe and prefrontal center) working in high gear. As a result, the back of your brain, the part that orients you in space and time, goes dim. You forget yourself, but there are psychic rewards. The front part of your brain releases pleasurable neurochemicals that give you a high, make you feel good and happy.9
Forgetting yourself, being caught up in God's grace to sacrifice yourself, feels good. This is just old-fashioned Christian thinking. Martin Luther put it this way in 1531 over a good meal:
God wants us to be cheerful and he hates sadness. For had he wanted us to be sad, he would not have given us the sun, the moon, and the various fruits of the earth. All these he gave for our good cheer.10
In a sermon in the late 1530s, Luther was describing what living like a Christian is like.
The life of such a person and whatever he does, whether great or small and no matter what it is called, is nothing but fruit and cannot be without fruit; for in Christ he has been born into a new existence, in order that he may constantly be full of good fruit. Everything such a person does becomes easy for him, not troublesome or vexatious. Nothing is too arduous for him or too difficult to suffer and bear.11
Doing good, making sacrifices, comes easy when God's freeing grace takes over in your life. There is no need to be so serious about your purpose in life. God will give it meaning. His all-consuming love and grace, so full of comfort and assurance, takes care of all your and my business. Amen.
____________
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), p. 232.
2. Ibid.
3. For these insights I am indebted to Eduard Schweizer, Good News According to Matthew, trans. David E. Green (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975), p. 245.
4. See page 256, n.1, for references.
5. Op cit, Schweizer, p. 251.
6. Ibid.
7. Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 564, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (Harmondsworth, UK and Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 222.
8. Op cit, Warren, p. 232.
9. See pages 230-231 as well as nn. 7-8 of that sermon for details.
10. Martin Luther, Table Talk (1531), No. 124, in What Luther Says, comp. Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 689.
11. Martin Luther, Sermons On the Gospel of St. John (1537-1538), in Luther's Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961), p. 230.
That is only part of the story. Those concerned with purpose-driven living make it too hard, but also too easy. The whole story is evident in today's gospel lesson.
Jesus was continuing what we read last week -- his commissioning and instruction of the disciples. Keep in mind that most New Testament scholars have concluded that the context of Matthew's gospel is the experience of persecution. The church that Matthew was addressing as being harassed by the Roman establishment. It was interpreted by Matthew as a sign of the end which is not far away (Matthew 10:23).
Of course this comes as no surprise to you and me. Being a Christian is never easy. So far it sounds like the purpose-driven scenario for Christian living. The onus is on you to endure the sacrifices for the sake of others.2 But Matthew has Jesus add another point about why Christianity involves its trials and sacrifices. In verses 24 and 25 of chapter 10 at the start of today's gospel lesson, Jesus says that the disciple is not above, but is like the teacher. It's the same with regard to the relationship between master and slave. And then Matthew has Jesus say, "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?" The point seems to be that to be a Christian is to get what Jesus gets. And since he endured suffering and needed to make sacrifices, that's the baggage we can expect.3
In the context of the persecutions and suffering, Jesus is concerned to offer comfort from our fears. In verse 26, he comforts his disciples with words of assurance, that they need to have no fear. In fact, he wants everything about the gospel message to be public, to be proclaimed boldly despite the persecution and the suffering that is all around.
In verse 28, Jesus proceeded to offer reasons why his followers need not fear in the midst of hard times and suffering. He tells us that we need not fear even those who would kill us, because while they may kill our bodies, they will never harm our souls. Christians are set free from threats to their physical well-being. They cannot destroy us.
Jesus next proceeded to offer further comfort, more liberation. Recall that Matthew is a gospel, like many narratives, which abolishes a sharp distinction between the time of Jesus and the time of the church, our own time.4 The comfort Jesus offers is his attempt to comfort you and me. I need that comfort. You need it too, right? That word of comfort sets us free. Start there. Nothing else about our purpose, about living as a Christian, makes much sense, if you forget this word of comfort and the freedom it affords.
Jesus proceeded with another word like that. In verses 29-31, he reminds the disciples and us that God the Father is in control of all things, even in control of where sparrows fly. But Jesus adds if God watches the sparrows that closely, he will certainly do the same for you and me, because we're more valuable to the Lord than the sparrows. If God so carefully follows the course of the sparrows, imagine what he will do for you and for me. In fact, Jesus claims, God the Father even knows how many hairs are on your head. He's counted them. That is how valuable you are to God! What a comfortable, liberating word. Trials, hardships, and sacrifices cannot take away the assurance and joy that Jesus' word of comfort affords. Oh how we need such comfort when we encounter life's hard times. When you have that comfort and confidence in God, you can face all the hard times.
