August 30

Day 169: The Crux of the Issue

Not all of the Gospel accounts were written by eye witnesses. Mark and Luke, relied on eyewitnesses. The remaining two wrote their gospels from first person experience. For both were numbered among the 12.

Matthew 10 seems a long, drawn out commissioning service. Jesus has just called them (Matthew included) and initiates their education as disciples; not with classwork or homework, but with an internship in the field.

Their assignment was to go from town to town and proclaim "The Kingdom of God is at hand!"

But in this commissioning Jesus gives His new followers He does not hold back. He tells them how it will go, what to anticipate, and how to respond.

They will be received by some, rejected by others. They will experience persecution. They will each be the catalyst by which some families will end up divided over the faith. It won't always be easy. But Jesus gives them hope, too.

Nothing that happens to any of them will be outside of the Father's view. They are more valued than anything. Therefore, Jesus tells them not to fear.

But in all this, Jesus says two very scary things; the kind of things a reader (like me this early Sunday morning) cannot just breeze by.

1. 32-33 says, "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."

Certainly, like Peter years later, any of us, under pressure, could deny knowing and loving Jesus. But, and more likely in our day, we are guilty of saying nothing. Denial by silence.

Some verses later, Jesus helps His new disciples to get to the crux of the issue. (The word "crux" means "cross," by the way.)

"Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

We church people like the "Come and See" part of church. Otherwise, we wouldn't go.

But to be a follower of Jesus also includes the "Go and Die" part. And it is in this that any church is divided between those who are and are not willing to 'die,' to give up what is valuable to us in order to gain what is immeasurable and ultimately valuable, Jesus Himself.

Jesus sent his new disciples out to represent. Not just in the gathering, but also in the scattering. Worshippers on Sundays, and missionaries Monday through Saturday, perhaps.

Missionaries count the cost, and pay it anyway. They go when staying back in perceived safety would be easier.

And missionaries open their mouths to tell others that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

For the crux of the issue is, it is the Kingdom of God where true life is found.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau