Why Jesus Matters

Text: Matthew  9:35-10:8 (and 10:9-11:1 not printed below)

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.  These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.  These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’  Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

I am going to spend a few minutes
talking about Jesus as if he matters.

Now you do not have to believe
that Jesus is the“Only Son of God”
for him to matter.
You do not have to believe
he is The Messiah
for him to matter.
You do not have to believe
that he was, as it says in John,
“In the beginning and with God”
or any number of the things
that you have heard claimed about Jesus
for him to matter.

On the other hand,
you can believe all of those things and more,
and still connect with what I am going to say.
So, to those who are skeptical about Jesus,
or simply agnostic in that you haven’t decided what to believe about Jesus;
all I ask is that you entertain the possibility
that he belongs in that small circle
of incredible human beings who,
because of their profound wisdom,
have seeped into our hearts and minds
even thousands of years after they lived.
These are mythic figures of holiness like
Moses, Buddha, Mohammad…
and mystics like Julian of Norwich, Hildegaard,
or the Tibetan Milarepa.

To those who are convinced of Jesus’divinity,
or who have experienced
the white light of eternal presence
in your own terminal life,
all I ask is that you also consider
the teachings of the very human Jesus
worthy of as much attention
as the theological energy spent
defining and proclaiming his relationship to God.

In short, all I ask
is that we take seriously for a moment,
what Jesus did and said,
as if it matters…and has something for us.

You see, one of our problems is
that we have all this liturgical language
that just drools off our lips
and down our chins as if it were nothing,
when in fact it points to the presence of God –
a presence that is a broiling brine,
a tumultuous whirlpool,
a yawning below
that would swallow us with a gulp
into holy chaos.

We constantly reference Jesus
in our liturgical prayers,
but if we stopped to realize
who and what is behind that name
we might be more hesitant.
We jab at the name like children
poking a pinata…
when in fact it is more like holding a gator
by the tail.

Today’s gospel reading says it all.

It says Jesus goes around the cities and villages teaching,
preaching and healing.
That is his thing.
He has a house in Capernaum,
and presumably had an artisan skill of some kind,
but he becomes an itinerant sage and healer.
He tells us plainly
what he experiences
as he goes around doing his thing:
people are harassed and leaderless,
they grasp at straws.

At one point a particularly enthusiastic crowd
starts chanting for him to become the king –
even though there is already a king
who happens to be the puppet
for a particularly powerful emperor.
Jesus knows that such wishful thinking
is only a measure of how horrific their lives are.

On another day, another crowd
cheerfully exclaims that he is John the Baptist risen from the dead.
Another crowd proclaims him Elijah,
the prophet returned from heaven.
Still another crowd on another day
declares his ability to cure any disease
and defy the forces of nature.

Now take a minute to consider his response
to these crying needs
he sees and hears around him.
Jesus diagnoses the problem:
He says that people are “harassed from above and leaderless from within.”

In retrospect that’s not a bad diagnosis
for a peasant preacher who never had a sociology course or therapist training.

Then Jesus states a prescription for health:
He sends out his students –
today’s story says 12
and other versions say 70 –
to teach,
preach,
and heal like he does.

In other words, Jesus multiplies
his own effort to increase the impact he is having.
Doesn’t that make perfect sense?

The difference between the original
“Jesus Movement”that followed and survived
the aftermath of Jesus’ death,
and what eventually went on to become
the early Church, is this:
Our ancestors understood
that they were sent out as leaders
to teach and heal
while the much of Christianity today,
acts as if we are the crowds
waiting in the nest like baby birds
to be fed.

After generations and generations
of being the establishment religion
we have become domesticated.
We fell into the notion
that we are communities of pastoral care,
receivers rather than leaders
who go outside ourselves to teach and heal.

We are wounded healers to be sure;
people who need to care for one another
and be strengthened by the fusion
of God’s love
made known by people
who are infused with it.

But we are wounded healers
sent out to lead a people
still harassed
by the politics of cynicism and marginalization,
and to heal those
who are still being wounded
by an indifferent economy
with a politics of hate.

The Church is not a nest
if we take Jesus seriously.
It is a community of leaders and healers
that has a definite center but no walls.

With that in mind,
let’s take a quick look
at what Jesus told those brave souls,
in the first generation of wounded healers.

Jesus’ commissioning of leaders we read
is at the beginning of his second of five sermons
in Matthew’s Gospel.

As always, context matters.

First, he tells them to stay focused
on the message:
The reign of God is closing in, he says,
and it may already be here.

