you are valuable

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Psalm 105:1-22; Matthew 10:16-33


"I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves... when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next..."
(Matthew 10:16, 23)

As Jesus continues his instructions for the disciples' mission, he moves to a sober reality check. "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher..." (v. 25), basically, he says "what they do to me they'll do to you." You too will be delivered over, brought to trial, flogged and hated and persecuted. But do not fear, do not be anxious; you are valued by the Father, and the Spirit of your Father will speak through you. He who endures to the end will be saved.

In the midst of these warnings and promises, Jesus tells them to be wise and innocent as sheep amidst wolves (wow, four animal images mixed together!) and to flee persecution. In other words, while he says to endure to the end, he doesn't say to be a martyr if you don't have to! In fact, because we are valuable to God and to God's world (to whom we're sent in mission with good news) we are to seek to appropriately preserve our lives.

Of course, this is in tension with Jesus' commands:
> it does not mean to deny him in order to save one's life (v. 33).
> "whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (v.39).
> to not seek to save your life but rather to lose it for him and his gospel (16:24-27).

The apostle Paul himself, time and again, was secreted out of cities and guarded with hundreds of soldiers in order to save his life, as well as being beaten, whipped, and imprisoned. Even Jesus, after his first sermon in Luke, slipped away in the crowd away from those who wanted to throw him off the cliff.

You are valuable. Your life here and now matters to God and to God's world. This, I suppose, is one way we love ourselves appropriately (that we might love our neighbor as well). We honor and love God by faithfully pursuing this mission on which we are sent into an often hostile world, this mission of the gospel of his beloved Son. Honoring and loving God also includes honoring and loving something else that he values: you.