Body and Soul

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, October 11, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 10:16-33.

            One of the things people wonder about is why God allows bad things to happen.  And we especially wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people.  I suspect you’ve wondered about that at times.  Most of us have.

            And we especially wonder why God allows bad things to happen to Christians.  After all, if we’re Christians, God’s supposed to be on our side, right?  God’s supposed to take care of us.  God’s supposed to make things go smoothly for us.  And the stronger our faith is, the more we try to serve God and show love to God, the more God should do things for us.  I mean, if we’re doing these things for God, then God should be doing things for us.  It’s only fair, right?

            Well, I’m sure most of you know that’s not how it actually works.  Everyone here has gone through some tough things in your life.  Even you young people have had to deal with some things.  And it’s not because your faith was not strong enough.  It’s not because you did not serve God well enough.  As we look around, there does not seem to be any correlation at all between our faith and how many good things happen to us.

            But the thing is, Jesus does not tell us that there is or that there should be.  In our Bible reading for tonight, Jesus is about to send the disciples out by themselves.  Jesus is giving them a mission.  They are to proclaim this message:  The kingdom of heaven has come near. They are also supposed to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons.  This is all in Matthew Ten, verses seven and eight, right before the part we read tonight.

            That’s one heck of a mission, right?  Heal the sick.  Cleanse those who have leprosy.  Drive out demons.  Raise the dead.  And while they’re doing all this, they’re supposed to tell everyone that the kingdom of heaven has come near.  That’s quite a job Jesus is giving the disciples.  And they’re not going to have Jesus with them as they do this--they’re going to be out there by themselves.

            I would think the disciples must have been pretty nervous about this.  I know I would be.  I was nervous enough about going into ministry in small towns in South Dakota.  And nobody was expecting me to drive out demons or raise the dead.  The disciples must have been really worried about whether they could actually do this.

            So you’d think that, before Jesus sent them out, Jesus would give them some reassurance, right?  He’d tell them that God would be with them, that God would protect them, that it was all going to be all right.  After all, Jesus is sending these people out to do God’s work.  It’s only fair that God would take care of them, don’t you think?

            But that’s not what Jesus says at all.  Jesus tells them they will be arrested by the local town councils.  They will be flogged--beaten--in the synagogues.  They will be hated by everyone.  Just because they are telling people the kingdom of heaven has come near.  Just because they are healing people.  Just because they are followers of Jesus Christ and are doing what Jesus has told them to do.

            That does not seem fair at all.  And yet, there it is.  That’s probably why Jesus only gave this mission to his closest followers, to the twelve disciples.  He knew that none of the others would have a faith strong enough to go through with it.  And I wonder if even the twelve had a few second thoughts, had a little lump in their throats, when they heard this.  Could you do it?  Could I?

            We think of Jesus as bringing a message of joy and peace and love, and of course Jesus did bring that message.  But that was not all of Jesus’ message.  Jesus was nothing if not honest.  Jesus told the truth, and he did not sugarcoat things to make them more acceptable to people.  Jesus told it like it is.

            That’s what Jesus was doing here with his disciples.  Jesus was telling them, hey, don’t think following me is going to be easy.  Don’t think this job I’m giving you is going to be easy, either.  Don’t think this is going to be fun.  Don’t think it’s going to make you popular.  This is going to be hard.  It’s going to bring you a lot of pain.  People are going to hate you.  All because of what you’re doing in my name.

            Jesus did that because Jesus knew the disciples needed to know this.  They needed to be prepared.  If they had gone into this thinking people were going to like them, they’d have quit the first time they got into trouble.  Jesus wanted them to know what they were getting into.  And maybe, Jesus was giving them one more chance to walk away, to leave him if they did not think they could do this.

            But after telling the disciples all these things that were going to happen to them, Jesus also told them some other things.  He told them, when you get arrested, don’t worry about what to say or how to say it.  The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say.  And then, he tells them this:  “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

            Most of us are very concerned about our lives on earth.  We’re concerned about our bodies.  We try to eat right.  We try to exercise.  We try to take reasonable precautions to avoid getting sick.  That’s especially true now, in this time of COVID.  When we do get sick, or when we do get injured, we go to the doctor to try to get better.  We want to be as healthy as we can and we want to keep our lives on earth going as long as we can.  And we also do things to protect ourselves and our families from people who may want to do us harm.

            And none of that is wrong or bad.  God put a survival instinct into each of us.  And God wants us to take care of ourselves, because there are things God wants us to do while we’re here.  There’s nothing wrong with any of that.

            But we also need to live with the realization that our lives on earth are only temporary.  I’m not saying we should be obsessed with death or anything like that.  But we do need to have an awareness of how short our lives on earth really are.  No matter how hard we try to take care of ourselves, our lives are still short.  Think about the thousands of years of recorded human history, and think about how short our lives are in comparison to it.  Think of the millions of years the universe has existed, and think about how short our lives are in comparison to that.  And then think about eternity, an eternity that we’re either going to spend in heaven or in hell.  And think about how short our lives on earth are in comparison to that.

            So, as important as our lives on earth--our bodily lives--are, our eternal lives are much more important.  And so, the most important thing we need to do is follow Jesus Christ.  We need to go where the Lord sends us and do what the Lord sends us to do.  Even if it makes us less safe.  Even if it means taking risks.  Even if it means risking bodily harm.

            Now, you might think, well, nobody’s going to physically attack me for following Jesus Christ.  And maybe, in our little town, they won’t.  But two things.  One, there are people in the world--there are people in our country--who are physically attacked for following Jesus Christ.  And our little town is not walled off from the world.  Much as we might like to think we’re living in Mayberry and the worst thing that ever happens is that old Otis has a little too much to drink on Saturday night, that’s not the way it is.  We are a part of the world, and the things that happen in the rest of the world are going to come here.

            But the other thing is, especially for you young people, you’re probably not going to live all your lives here.  Maybe you will--some people do--but some of you will not.  You’re going to go out into that world.  And you will very well might meet people who will want to attack you for being a follower of Jesus Christ.

            But even if not, there are other ways that following Jesus Christ involves risk.  If we take our faith seriously, if we live it out, there will be people who don’t like us because of that.  There will be people who won’t want to have anything to do with us.  We may lose friends.  We may lose business.  We may even have family members who don’t want to have anything to do with us.  There are all kinds of consequences for truly belong a follower of Jesus Christ.

            Jesus knew that we needed to know that.  He did not tell the disciples that, and he does not tell us that, to discourage us.  He tells us that so we’ll be prepared.  He tells us that so we’ll be ready to handle this.  Jesus tells us this so we’ll know what we’re getting into.  And maybe, he tells us this to give us the chance to walk away if we don’t think we can handle this.

            The disciples did not walk away.  It’s my hope and prayer that you and I won’t walk away, either.  Jesus does not sugarcoat things.  He knows that following him will not always be easy.  But he tells us that the Holy Spirit will be with us.  The Holy Spirit will tell us what to say and how to say it.  And he tells us that no matter what someone may do to us, they cannot kill our souls.  If we stay faithful to Jesus Christ, we will receive our reward--eternal life in heaven.

            The Lord does not promise us an easy life on earth.  But the Lord does promise to be with us as we go through our lives on earth, and to help us through those lives.  And through our faith and by God’s grace, our faithfulness will be rewarded.  Our souls will have eternal life with God.