Scripture Daily

Context No. 986 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 10:21-28: in context

21“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. 23But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come. 24“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord. 25It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household! 26Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. 28Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

Jesus is preparing his disciples for the cost of following him, and it is bracing. Families will divide, brother handing over brother to death; you will be hated by everyone for my name; but the one who endures to the end will be saved. A disciple is not above his teacher, he says; if they called the master of the house Beelzebul, they will slander his household too. Three times he says the same command in different words: do not be afraid. Do not fear them, for everything hidden will be revealed; do not fear those who can kill the body but not the soul; rather fear the one who holds body and soul.

In a passage full of frightening realities, persecution, betrayal, hatred, Jesus repeats one instruction, do not be afraid, and he grounds it in a reordering of what is worth fearing. The world's threat reaches only as far as the body; they can kill you, but that is the limit of their power. Jesus does not deny that this is real and terrible; he simply relocates it. The one truly worth fearing is God, who holds not just the body but the soul, and the strange comfort is that the God we should fear most is the very God who numbers our hairs and calls us worth more than sparrows in the next verses. To fear him rightly is what sets you free from fearing everyone else. The disciple who has settled the question of whom to fear, God and not people, can face betrayal and hatred without being ruled by them. Right fear of God is the cure for the tyranny of every lesser fear.

Whom do I actually fear, the people who can touch my body and reputation, or the God who holds my soul, and would settling that question free me from the fears that rule me now?

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