Matthew 10: 24-39

Jesus said to his disciples, "Pupils are not above those who teach them, nor slaves above their masters. It is right and just for pupils to be like those who teach them, and for slaves to emulate those above them. If they call the master of the house 'Beelzebul,' wouldn't they be apt to malign those in his household? Therefore, do not be afraid of them. It is a fact that there is not a thing veiled that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made manifest. What I am telling you under the cover of darkness, you should say in the light of day. What you hear whispered in your ear, go up to the roof and shout it aloud. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill your true essence; on the contrary, you should only fear the one who can destroy both in the everlasting flames [of Jerusalem's underground garbage dumps]. What is the cost of a sparrow? A penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without the consent of your father. As for you, even the hairs of you head have all been counted out individually. That being so, take heart for you are worth more than a whole flock of sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me out in public, I will also acknowledge before the throne of my father in the heavens. However the one who disowns me in a crowd, I too will disown to my father in the heavens. Meanwhile, do not think that I came here to bring peace on the earth. I did not. I came as a sword. I have come to pit a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. What I'm saying is that one's enemies are [ or can be] parts of the same household. So those who love father and mother more than me are not worthy of me. Those who love son or daughter more than they love me are not worthy of me. The ones who do not pick up their cross and follow behind me are not worthy of me. Those who grasp and hold on to their life will find it torn from their hands. Those who let it go for my sake will find it intact. (Translated, condensed and paraphrased by Harry T. Cook.)

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We pick up with Matthew now that the Revised Common Lectionary returns us to the regular flow of lections in what the church calls "Ordinary Time." And at what a juncture! The evangelist and his several editors have cobbled together sayings they attribute to the Matthean Jesus, e.g. authority. Teacher has the wisdom. Pupil has to get it from Teacher and until he/she does, his/her status is lower than that of Teacher. The business about Beelzebul is out of place here and should, for purposes of making use of this text, be ignored as long as one remembers that prophets and public intellectuals are often branded as demonic because they tell uncomfortable truths.

That's the tissue that connects the Teacher-Pupil figures with what follows, viz. that the truth is often covered up, veiled, hidden, suppressed and whispered about by those fearful of what will happen if pearls of it fall from their own tongues. Nonsense! The truth may as well be told because it will out. It will emerge from the cover of darkness, and you may as well be one of those whose tells it in the light of day, from the rooftops, if necessary. Why? Because your essence (or as the Greek text puts it: the ψυxn -- soul) cannot be killed if you do, though your body may end up dead. The One to be feared, is the One who can do in both essence and flesh is the hammer of persuasion here. Not a pleasant picture of the biblical deity.

Quickly the text moves to personal worth rather clumsily linked to the cheap cost of sparrows none of which will so much as fall to the ground without the permission or notice of the heavenly father. But, hey, persons are worth so much more. Thus so much more shall they be protected - if they spread the truth of things. Not necessarily a comforting recruitment tool.

Whatever you do, do not emulate Peter as depicted variously by all four New Testament evangelists as in one way or another disassociating himself from Jesus. Don't disown or you shall be disowned. Does this mean that one is to tell the truth rather than run from it? Does one tell the truth only because he or she fears exclusion from some environment of reward?

Next is acknowledged the fealties and loyalties we human beings naturally have to and with our family members. The point the text makes is that such fealties and loyalties must be held in the same way that one acknowledges his or her relationship to the Teacher or the Master. If one has to choose between pleasing a parent or another relative by going along with their ways and opinions that contradict what the Teacher has taught and the Master expects, one must lose that life in order to find the life to which the Teacher points and the Master offers.