PottyPadre

13^th Sunday in ordinary time – Matthew 10:37-42

We come to the end of the second of five discourses found in the Gospel of Matthew. The mission discourse ends with no apology. It is not a diplomatic speech that has carefully tip toed safely past a minefield of difficult issues.  The mission discourse is not a lecture; it is an ultimatum. Jesus presents the Kingdom not as a philosophy to be debated, but as a reality to be embraced immediately.

If Jesus were a salesman in the modern world, He would have surely lost His job. The art of waxing eloquent was certainly not his forte. A good salesman highlights the features and hides the costs. Jesus does the exact opposite; He puts the price tag on the front window. Modern consumer culture promises that buying a product will make life easier, smoother, and more comfortable. Jesus’ “product” is a cross. He wasn’t looking for buyers to satisfy; He was looking for disciples to transform.

Jesus never gave his disciples, even remotely, a false expectation. He did not make the mission discourse sound exciting or like some exiting adventure just to lure more people to his cause. Rather, he promised a hard trek down some dusty and challenging roads. The sales pitch that he made, would have effectively driven away any prospective disciple.

The mission discourse makes it abundantly clear that the Christian will always be to the world, a point of derision, an object of scorn. This is not merely from those who sit outside our ‘green pastures’ but also include many from within the community who mock the sheep.

Making a choice for Christ clearly sets you on a collision course with the rest of the world and the world does not have to be on the other side of the globe; they are often on the other side of the room in your very home. Those in the early Church who followed Christ, leaving their pagan faiths, were the ones who did not just feel some heat under the collar; many felt the heat literally as they were burnt for Nero’s pleasure.

Just when it sounds like it can’t get any worse, Jesus drops another bombshell. He says He has not come to bring peace to the earth but the sword. Rather strange words from the very one who came to be the ‘Prince of peace’ and who called peacemakers, blessed.

Lest we misunderstand the Lord, His intention is not to bring about bloodshed. The regrettable side effect of the Gospel is division, resulting from the uncompromising proclamation of the kingdom. The mission discourse clearly outlines the great challenges that the disciple must face in taking the Good News to the world along with the side effects it brings.  For Jesus, this is moment when decisions have to be made. We are with Him in mission or we are not! Jesus leaves no room for casual fans; He only accepts committed followers.

Jesus is emphatic; luke-warm Christians who have been bathing in their watered down understanding of the Catholic faith are “not worthy of him.” While we may propagate and promote our happy-clappy, kumbaya version of Christ, that version, good as it may be, must also be confronted with verse 38 where we are told that if Christ is not first in everything, then we stand nowhere in his court; we are not worthy of him. If God is not at the centre of your heart, your boundaries will always be misplaced.

The mission discourse calls us to be a walking embassy. When you step out into the world as a disciple, you operate as an ambassador of Christ. Your presence should change the spiritual climate of the rooms you walk into. When you walk with Christ, you carry His presence into every room.

Christ does not ask us to actively seek persecutors so that we may be martyred but he actively asks us to die to ourselves in order that we may find him. He says “those who find THEIR life will lose it.” What Christ is saying is that those who make a life for themselves in which HE is not part of, that life is a life created for themselves. It is a life devoid of him. That life, as happy as it may seem to the world, is a life lost.

 That brings us to the million-dollar question as the mission discourse draws to a close; what’s in it for me? There is no talk of a diadem and a palace for those that serve Him. There is however a promise of a disciple’s reward proportionate to the act of love that we show to others; to a prophet, a righteous person or a ‘little one’. That’s it!

That brings us to the million-dollar question as the mission discourse draws to a close; what’s in it for me? There is no talk of a diadem and a palace for those that serve Him. There is however a promise of a disciple’s reward proportionate to the act of love that we show to others; to a prophet, a righteous person or a ‘little one’. That’s it!