No disciple is above his teacher,
no slave above his master.
As our great Teacher was persecuted and suffered to bring about our redemption, we should not be surprised that we are called to face the same challenges.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.
We can't follow Jesus unless we take up our own crosses and follow him. At least, not very far, for that is always the direction he is leading us. There is a subtle temptation when we are faced with a choice between a path which appears difficult and a path which appears easy to choose the easy one because we imagine we deserve it. We imagine a Christianity where Jesus did all the hard work and we are now called to a life of comfort. We sometimes reject the paths that would make us more like Jesus, that would conform our identities to his. But we are not supposed to seek an identity "above" our teacher, but rather in him.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more those of his household!
We do not choose to bring suffering on ourselves. But we must not be afraid to make the choices to follow and become like Jesus because of the fear suffering or persecution. If we are truly trying to follow Jesus it will be at times provocative, at times divisive. They said Jesus was working by the power of Beelzebul, and they will say it of us, provided we do not hide in the shadows.
Therefore do not be afraid of them.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
In a world where the right to define oneself according to one's subjective impulses and desires is seen as absolute, the idea that there is a higher, objective, external, and absolute reference to which we must be conformed will naturally seem threatening. We speak of the reality of wind to a world that has built a house of cards. Yet there is freedom to be found in our message for those who will receive it. For no one said that a house of cards was needed. God himself is always willing to provide us with the rock on which to build identities grounded in him. We need not go forward, tenuously, experimentally, threatened at every stage by anything that transgresses the boundaries of our self-construction. We need not even, when we are following Jesus and being conformed to him, fear death itself.
And 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 Gehenna.
Our fearless does not come from ourselves. It is not a construct which we build. It is rather the gift of the experiential knowledge of the love and providential care of the Father.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
God does let sparrows fall, on occasion. Realizing this is part of learning not to be terrified by the threats of the world, by the possibility of difficult and even dire circumstances. He even let his only Son be crucified for the sins of the world. But unlike the sparrows, his love for his Son did not end there. The Son was able to overcome even the fear of death because of his trust in and reverential fear of his Father. We can learn this same courage. We can base our lives on this same trust. We'll never find a self-definition that will give us the peace we desire. But as we learn trust in the Father's plan more and more we will find our fears giving way to faith, our cowardice to confidence. Conformed to the master, courageous because of the Father's love, we will be able to "proclaim on the housetops" the good news which we ourselves have experienced. We will have a trust that even death itself cannot keep us from the promises of God for us.
Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die.
God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land
that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
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