You Needn't Be Afraid!

[This message was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]

Matthew 10:24-39
Yesterday, Ann and I drove to Columbus to return the van that the congregation rented for our work camp mission trip in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We were about to turn onto Refugee Road when we got a red light. Ann was stopped ahead of me in the left-hand turn lane. Standing no more than five feet from Ann, in the slender concrete median, was a man holding a cardboard sign. I couldn’t make out what was written on it, but Ann said the message was one I could have easily guessed. He claimed to be homeless and in need of money.

Now, here I was, Mr. Mission Trip, the guy who’s always talking about the importance of our being witnesses for Christ, wishing that the light would change soon so that we could leave this guy behind.

I thought of a thousand-and-one reasons why I shouldn’t and couldn’t respond to him:

“He might not really be homeless."

“He’d probably use whatever I gave him to go get drunk or doped up.”

“I'm not sure that I have anything smaller than a twenty in my wallet.” (And I'm not going to check to find out either!)

“I prefer to work through agencies that can vet people’s legitimacy.”

I had nearly gotten to the point where I was comfortable with my reasons for not being a Christian when I saw Ann’s hand extended through her opened car window.

She handed the man some money and the light changed. After I’d returned the van at the rental place, I climbed into the passenger seat of Ann’s car and said, “You shamed me again.”

Ann explained that she couldn’t be sure that what she’d done was the right thing, but when she found a five in her wallet, she decided to give it to him. The guy may have been a big fake. But in giving, Ann did her Christian duty.

Now, the question that this little incident caused me to ask is this: Why did I refuse to do what Ann did? The answer is simple: I was afraid. Afraid of being foolish. Afraid of being played. Afraid that if I gave something away, I would have less than I needed or wanted. Afraid. Hold that thought and let’s pray.

Dear Lord: Teach us not to be afraid to live for you every moment of every day. Amen.

In recent weeks, we’ve been looking at The Small Catechism, Martin Luther’s basic primer on the Christian faith. It begins, as you all know, with an overview of the Ten Commandments. God gives the commandments, first of all, to protect us.

They protect us from worshiping false deities like money, ease, or power, for example, because doing so leads to death, while following the God we know in Jesus leads to life. To give another example, it’s to protect the reputations of is all that God tells us not to speak falsely or disparagingly of others in the Eighth Commandment.

The commands of God are always meant to protect us, sometimes from ourselves. And this is especially true of the command that appears more than any other in the Bible. Do you know what command it is? It doesn’t appear in the Ten Commandments, but God gives it in many other places: “Do not be afraid.”

Jesus gives that command to His followers once again in today’s Gospel lesson. It’s understandable that He does. In the verses leading up to the lesson, in Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus warns that because of their faith in Him, they could be persecuted. Government officials could come after them. They could be subjected to physical violence or social snubbing. People may call them disparaging names, just as they were calling Him.

These warnings are for us as well. Following Jesus Christ isn’t easy. To us today then, Jesus’ words are at least as important to hear as they were for His first hearers. To us, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid!” But what reason does Jesus give for not being afraid?

We might expect that Jesus would say something like, “Don’t be afraid because God will take care of you.” Jesus does in fact say things like that in other places.

• At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, for example, Jesus commands His followers to “make disciples of all nations” and then promises, “I will be with you always to the close of the age.”
• This is similar to the promise given by God to Moses back in the Old Testament book of Exodus. When Moses was reluctant to go the Pharaoh and demand the freedom of God’s people, God assured Moses by saying, “I will be with your mouth. I'll teach you what to say.”
• Even in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus will say that we need not be afraid because God is with us.

But as the New Testament scholar N.T. Wright points out, after telling us not to be afraid about being persecuted, snubbed, ridiculed, or maligned for our faith, the first reason Jesus gives for fearlessness is a bit strange. He says that we shouldn’t fear because “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”

Most of us would regard the prospect that one day, all of our secret sins and selfish thoughts are going to be trotted out for all to see, as less than reassuring. (If we don't view this possibility as less than compelling, we haven't yet wrestled with the reality of our sin!) I know I view the prospect with dread. Jesus’ promise would seem to add to our fears, not relieve them. But let me try to explain why I think this promise of Jesus should banish our fears.

In preparation for the mission trip that began last Sunday, I made two copies of the Mapquest directions to the church building where we were to stay. But when I mentioned the copy I’d left on the seat of our rented van to John, the other driver and an experienced trucker, he told me that he knew a quicker way. I deferred to his expertise.

I just needed to follow.

That’s what I did. Except for one place on the west side of Columbus. Somehow, I got behind another van, a seeming clone of the one John was driving. I was a bit mystified when the van pulled off onto the West Broad Street ramp. I thought that John or one of the kids needed to stop for some reason. But then I noticed California and not Ohio plates on the van I was following. Fortunately, I was able to immediately get back onto the freeway and soon had the rental van in sight so that I could follow John once again.

Sometimes, as you and I strive to follow the Savior Jesus, we get sidetracked. We follow other gods.

Those are the moments we dread having displayed for all to see.

We fear that the gossip we’ve passed on, the dishonesties in which we’ve engaged, the unkindness we’ve enacted, all the sins we try to forget, will be seen by the whole universe.

But we need not be afraid. True story, told by a veteran Lutheran pastor: A man came to see him in his office. The man was a committed Christian. But he had gotten sidetracked from his walk with Christ. He’d had a brief affair. He regretted it and broke it off. Now though, the guilt was almost unbearable. The pastor assured this repentant man that though he’d lost his way for a while, God could forgive him. He could resume his journey with Christ and follow Him once more.

We are to fear and love God, of course. God is bigger than we are, greater than we are, and morally perfect.

But we are also to trust God. No matter what happens in this life and no matter how off-track we may feel our lives go, we can, as I did when I pulled back onto the freeway last Sunday and as that repentant man did when he saw his pastor, get back on the road.

We can return to Jesus Christ. That is what confession, what Luther calls “daily repentance and renewal,” is all about.

Jesus today tells us that we can draw assurance from the fact that one day, our whole lives will be displayed before the world like a movie. Every aspect of our lives—all our decisions, thoughts, and actions—will be on display. The movies of some lives will show that, in spite of detours and missteps, they kept returning to the Jesus’ path. Jesus, “the way, the truth, and the life,” will be the strong central theme of their lives, the object of their hopes, the Lord of their days. In spite of the difficulties, our faith in Christ will be vindicated. Jesus, the friend of sinners, will save those who keep following Him!

I often talk with Christian people burdened by guilt, overwhelmed by fear that God will throw them away. Jesus’ words to us today tell us that there is a place separated from God. It’s the place where those who refuse to believe in Christ choose to go.

But Jesus’ words should reassure His followers that no matter what detours they may have taken, no matter that on occasion we sin, we journey through life with a Savior Who loves us, Who wants us with Him forever.

Our call is clear:

• to keep returning to Jesus,
• to confess Him and His gracious love by our words and our deeds no matter what a disbelieving world may think, and
• to know that the Savior we claim as our own will, on the day of judgment that is coming to this world, claim us as His own.

Seek to live your life for Christ and know that because He is merciful, you need not be afraid!