Secondly, he tells them
to teach, preach and heal:
teach about the nearness of God,
preach about what to do in light of God’s presence,
and heal what needs healing.

That’s the part we heard today.

But next he tells them
what they need to know
if they are going to be leaders and healers.

I am going to paraphrase his several points
from Matthew 10:8 to 11:1.

He tells his would-be leaders and healers:
that he is sending them out
to be like sheep to a pack of wolves.
So be sly, he says, as a snake
yet as simple as a dove.”

Yeah, Mr. Jesus said that –
do you think it is true?
I sure do.

If we have not experienced
the counter-cultural nature of Jesus
and what should be undomesticated Christianity,
then we may not know yet, that
Jesus is subversive.

He is not interested in the power arrangements we find so comforting.
He understood that when we exert leadership
in a political system like ours
someone will try to get us – probably
lots of someones.
And when we seek to heal wounds
that are created by an economy like ours
we are going to have to name the disease
that inflicted them – and that
will not be tolerated.

So we should understand
that being a leader is dangerous
and consequently be smart about it.
Being clever may not save our lives,
it didn’t save Jesus’,
but it may prolong them
and give us more time to be subversive.

That is just the first thing he said.
Next, he told his students:

Do not fret about what to say
when you get into a tight situation
and you are cornered –
if you do what I do,
act like I act,
the words will come when you need them.
BUT, he warned, do not be naive.
If you do what I do,
and you act like I act,
and you say the stuff I say,
you are going to be associated with me
and that will not win you any points.
In fact, you are gong to have lots of enemies.

Yep, Jesus said that too.

Then he said something really astonishing.
Jesus stroked his leaders and healers
with this thought:

Please, do not  be afraid of people
who want to be your enemy.
I know, how counter-intuitive is that?

He said that Instead of being afraid,
we should smile
and tell them what we know.
After all, he said – and this is the stunner –
there is nothing veiled
that will not be unveiled,
nothing hidden that will not be made known.
What we talk about with one another
in our team huddle
is what we should go out there and preach.
Whatever little whisper God puts in your ear,
go out and shout.

Now I think that is an amazing admission,
especially for a holy man.

He actually says that there are no secrets,
everything will be unveiled.

He could have acted like
he had the best hand in the house
and was not going to show it.
That is how you make money, right?
You create a sense of scarcity
so people feel as though
they have to come to you
or be losers.

But instead
Jesus laid down his cards
and gave it all away.

There are no spiritual secrets. Wow.
Finally, Jesus gave his team
this bit of troubling instruction:

You cannot be a leader,
and you cannot be a healer,
if your are worried about survival.
You just will not walk this walk very far
if your priority is on safety
and survival.
So here is something you need to know:
I did not come to bring peace
but a sword.

Then Jesus went on to explain what he meant.

He did not mean war,
he meant conflict and division.
Sons and daughters
are going to fight with their parents
because of his teaching and example.

Think about that right now.

Neighbors are going to get angry
with one another because of his teaching and example.
Think about that right now.
Church members are going to be divided
because of his teaching and example.

Think about that right now.

Citizens of the same country
are going to draw lines in the sand
because of his teaching and example.

Oh yeah, that is happening right now.

Why all this division?
Because the leaders and healers
of Jesus’ movement
will help more and more people understand
that serving the love of God
is not the same as serving
the best interest of the economy
or the nation
or business as usual.

It was a pretty heavy sermon he gave
his first team, and they must have been stunned.

So then, at the end of his second sermon,
the one he gave as a pep-talk to his
circle of fellow leaders and healers,
Matthew says Jesus did
what he always did at the end of a sermon:

He moved on from there
to teach and proclaim
in the towns and villages.
In other words, he modeled everything
he had just told them.

Likewise it is time for us
to move on from this sermon to other things,
so let me finish with this charge
to anyone who would be a leader and healer
of the Jesus movement.

Every one of us has pain.
Every one of us has deep and lasting wounds.
Even so, churches are not supposed to be
sanctuaries wounded people to hide.
A church is supposed to have a center
with no walls,
from which wounded leaders
go out to be healers.

The days of Church as a nest are numbered.
Time and history
and the movement of God in our world
is returning us to the movement we once were –
the movement before the Church became an establishment religion.

We will thrive as a movement,
and a center for leaders and healers, or,
we will die as a nest of the wounded
who seek sanctuary while on retreat.

Jesus’ diagnosis is as apt now as then:
In a country and a city
where people who are harassed from above
and leaderless from within,
we have an opportunity to act as if Jesus matters and become leaders and healers.

It may still be dangerous work
but it is the work that gives our lives meaning.