Homilía predicada el 6to Domingo después de Pentecostés Año A Homily preached on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost Year AMatthew 10:34-42
Today’s Gospel begins where last Sunday’s Gospel left us; it continues the same narrative of Matthew chapter 10. The final words in our Gospel lesson for last week were,
“32So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
These words were spoken of those to whom Christ’s disciples were being sent; those who would hear that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. This is a very clear-cut statement; there is no ambiguity about what it means—he who receives the gospel of Christ is accepted by our Father in heaven, but he who does not receive it, is not. We are either in or out, on one side of the divide or the other, but we cannot be in both places at the same time. This is the type of allegiance Christ demands from us. He requires us to make a distinctive decision concerning him; namely, to take up our cross and follow him. Of course, it would be naïve on our part to think that we on our own fallen nature would be capable to make such a decision. In this process of taking up our cross and following him, none of us can overlook the fact that the Holy Spirit is actually helping us to take our cross and follow Christ. In God the Holy Spirit, we do not lack the encouragement nor the tools to remain steadfast in our Christian walk, however difficult we might come to think it is. Last week, Christ told his messengers, his disciples,
“29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Our Christian walk is not a walk in the park. It never has been and it never will, but that is beside the point. I am pretty sure that is no news to anyone of us. All of us who have shared the Gospel of Christ with somebody else have been rejected at one point or another. Rest assured that they have not rejected us; they have rejected our Lord Jesus Christ.
But in today’s Gospel lesson we are made aware of a reality that is inherent in the proclamation of the Gospel, and it is a darker aspect of the Gospel. Not that there is anything obscure about the Gospel of Christ itself; nothing on this whole earth could be simpler to grasp than the message of the cross of Jesus. In fact, it is actually this simplicity of the Gospel what makes many stumble. Many cannot deal with the plain truth and reality that we are fallen and we cannot stand up unless helped by God.
So what are we to make when confronted with words like,
34"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Well, isn’t this world already full conflict and strife as it is? Why would the message of the reconciliation of man to God and God to man bring about more conflict than peace? Why would the very Christ who came to save us tell us something as disheartening as that? As Christ’s messengers, it doesn’t make our work any easier, does it?
The whole of Matthew, chapter 10, is about people being commissioned by Christ to proclaim the path to salvation. It is about people called of God to tell it on the mountains tops, on the valleys and everywhere. Jesus is preparing by telling us what to expect when we proclaim the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ shatters with full force the preconceived notions of our spiritual condition. The Gospel of Christ claims to be, to the absolute exclusion of any other so called alternatives to God, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is not easy to be told the plain, cold truth, particularly when it concerns the so-called private matters of the spirit. Believe me, brothers and sisters, there is nothing private about “all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” There is nothing private about “the wages of sin is death.” That is precisely why what we have been given to proclaim raises opposition, often as we do know, to the point of death. The Gospel of Christ bluntly antagonizes the secular status quo, where man has enthroned himself as king. The Gospel is an intrusion, an inconvenience to our individualistic and selfish society, where we and our neighbor are fond of saying “I’m ok, you’re ok and we’ll both go to heaven in the end because all roads lead to heaven.” Well, no! (1)Not all roads lead to heaven. (2)Without Christ, neither of us is ok and (3)without Christ we’ll certainly see each other, but I can assure you that it won’t be in heaven. This is the reason Christ tells us, “You’ve been warned.” But we’ll do well to remember that being warned is very different from being on your own. Our case is always the former, not the latter. Christ’s warning to us only precedes a message that no earthly power, however fierce or intimidating, is able to overcome. Isaiah chapter 2, which was our first lesson this morning, gives us this encouragement,
12For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up--and it shall be brought low; 13against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; 14against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; 15against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; 16against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. 17And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
The Gospel of Christ entails persecution, but persecution will have its end one day. Matthew says that Christ has come not to bring peace but a sword and presses on to say something just as disturbing if not even more. He says that Christ has come “to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.”
Let me emphasize very clearly that Christ has not called any of his children to be in enmity with anybody. It is an irony of the Gospel of Christ that while reconciling men and women to God, it also alienates those who have been brought closer to the Father from those who are still afar creating a wide divide between the new creatures and the old ones. The cross of Christ brings us closer to God, but the cross of Christ also takes us far away from friends and sometimes, what is even more painful, from family.
And here, I think it is appropriate to call to our attention the following. Count yourself blessed if your family is here today with you worshipping God. That is the Lord’s doing and is a powerful witness to the Gospel of reconciliation which is in Christ Jesus. It is a powerful witness to the grace of God which is in Christ Jesus. Count yourself blessed if your friends are here today worshipping God with you because that is also the Lord’s doing. Christ is the God of reconciliation. There is much joy to be had when members of our family come to the Lord’s house together as one. And believe it or not, it is a great sign to unbelievers when they see or find out that whole families come to church to worship and honor God.
Now, there might be someone in your family that would not come anywhere near a church. Perhaps, we all have that relative who thinks he’s better off without Christ and simply dismisses us with a “whatever works for you.” Rather than a full blown persecution, this is the enmity Christ speaks of in our Gospel for today; the type of enmity that hurts the most because it involves a loved one, a husband or wife or child or a father or mother, a brother or a sister who does not share our faith. We continue to love them because they’re family. We keep praying for them because our God answers the prayers of His people. In this circumstance, the fact that we are enemies within the same household is something beyond our control, but not God’s. It is important to know that God is in control as he has always been even when our household might be spiritually divided.
It is important to underscore one thing Matthew recorded in his Gospel for us to bear in mind. In matters of human relationships, there is seldom a stronger loyalty than that paid to family. It shouldn’t be any different. A man will defend his family like nothing else. A mother will defend her children like no one else on earth. A good son or daughter will defend their parents’ honor at the speed of light. Family is family and blood is thicker than water. It is a difficult matter to quantify our love for our loved ones. It is preposterous to ask a parent, “On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you love your children?” (Now, it’s understandable that a parent might say on a given day, “Son, today you are coming in at three!”) And it certainly sounds preposterous when we hear Christ saying,
37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Why is it that our allegiance to Christ is put in such unmistakable terms? Is Christ competing for our loyalties here? Simply put, no, he is not. The call of Christ to our lives requires a non-negotiable cost. Christ does not do his children any favors by sugar coating what it means to take up our cross and follow him. If I have read my Bible correctly, Christ never plays down his call on the lives of the called. Christ does not ask us to abandon our families or responsibilities; he’s the one who gave them to us in the first place, but in the words of the late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoffer,
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
It is costly to follow him; it is costly to take up our cross. It is costly to be faithful to Christ like no one else, including our families. The call of Christ to come and follow, to become a disciple, is the highest call men and women will ever receive on earth. Every other call—marriage, children, family, friends, work, etc.—follows suit when we have obeyed the highest calling. Christ does not come into our lives to compete for our faithfulness; he comes to put things in order where there was none. He comes and sets our priorities straight. After all, it is in him
15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
as Paul tells the Ephesians.
In the cross of Christ, all of us, find our true calling and to find Christ is to find eternal life. Bonhoeffer describes the call to discipleship, this call to allegiance to Christ, in terms of cheap grace and costly grace. Listen to what he says,
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. […]
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession, cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
“[Costly] grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “you were bought at a price,” [Scripture says] and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. […]
Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
As we prepare to continue the worship of God this morning and prepare ourselves to come to the Lord’s Table, let us remember that here, when we come up, his grace abounds to help us to follow him. We are partakers of the riches of God in Jesus Christ who died, rose and will come again for us. If we have heeded his call and love him, there is no question it is because he loved us first. Amen.
