Matthew 10:24-33 – Disciples, Demons, Housetops, and Eternity, Part 1

At this point, you might think Jesus has been taking a long time preparing the disciples for driving the car by themselves, but Jesus knew the dangers of the road and he wanted his disciples to be well prepared. Besides, I’m pretty sure Jesus only took a matter of minutes to say these words even though it’s taking me a few weeks to get through them. Last week we heard Jesus give the disciples both a warning about persecution and an encouragement about the Holy Spirit; this week’s passage is no different as Jesus continues to both encourage and warn his followers. He says,

24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

Matthew 10:24-25a

These two sentences remind me of a brief interchange between Darth Vader and Obi-wan Kenobi in the first Star Wars movie. They meet in a dark hallway aboard the Death Star for the first time in many years. Their light sabers are drawn, and as they approach one another Darth Vader says, “The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” Obi-wan responds by saying, “Only a master of evil, Darth.” For those who don’t know, Darth Vader used to be Obi-wan’s student, but in the years since they last met Darth Vader had grown in power and now claims to be greater than his former teacher. Obi-wan’s response to Vader’s claims pointed out the fact that he had only excelled him in becoming more evil.

Okay, enough Star Wars. I don’t even like the movies.

Fair enough, but I think it’s a cool scene, and besides, it helps me understand Jesus’s words a little better. Jesus called the disciples to follow him, but he knew they would never become greater than him; as long as the master or teacher is continually learning, the student has little hope of catching up, but when the master is the infinite God of the universe the student will never catch up. The point is, as Jesus said, for the disciple to become like the teacher, not greater. But Jesus knew the tantalizing nature of pride and warns of the danger inherent in trying to usurp the role and status of Jesus himself. Darth Vader, in seeking to outdo his master, embraced the dark side of the force and became evil.

But Darth Vader is fictional…as far as I know.

As far as you know? What a looney! Of course, he’s fiction, but Lucifer is not. Lucifer embraced evil because his pride and desire to receive glory himself put him on a collision course with God. But it doesn’t stop there. Adam and Eve are real as well and they chose the same course. They wanted “to be like gods” and follow their own way instead of submitting to the way of the Father. These longings of a disciple to become greater than their master, as Obi-wan says, are always doomed to travel the path of evil.

But this warning was not only given to remind the disciples to submit to Jesus and desire to be like him, Jesus knew the disciples would be treated the same way in which he had been treated. Jesus continues and says,

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Matthew 10:25b

Jesus knew the Pharisees wouldn’t stop at suggesting Jesus’s power came from the world of the demonic (Matt. 9:34), they would also accuse the disciples of the same thing. But as I’ve thought about this, I realized it’s easy for me to miss the weight of this accusation.

When I was a child, Flip Wilson was a popular comedian and he had a routine titled “The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress.” I always thought his routine of painting a picture of the Devil as a comical character enticing a woman to purchase a dress to be quite funny. Still, there’s a danger to such a flippant approach to the demonic which might be best summed up by the words of Verbal Kent, played by Kevin Spacey, in the movie The Usual Suspects. Kent says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

I would venture to say that most of us go throughout our life never really considering the fact of the matter that Satan has been consistently waging a war against Our Father in heaven and his children. The devil is alive and full of hatred, naked aggression, and rapacious power, and if we fully believed this truth we might better understand Jesus’s words and more ardently draw closer to the Father.

But the disciples did not live in a Flip Wilson world. They lived in a world that understood the reality of Satan and feared the demonic hordes. To be called demonic was not a passing taunt; especially for the Jews. They knew that power came from only one of two sources: God or Satan. The Jewish religious leaders, those men to whom the disciples had looked for guidance their entire life, rejected Jesus’s claim to be from God and so there was only one other option. Jesus must be put in his place and eventually marked for death. And Jesus knew that if this was what they did to him, the same was coming to his disciples and would likely result in a death sentence for their social, religious, and actual lives. Yet, despite such an inevitability, Jesus told them to continue the work he set before them. He said,

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Matthew 10:26-27

Jesus did not tell his disciples to battle the accusations, he did not tell them to hire lawyers and sue for libel, and he did not tell them to only speak to the religious leaders. Jesus told his disciples to proclaim his message from the housetops. I realize most of us don’t stand on the roof of our houses these days and preach to our neighbors; that seems awkward and besides, most of us would probably fall off because the roofs are so steeply slanted. But I don’t think we should dismiss these words as merely figurative language. The houses in Jesus’s time had flat and easily accessible roofs. Such roofs could be used as a platform for preaching, but they would have more likely been used as a social setting or a place of rest and retreat at the end of the day.

