The Anti-Christians

Matthew 10:16-39

Honestly, you guys are as helpless as a mouse in middle of a cat convention in the work I’m setting you to do. So, in dealing with people, be shrewd and yet pure in God’s eyes. You’ve got to be on guard from these churchies I send you to. They will throw you out of their buildings and call the cops on you. You will go before judges and mayors to tell them what I have told you. And when you are given to the authorities, don’t fret about your defense. God will send His Spirit to tell you what to say at the time.

It says in Scripture that a brother will have his brother arrested, a father will arrest his child and children will have their parents arrested. Honestly, because of me and my word, everyone will hate you. But if you stick with this work to the end, then you will be delivered. So, if they attack you in one church, just go to another. You see, you won’t have finished the work I’ve given you, and I’ll be coming back.

No one treats a student better than the teacher. Nor do they treat a servant better than his employer. Frankly, if the student or servant gets treated with the same respect as their betters, that is more than enough. So if they call your master, “Satan”, what do you think they’ll call you? So be prepared and don’t be afraid of it.

Honestly, these guys aren’t so scary. Anything done covertly, God will display before all the world. Whatever secrets I whisper to you, announce from a megaphone. If someone threatens to throw you in jail or kill you—don’t worry about it. All they can do is touch your body, but they can’t touch your soul. Rather, you should be afraid of the One who can put your whole being into hell! You can buy a chicken for a couple bucks, and the Father knows every one that was butchered and put on your dinner plate. You are much, much more important to God than a chicken. God knows you intimately and cares for every single hair on your head. So stop being afraid to tell people what they don’t want to hear!

Here’s a deal, if you give my message to anyone and everyone, then I will talk about you to my Father on the final day! But if you refuse to talk about me to people, I will tell the Father that I never knew you. Do you think I came to bring “peace on earth”? Far from it! My visit here will cause more violence than it stops. Because of me, family members will turn on each other and people will be looking over their shoulder, fearing what others in their house might do to them! Let me tell you now, if you love your parents more than me, then just quit now. If you love your child more than me, then forget about following me. And unless you are ready to be executed as a seditionist, quit my school. If you want to save your soul, you have to tear your heart out. And the one who does allow his heart to be torn out will find that they are a whole person.

Apostle’s Work

At the beginning of this passage, Jesus makes it clear that he is sending his disciples (now apostles) out to do some work. The specific work Jesus gave them was to speak his message of repentance and God’s kingdom to “the lost sheep of Israel.” Israel, in Jesus’ day, were those who believed as He believed, those who were the orthodox people of God. Should Jesus be around today, he would send his apostles out to the churches, orthodox, evangelical, Catholic, Protestant, any and all that have quite a bit of his gospel and are accepted by society.

When they went to a church, an apostle would do two things—find an opportunity to heal, and proclaim the eschatological message of repentance. In other words, “Repent, the end of the world is nigh”. It may be a cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true, does it? The miracle shows that they are truly from God. The message is what the church needs to hear. This is exactly what Jesus sent his disciples out to do—to hand out tracts to churches, and heal those who are mentally ill or dying of AIDS.

Orthodox Heresy

The main point of the passage is that while some might receive the apostle’s message, the main response will be persecution—rejection, hatred, arrest. Jesus spends a lot of time on this. Then, as now, Christ is seen as a unifying figure for God’s people. That once the Messiah has revealed Himself for who He is, then all of God’s people will stand behind him, ready to battle the infidels. Jesus reveals that this simply isn’t true.

One of the biggest shocks of reading the New Testament carefully is that it isn’t the infidels or the unfaithful that are the persecutors. Rather it is the orthodox believers. The main opponents of Jesus were and are the traditional orthodox believers—whether Jew or Christian. As soon as a religion becomes comfortable or set in its ways, Jesus is the number one opponent of it. And those who speak for Jesus will speak most loudly against the orthodox. Thus, the orthodox will stand against the apostles of Jesus. They will kick them out of their churches. They will declare them to be heretics. They will call the police on them. All for doing Jesus’ work.

Evangelizing the Church

But why is this? Shouldn’t the church pay attention to Jesus’ message? After all, they claim to love Jesus. Just like the Jews of the first century claimed to love the Messiah (just so long as He agreed with their theology). But even so, healing people, that’s a good thing, right? Why shouldn’t the churches accept the apostles?

