CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Do Not Be Afraid
Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
- Matthew 10:24-39
Over and over, in both the Old and the New Testaments, God has one message for people facing emotional, physical and even political challenges: Do not fear.
“Do not be afraid, Abram,” God said when our ancestor lamented the fact that he remained childless well into old age and (quite reasonably) doubted God’s promise that great and faithful nations would descend from him.
“Do not be afraid, Mary,” Gabriel said when he arrived to announce an even more improbable birth.
“Do not be afraid,” an angel told Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary,” as the evangelist Matthew calls her, on the first Easter morning. “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said.”
In this Sunday’s Gospel passage, what Jesus has to say is so challenging that he has to remind his disciples three times not to let fear fray the ties that bind them to him.
“Have no fear” of those who malign you for following Jesus.
Even when the stakes are at their highest, “Do not fear those who kill the body,” because they cannot kill your soul. “Do not be afraid,” because God who created you loves and values you beyond measure, and he will not abandon you.
Many of us go about our daily lives with no fear of anyone insulting us for being a disciple of Christ. Far less do we fear being killed, and even less do we imagine being left where we fell, like a sparrow that hit a window or a dog that dashed out into the road at the wrong moment.
For many of us, the conflict that Jesus describes—with parents and in-laws, where “one’s foes [are] members of one’s own household”—is far more likely and something we dread.
These days, many of us are experiencing that kind of conflict over the question of how to respond to police killings of unarmed Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor; of how to address the disproportionate death rate from the novel coronavirus among Black and Latino persons as compared to their white neighbors; of how to dismantle the structures of white supremacy that violate the health, safety and human dignity of persons of color every day.
Most of us who are caught up in these conflicts with family members and friends are white. As people who are unlikely to end up in a lethal encounter with police, and who benefit from systemic racism in a myriad of ways, we debate, not only what to do about these evils, but often, whether they even exist. Or whether they are our fault or our responsibility to change.
If we stepped away from the point-and-counterpoint exchanges over social media and family Zooms and took a breath, we might hear another voice, not shrill, but absolutely firm. That voice would tell us what God has always told God’s people just before asking them to take action to defend human life, to free neighbors from bondage and to support people’s flourishing: “Have no fear.” Have humility, yes. Cultivate compassion, absolutely. Muster as much self-awareness and neighbor love as you possibly can. But do not fear.
If you fear anything, Jesus tells his disciples, fear being unworthy of his name. “Whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven,” he says. “When did I deny you, Lord?” I can imagine asking on that day when I finally meet Jesus face to face. And I can imagine him answering,
“When you denied your kinship with my people cut down in the street, or in their living room, or their own bed, or their workplace.
When you refused to see me, the crucified, in my lynched siblings.
When you pretended you didn’t know what was happening.
When you assumed there was nothing you could do to effect justice.
When you lost hope in my power—resurrection power—to bring new life even out of the death cult of white supremacy.”
The prospect of that conversation with Jesus is terrifying. But our Lord keeps reminding us not to fear. He hasn’t given up on anyone—not even on me, and certainly not on you. As we walk his cruciform way of love, he will lead us, always repeating those divine words that both reassure and challenge.
“Have no fear.”
“Do not fear.”
“Do not be afraid.”
The Rev. Canon Rhonda Lee is a regional canon in the Diocese of North Carolina.
Tags: Caminando with Jesus
