Proper 8, Year A, 2011

Matthew 10:40-42

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

Today’s quite short gospel reading packs a very powerful assurance.  “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  It is Jesus’ promise to his disciples that in their discipleship they are forever bound to him and through him to God our Father.  The promise is there: the worker in our Lord’s vineyard does not stand alone.  God’s Holy Spirit stands with the disciple through every trial and tribulation, through every danger and snare.  God is with us when we are going about his work, and he is wraps us in the safekeeping of his love. 

This is indeed a powerful message of assurance, but the problem that I see with the gospel reading this morning is that it is taken out of context.  The compilers of our new official lectionary, the Revised Common Lectionary have separated these three verses from those immediately before it – something our old lectionary, from the Book of Common Prayer did not do.  In doing so, the striped this passage of much of its power, because in its context it was assurance to the disciples of God’s eternal love and grace, as our Lord sent his disciples out into a hostile and hate-filled world. 

To paraphrase what our Lord said to the disciples in the verses immediately before he gave them this reassurance of his presence and love, he said, “You think that proclaiming me to the world is giving the world a message of peace.  Well, be aware that there’s another side and that side is the sword.  When you proclaim me, you proclaim God’s love through me, but my coming also turns father against son and mother against daughter.”  Jesus was right.  Throughout his earthly ministry trouble and turmoil followed him wherever he went, because many, in positions of power and influence were not ready, or were just plain unwilling to hear his message of love and grace.

Early Christians suffered wave after wave of persecution, and we read about their trials and tribulations in reading the history of the Christian Church.  But trials and tribulations have followed the disciples of Jesus down through the generations, and there is no period, including today, when being a disciple is easy.  Being a disciple is one tough job.  A German theologian and pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose own resistance to evil through the proclamation of the Gospel cost him his life at the hands of the Nazis, wrote a book during the 1930’s titled The Cost of Discipleship.  It was a classic and, at least when I was in seminary, was required reading for seminarians.  Bonehoffer’s thesis was that being a discipleship of Jesus came at a personal cost.  He said that for a Christian to not be willing to pay the cost was to demand of God cheap grace.  But as Bonehoffer pointed out, there was no such thing as cheap grace because God’s grace, through Jesus Christ came at the cost of the Lord’s life.  And Jesus said to us, “If you would be my disciple, then take up the cross and follow me – not just today, but every day and every moment.”  There can be no discipleship for those unwilling to bear the cost of the cross.

So living the Christian life is a struggle.  The world, for the Christian, is hostile terrain.  But today’s gospel reading assures us that we do not walk the path of Christianity alone, for he is with us.  We find life in him, even if we lose our lives for his sake.  Whatever cost we pay for discipleship, we have his assurance that we will have our reward in Heaven.  Amen.