Well, what the churches dislike right off the bat is the fact that the apostles feel the need to preach to the churches. You see the churches feel like they’ve got it right. After all, aren’t they going to church? Don’t they worship God at the top of their voices? Don’t they demonstrate their love of God through their offerings? And they are in firm agreement with proper, orthodox theology. So THEY aren’t the ones needing tracts. That should be saved for the unbelievers.

Then the apostles right off the bat tell the churches that they need to repent. Repentance is okay coming from one’s pastor or priest. After all, we know they aren’t really talking to ME, personally. But when an apostle of Jesus comes to our church telling us that we need to repent, they are implying that there’s something wrong with the church AS A WHOLE. Almost as if we were wrong to go to our proper, approved, orthodox church. Well, there’s nothing wrong with us, the problem must be with the apostle.

Then, the apostle insists on telling us that God is coming back to judge the church. Well, we know that. I mean, Pastor just preached on Jesus’ coming last… year. But to go out of one’s way to preach God’s judgment to this church implies that WE are the ones going to be judged. And we don’t like that. It’s just not comfortable. And it’s not right.

So when an apostle comes to our church, we don’t like them. Just by their presence, they are implying things that the orthodox just can’t stand. And Jesus knew this clearly. From personal experience. This is why he knew the apostles would face serious opposition. Because He faced it too. Anytime someone evangelizes, they are saying that there’s something wrong with the status quo. And status quo people hate that message.

Jesus’ Radical Message

But it goes deeper than that. You see, if Jesus did speak to our congregations today—if he did stand outside the church and hand out tracts—Christians today would really hate his message. Because his message is that you don’t really believe if you don’t do radical acts of purity and compassion.

His message to the men downloading porno is that they need to repent or go to hell (Matt. 5:28)

His message to loud mouths is that if they don’t repent from their insults and gossips, then they are going to hell (Matt 5:22).

His message to the middle and upper classes is that they need to sell their possessions and give to the poor. (Luke 12:33)

His message to those who use their wealth to live comfortably is that they’re going to hell, because they are ignoring the poor. (Luke 6:24; Luke 16:19-31)

His message to those with extra income is to not put it into a retirement, a savings account or insurance, but to give to the poor and to trust in God for one’s needs (Luke 12:16-21, 33).

His message would be to help everyone you come across in need, in whatever way you can, all the time (Luke 10:37).

His message would be to stop supporting the effort to kill your enemies, but to pray God’s blessing on terrorists (Luke 6:35).

His message to those with houses is to make sure not a single Christian was living on the streets. (Matthew 10:40-42; 25:31-46)

His message to those with food to make sure that no one went hungry (Matthew 25:31-46).

His message to the church is that the addicts and agnostics and sex workers will get into heaven before the churches because at least they know they NEED to repent (Matthew 21:28-32).

And on and on. Jesus would not be popular in the church. Nor would his apostles. Because their number one task is to be rid of hypocrisy in God’s people. And the very thing that Christians are well known for is hypocrisy.

Jesus Marines

Listening to Jesus’ message of the disciple being persecuted (see The Lucky Dogs), perhaps we might have wondered, “How could I be persecuted? It just doesn’t seem likely.” Actually, persecution is VERY likely, if only we do as Jesus said and take his message to those who need to hear it most. If we take Jesus’ message of repentance, not just to the street folks and addicts and sex workers (as much as they need it!), but also to the churches, then we are guaranteed to be persecuted. We will be rejected and asked to leave.

What Jesus asks of us—no, demands of us—is boldness. We need to have the guts to live on the front lines of sin. To say what Jesus said to those who need to hear it. Again, we don’t need to be a jerk about it. We should give our message to whomever will listen. And to many who don’t want to listen. We need to do it lovingly. We need to give the message carefully—even shrewdly, with an eye to people’s salvation, not condemnation.

But we need to speak out. We need to talk for Jesus. Some of us will do so quietly, some of us will do so loudly. Some of us will speak the word to everyone, and some of us will only say it when the opportunity presents itself. Some of us will be firm and hard, and some of us will beat around the bush. But if we speak Jesus’ word, Jesus will recognize it. He, of all people, understands the rejection we will receive. But if, in spite of the rejection, we will speak the words of Jesus, then we will not lose our reward.