Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
“(Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows): So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:26-33 – NRSV).
Introductory notes
General
“Do you know what the most frequent command in the Bible turns out to be? What instruction, what order, is given, again and again, by God, by angels, by Jesus, by prophets and apostles? What do you think—‘Be good’? ‘Be holy, for I am holy’? Or, negatively, ‘Don’t sin’? ‘Don’t be immoral’? No. The most frequent command in the Bible is: ‘Don’t be afraid’” (N T Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship, SPCK, 1994, 56).
The command “Don’t be afraid” comes up in today’s Gospel. Afraid of what? The Greek word, akolouthein, meaning “to walk behind, to follow” is frequently used in the Christian Scriptures to speak of discipleship. It gives a specific Christian meaning to the common Greek word mathētēs, meaning “disciple”. That word, mathētēs – in different forms – is used 261 times in the Gospels and Acts. It is rooted in the verb manthanō, meaning “to learn”. Put them together and you have the rich concept of Christian discipleship: Those who follow Jesus in order to learn what it means to be a human being. The following and the learning never cease. This is both the promise and the challenge of discipleship.
It is in the context of Jesus’ call to this particular group of men to be disciples, that Jesus says: “Remember, I am with you always … “ (Matthew 28:20 – the last words in the Gospel of Matthew). Jesus’ gentle reminder echoes God’s promise repeated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures – for example Isaiah 41:10: “Do not be afraid for I am with you”.
What is it about being disciples – Jesus’ followers and learners – that might frighten us?
The deep, primitive truth of our fear – as in other complex life matters – remains largely buried below the surface of our awareness, masked by our pretences and wishes and expectations and yes, even other fears. We can suppress and repress our fear but we cannot get rid of it. Only love can do that. It is crucial that we give ourselves every possibility to hear God’s word of love – to hear it with the ear of the heart, to taste it. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
Everything in the Gospel accounts of discipleship implies that it is a response to being loved. Those first disciples did not take the initiative. It was not a career move. It was not even a decision of high moral principle. It was a very human response to a word of love: “Come!” Interestingly enough, today’s Gospel text, in saying explicitly that the number of disciples here is eleven, reminds us that one of their number, although involved, was never really a disciple, a follower and learner. And those who did begin the journey of discipleship – the eleven – sensed something in Jesus that drew them to follow and seek to learn, more and more.
The disciple is, first and foremost, one who has let her/himself taste the love embodied in Jesus. Once you have tasted God’s love, everything else will follow. Chapter 10 of Matthew’s Gospel is referred to in the Jerusalem Bible as “The Apostolic Discourse”. It begins with the mission of the twelve – they are named and sent out as disciples of Jesus, they are to proclaim what they have learned in following Jesus, there is a warning concerning the hardships of this mission, Jesus urges them not to be afraid.
Daniel Harrington offers an interpretation: “In 10:26–31 the disciples are urged: ‘Do not fear’ (10:26, 28, 31). In their mission they continue the process of making public the message of Jesus, which is not hidden or esoteric (10:26–27). They are to fear God alone, not human beings (10:28). They are to trust in God’s care for them (10:29–31). Then in 10:32–33 they are reminded that their steadfast confession of Jesus will be rewarded and their denial of him will be punished. Though these sayings came as a package in Q (see Luke 12:2–9), they originated as small, independent units. Taken individually, they are difficult to interpret because we do not know their context. Whatever their original context may have been, Matthew has given them a new context in his mission discourse. In that context they take on a certain meaning” (Daniel J Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew, Liturgical Press, 2007, 152).
Specific
have no fear of them: This command – a reiteration of the great promise given to Moses (Exodus 3:12) and repeated in different ways throughout the Bible – holds our text together. This command invites us to focus on God – we are about God’s work. It is, in the end, not our work. The apostle is someone who makes him/herself available to God for God to do what God will do. Luke 1:38 is the paradigm, where we hear Mary respond to the call of God issued by the Angel Gabriel: “Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’.” We might regard this as the key to discipleship, no matter what form it takes. Those who can hear that command and be transformed by it will be those who have a deep and rich relationship with Jesus – a crucial basis for the next command which follows: Go out and share it.