Jesus' next comments involve applying this liberating, caring word to everyday trials and challenges. In Matthew 10:34, he makes references to not coming to make peace, but to bring a sword. This comment challenges Jewish expectations of the Messiah. It is Jesus' way of making it clear that God's acts convulse and alter the entire world. Since Jesus' entry in to the world, nothing is the same. You and I are not the same; we no longer share the world's ways.5
From this point, our Lord made some very controversial, almost troubling comments. He claims in verse 35 and what follows to have come to set men against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, to the point that your enemies will be members of your family. In fact, Jesus even goes on, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me ..." (Matthew 10:37). Whatever happened to family values? How can you and I live that way. What does Jesus want?
At least one prominent New Testament scholar contends that Jesus' words about setting men against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, is an emphatic, provocative way of affirming that nothing, not even family, may get in the way of our obedience to God. Conflict with one's family over loyalty to Jesus was likely to happen in the Jewish Christian context in which Matthew wrote.6 The message for us today is clear: Be willing even to sacrifice your middle-class values, the hidden lie that to be American, middle class, and Christian are synonymous. In fact, be ready to sacrifice everything to Jesus. But if you keep in mind Jesus' words of comfort and liberation, it will come more joyfully. It will be no burden!
The great French scholar, Blaise Pascal, described the human condition concerning this topic of sacrifice.
The true and only virtue is therefore to hate ourselves, for our concupiscence makes us hateful, and to seek for a being really worthy of love in order to love him.7
We can only be virtuous, truly sacrifice our selfishness for the sake of others, if we have an object worthy of love. Isn't that caring compassionate God of ours worthy?
I do think that Rick Warren, the influential spokesman for purpose-driven living, has a point in contending that "We are only fully alive when we're helping others."8 Where he's got it wrong, it seems to me, is that he hasn't appreciated how profound and radical the sacrifice we are called to make is. It is a total renunciation, which we can't really execute. Who can give up mother, father, child, and spouse the way Jesus teaches? It is not natural. It can only be done when your self is totally saturated by the only one who is worthy of love, whose love has so overwhelmed you that you forget about and get free from yourself.
God clearly does not intend our sacrifices to be so burdensome that there is no joy. I have shared with you previously that we are biologically geared to happiness when we find ourselves concentrating on projects bigger than we are. Concentrating on a holy object "worthy of love," gets the front part of the brain (the frontal lobe and prefrontal center) working in high gear. As a result, the back of your brain, the part that orients you in space and time, goes dim. You forget yourself, but there are psychic rewards. The front part of your brain releases pleasurable neurochemicals that give you a high, make you feel good and happy.9
Forgetting yourself, being caught up in God's grace to sacrifice yourself, feels good. This is just old-fashioned Christian thinking. Martin Luther put it this way in 1531 over a good meal:
God wants us to be cheerful and he hates sadness. For had he wanted us to be sad, he would not have given us the sun, the moon, and the various fruits of the earth. All these he gave for our good cheer.10
In a sermon in the late 1530s, Luther was describing what living like a Christian is like.
The life of such a person and whatever he does, whether great or small and no matter what it is called, is nothing but fruit and cannot be without fruit; for in Christ he has been born into a new existence, in order that he may constantly be full of good fruit. Everything such a person does becomes easy for him, not troublesome or vexatious. Nothing is too arduous for him or too difficult to suffer and bear.11
Doing good, making sacrifices, comes easy when God's freeing grace takes over in your life. There is no need to be so serious about your purpose in life. God will give it meaning. His all-consuming love and grace, so full of comfort and assurance, takes care of all your and my business. Amen.
____________
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life: What On Earth Am I Here For? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), p. 232.
2. Ibid.
3. For these insights I am indebted to Eduard Schweizer, Good News According to Matthew, trans. David E. Green (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975), p. 245.
4. See page 256, n.1, for references.
5. Op cit, Schweizer, p. 251.
6. Ibid.
7. Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 564, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (Harmondsworth, UK and Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 222.
8. Op cit, Warren, p. 232.
9. See pages 230-231 as well as nn. 7-8 of that sermon for details.
10. Martin Luther, Table Talk (1531), No. 124, in What Luther Says, comp. Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 689.
11. Martin Luther, Sermons On the Gospel of St. John (1537-1538), in Luther's Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961), p. 230.
