Matthew 10:24-39
Unpicking a ‘Pick & Mix’ approach to Christian spirituality
Who here remembers ‘Pick & Mix’ sweet shops – the kind where you’re given a paper bag to fill with penny sweets of your choosing?
I used to go down to the local tuck shop with my siblings once a week, to spend the pocket money our parents had given us. Now, full disclosure, I’ve got something of a sweet tooth, so the penny sweets were always top of my shopping list! I’d stand there and deliberate carefully. Should I have five or ten cola bottles? Maybe, this week, I’ll get a bag full of those delicious milk bottles? Oh, but what about those big strawberries, priced at five pence a go?
Despite the difficulty of my indecision, fortunately, because it was Pick & Mix, I could just leave out the sweets I wasn’t such a fan of – liquorice and those strange looking sherbet saucers, no thank you! I walked out of that shop with only the sweets I liked in my paper bag. And let me tell you – they didn’t last very long!
Being ‘picky’ isn’t always such a bad thing – it means we can choose the things we like. However, if we become so set in our preferences, it can also mean we might just miss out on something good or important.
These days, I often notice people speaking about spiritual matters in a similar way to Pick & Mix sweets. “I like to pick and choose, from different spiritual practices and religions”, a person might say. “I like this, but I definitely don’t like that.” Even for people who profess to follow Jesus, this can be true. “I like this about Jesus’ teaching, I live by these Christian values, I enjoy this particular style of worship in Church, but I’m not so keen on that…”
The problem with this kind of approach, is that Jesus can be reduced to a kind of moralistic teacher, from who we Pick & Mix the bits we like. Into our paper bags go biblical teachings that suit our set preferences, but not the bits we’d prefer to avoid. And in doing so, we miss out of the full variety of what Jesus has to offer.
Today, we have a passage from Matthew’s gospel that I suspect wouldn’t be first choice for most people in the Pick and Mix stakes! It’s hard on the ear and, perhaps, easier to leave out. But, if we’re prepared to give it a try, we might find something good or important. So, I invite you to come back with me to Matthew’s gospel…
Something important to begin. For the twelve disciples, called to ‘come and follow’, Jesus would have been understood, at least initially, to be a rabbi. The title rabbi literally means ‘teacher’ or ‘master’. So, rabbis were essentially the spiritual masters of Israel – expert teachers and examples of life with God. Every rabbi had his ‘yoke’ – an idiom for his particular set of teachings and interpretation of the Torah. Having trained under another rabbi for many years, when considered ready, they would begin to teach and call their own disciples around the age of thirty. Rabbis were itinerant, walking from town to town with a small band of disciples and teaching where they were welcomed (for more, see John Mark Comer’s Practicing the Way ‘Apprentice to Jesus’, pp. 3-27).
Now, Jesus was no ordinary rabbi – and that’s covered across the Gospels if you want to read more about the astonishing and wonderful things he did and said – but for now, the point I’m drawing out is about the experience for those who followed him. Jesus’ followers went everywhere with him – they observed his way in the small, the detail. This was so that they would become like him and go on to do as he did. In other words, this wasn’t a once-a-week kind of outing – like my visit to the sweet shop or like us gathering at Church on a Sunday. To follow a teacher in this way was a whole life commitment. And it’s in this context that the disciples – and by extension all of us – receive this teaching.
Here in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus is addressing the mission of the twelve and makes two central points. Point one is about preparation – Jesus is preparing his disciples about what to expect, before they are sent out. Point two is about the cost – just in case they hadn’t yet grasped this, the call to follow Jesus in this way is going to be costly.
So, what exactly is Jesus saying about point one: preparation? We pick up verse 24 coming off the back of an extended passage, in which Jesus warns the disciples about persecutions that are to come. ‘Those who think that they are in for an enthusiastic reception when they preach the gospel need to be realistic – they can expect no better reception than Jesus himself received, which was certainly not always positive’ (for more, see Naomi Starkey’s The Ministry of the Word, p.227). And it’s with this backdrop that Jesus references Beelzebul.
Now, in brief explanation, it is thought that the Pharisees alluded to this Pagan God of the Philistines, Beelzebul, as a way of scorning Jesus (you can read more about Beelzebul in 2 Kings:1). In place of people wondering if Jesus really was Son of David, the Messiah in the kingly line, the religious leaders wanted Jesus to be viewed as a spiritual imposter. Jesus’ own reference to Beelzebul here is, therefore, a way of preparing his disciples to expect the same. In verse 25 Jesus says: ‘If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!’ In other words, the road ahead is going to have some bumps, ‘since a student is not above the teacher” (verse 24). So, be prepared.
Next, Jesus cuts through any misplaced idealism, by making clear the cost of following Him. In verse 34 onwards, he uses the image of a sword – a very strong image – to make the point that his message will divide even families. Jesus expects his followers to be shocked, to wake up and take seriously what he’s saying. The Gospel will pierce division between belief and unbelief, cutting through lies to bring truth.
The image of being divided from those closest to us is a painful one – a pain Jesus himself knew. Remember, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth – his hometown – and, whilst some were amazed, others were furious and drove him out with murderous intent. Like a sword, Jesus’ message cuts through human ties.
This doesn’t mean that those we consider to be family aren’t important – of course family is important – but this does mean that our relationship and duty to Christ is meant to have priority over every other relationship and duty in our lives (The Ministry of the Word, p.228). Following Jesus must take precedence over all other commitments. This is the reality of what it is to take up one’s cross.
If the cost of following Jesus seems too much, think for a moment about the cost of the alternative. Following Jesus, and by this, I mean in the way of the rabbinic tradition – being with him, to become like him, so that we might do as he did – this is the chance of a lifetime! And that’s why the twelve gave up everything to follow him. However, in the Gospel accounts, just as is the case today, many people say ‘no’ to making this commitment, even though they are genuinely drawn to Jesus.
To follow Jesus isn’t a once-a-week Pick & Mix arrangement – it’s an invitation for a person’s whole life to be irreversibly changed, for good. Saying ‘yes’ to this may mean we have to unpick a Pick & Mix approach. It will, almost certainly, bring correction and change. Yet it will also bring the promise of life in abundance, as we are conformed to The Way of Jesus Christ, the one we follow. It is the chance of a lifetime, so don’t miss it.
Amen.