Pope Benedict, in a magnificent statement at the beginning of his first encyclical, writes: “‘God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them’. (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of humankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: ‘We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us’. We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his or her life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (Deus caritas est (December 25, 2005))
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light: This builds on the previous command to take their discipleship to the world without fear. Let everybody know what you have come to know in being with Jesus, listening to him, absorbing his way of being. Every person can and should come to know the love of God revealed in Jesus. As Pope Benedict has indicated above, John puts it succinctly and beautifully: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). Clearly this proclamation that the disciple bears is much more than merely passing on information!
hell: The English word “hell” is Old English, perhaps with a Germanic origin. It means roughly what the Jews meant in Jesus’ day when they spoke of “gehenna”. “Geenna, usually transliterated as ‘gehenna’ or translated as ‘hell’, refers to the place of punishment at the judgment. The term derives from the name of a valley located on the south slope of Jerusalem, the Valley of Hinnom (Josh 15:8; 18:16), where Ahaz and Manasseh followed the ‘detestable practices of the nations’ by burning sacrifices to Molech and even sacrificing their own sons in the fire (2 Chron 28:3; 33:6; 2 Kings 16:3). Associated with such practices as these, the Hinnom Valley (or Valley of the Son of Hinnom) came to be associated with the most horrific images of divine judgment (Jer 7:30–33; 19:1–13; 32:34–35; cf. Is 31:9; 66:24)” (J B Green, “Heaven and Hell” in J. B. Green, J. K. Brown, & N. Perrin (Eds.), Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, Second Edition, IVP Academic, 2013, 371).
Do not be afraid?
In today’s Gospel – Matthew 10:26-33 – we have eight of the thirty-eight verses in an extended discourse concerning the mission of the first disciples. Brendan Byrne SJ notes that it is “one of the most difficult parts of Matthew’s gospel” (Lifting the Burden: Reading Matthew’s Gospel in the Church Today, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004, 86). We hear Jesus tell the disciples: “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves … they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues … Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name” (see 10:16-23). Then, having outlined some very good reasons to be afraid, Jesus tells them three times, not to be afraid! What are we to make of this?
“Only disciples overwhelmed by a sense of the riches contained in the message they bring (the good news of the kingdom)” could hear and embrace the invitation to be unafraid (Byrne, 89). Our belief as disciples is not just a rational assent to doctrine or a choice to pursue a high moral goal. Our belief is born in and of an encounter with Jesus Christ himself. Because of that encounter, our lives have begun changing at depth. We begin experiencing ourselves and other people, events and things, in a new light.
Our sense of what is real and what matters, is radically affected. This applies even to our close family relationships: “As members of a reconstituted people of God, believers enjoy a familial relationship and intimacy with their ‘Father in heaven.’ The privilege of belonging to this ‘family,’ the sense of being valued and watched over by God that goes with it, place in a wider context and go some way to relativizing the lesions and wounds to natural family life that discipleship exacts. We go astray if we read any part of the discourse in isolation and forgetfulness of this central consideration” (Byrne, 89-90).
Jesus’ instruction – invitation? – to not be afraid, represents a parting of the ways. One way is the merely human way. In this way, we will endeavour to summon all our human resources and defeat or at least cope with the fear. The other way is to make the human way part of our belief in him. Our belief in him, present to us, loving us, caring for us, will make all the difference. Which way will I choose?
The heart and soul of the Bible is found in the twofold promise of Sinai: “I shall be there with you as who I AM” – see Exodus 3:1-15. This promise is repeated over and over again. It is being fulfilled in the Incarnation. It is also being spoken to us in every moment of our lives. Slow down! Listen! Experience the promise!