(Audio)
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Like the disciples we are called to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. Like the disciples we often receive this call with initial fear. We receive the message in a context which is safe only because it is isolated from the wider world. We do not risk condemnation when we listen in the darkness and to whispers. But when the time comes to proclaim it are we still afraid? Do we still lock the doors in the upper room for fear of the Jews (see John 20:19)?
Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
We must avoid any duplicity in our lives, because duplicity is ultimately doomed. We must strive for an integrity so intense that there is no difference between the hidden self, the Christian self, and the public self. We are meant to be the light of the world but we often keep this light concealed. We are afraid that if our hidden self is exposed we will be seen as frauds. We are afraid that if our Christian self is exposed we will be persecuted.
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.
Jesus wants to give us confidence in the face of darkness. The danger is that we keep our brokenness concealed from the light that can heal it and that we will keep our message concealed from the world that needs it. It is the same light that reveals our own woundedness and mortality that makes known the gracious gift of Jesus Christ. This fact that both we and the world need the same light, that the same darkness within both resists it, is a strong antidote against the temptation to self-righteousness.
When we think of proclaiming the Kingdom our thoughts are often like those of Jeremiah:
‘Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!’
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.’
We are afraid for ourselves, afraid of those who can kill our bodies, and afflict all of the physical and emotional aspects of our lives associated with those bodies. If we give in to this fear it can come rule us. Yet we can't simply make ourselves so good and so strong that the fear no longer apply to us. The only way to move beyond fear is by learning to see ourselves as God sees us.
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.
When we know what we are worth to God we know the lengths to which he will go to protect our souls from Gehenna. We gain, even in spite of our own limitations, a great confidence that the LORD will fight for us, and indeed for everyone against our true enemy. For to God we are all worth more than many sparrows.
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
Death came into the world through sin. But this was never God's desire. His plan was always that the transgression that brought death would transformed by grace, that the necessary fault of Adam would gain us more even than was lost.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
Jesus himself did not let his fear of death stop him from completing his saving work for us. And by that death he was able to "deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (see Hebrews 2:15). Our own fearlessness can henceforth be rooted in the fearlessness of Christ. This is why when he tells us to fear not he does not speak empty words. They are words that can change our lives even today. This is what happened to the disciples at Pentecost. It is meant to mark our lives as well.
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