I live next to a housing development where the houses stand on very small pieces of land and have a backyard the size of a postage stamp. But many of the houses have balconies and decks upon which people stand and often talk with their neighbors. And, while I am not part of their conversation, I can usually hear nearly every word they are saying. I realize Jesus probably didn’t have the modern balcony in mind when he told the disciples to “proclaim on the housetops,” but I think the modern balcony helps me understand Jesus’s words a little better. I don’t think Jesus intended to give the picture of someone standing on the pinnacle of a building shouting the message of the kingdom to all passersby, and I don’t think he intended his words to mean we broadcast the message as loud and far as possible. I think what Jesus meant was that should openly proclaim Jesus’s words to our neighbors, and I think it means that we proclaim Jesus’s words in a way that anyone may hear; there are no secrets told on a housetop. In the towns that accepted the disciples, they were told to proclaim the message of the kingdom on the housetops, the places of rest and retreat in a neighborhood, for all to hear who wanted to hear. And, while we might not live in houses with flat roofs, I think we, as Jesus’s disciples, are called to invite others onto our “housetop” — our balcony, backyard, deck — and proclaim the message of the kingdom in the same way Jesus instructed the disciples to proclaim the message of the kingdom.

But there is, I believe, one other aspect of proclaiming Jesus’s words on the housetops to consider. With the accusations regarding the demonic power behind Jesus’s teachings, it was important to make the proclamation of the kingdom public. Unlike the Gnostics, who believed in secret knowledge reserved for only the most advanced of students, there is no secret knowledge in Jesus’s message. The message of the kingdom of heaven is straightforward, plain, and understandable. The power of redemption is the power of God and it is not to be hidden or reserved for a special few. It is a message of light, not of darkness, and for this reason, it should be proclaimed on the housetops.

But Jesus was not so naive to think there wouldn’t be consequences associated with proclaiming the message of the kingdom publicly for all to hear. He said,

28 And 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.

Matthew 10:28

It might be encouraging to know your enemies cannot annihilate you from all existence, but it’s still a bit scary to know they can kill you. But Jesus wanted the disciples to know the source of true power. God is the only one who has the power to destroy a soul by casting it into hell, all anyone else can do is attack our flesh. But the flesh is, by the way, already decaying. Those accusing the disciples of being demonic could only terminate life on earth, and in the big picture, that isn’t really a big deal.

Not a big deal?

No. Think of it this way. You and I were doomed to die from the moment we were born. Of all the human beings born throughout history, only two have never died — Enoch and Elijah — and only one has ever raised permanently from the dead — Jesus. So, when it comes to playing the odds, I would say it’s pretty certain you and I will die someday. Holding onto life is a losing proposition. Jesus tells the disciples that physical death is nothing to fear; only eternal death is worth fearing and, given the context of the rest of Jesus’s instructions, the Father is the only one who can cause eternal death. Proper fear and reverence are to be given only to the Father; those who seek to kill the disciples should not be a source of fear.

But there is a second way we might want to consider Jesus’s words. I don’t wish to rankle the theological nerves of certain people, but everyone going to hell is going because they don’t want to be with God. God does not condemn to eternal destruction anyone who longs to be with him. Such a thought is pure nonsense. As we go about our daily lives we must realize our eternal home rests in our own hands. Should we choose to rebel against God and his laws, we are placing an eternal reservation with hell.

When Paul wrote, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12b), he wrote that so his audience would recognize their side of the equation. If we are not careful with our lives — our thoughts, words, actions, allegiance — we will give the Father no other choice but to place us in hell. C. S. Lewis put it this way, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell choose it” (The Great Divorce, 72). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but that wisdom also tells us that we are powerful enough to write our own ticket to hell.

But these two fears — fear of God and fear of ourselves — should not keep us locked in our closets fearful of encountering the sinful and vengeful world. Jesus told his disciples,

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31

I was walking Asher, my silver Labrador, the other day and we turned the corner of the house and found a small bird laying on the steps. It was young enough so that it had no feathers, but it was dead. In the grand scheme of my day, and Asher’s, nothing changed. And in the grand scheme of your day, you didn’t even know it had died until you read it here. I pushed it off of the bricks and into the landscaping bed where it would eventually decay. The next day when I was walking Asher we rounded the same corner and Asher stopped to sniff the decaying carcass. I felt a little sadness at the shortness of that bird’s life, and it seems that even Asher’s demeanor changed when he smelled the little bird; I think he felt sad too. But I’m pretty sure there are millions of birds dying every day and rarely does anyone notice.

But Jesus told his disciples, who had probably seen their share of dead animals, that God notices the death of even one of the smallest of birds. That bird I found was barely the size of a golf ball and it was already dead, but, if Jesus’s words are literally true, God knew when it died. God may have even been with it in its last moments of life and, if it has any sort of existence in the next life, God welcomed it home. But this is not a discussion of animal pain and death (for that, read The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis). This is a discussion about the fact that God, who cares when even the smallest of birds dies, cares when his disciples and the proclaimers of his kingdom, struggle, fall, and die themselves.

The Father protects Jesus’s disciples as they proclaim the message of the kingdom and fulfill the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven, even if they fall to the ground. The road ahead for the disciples is not an easy one and they may be accused of wrongdoing and be put to death, but the Father is there to guide, protect, and comfort the faithful disciple until his or her last breath. But the Father’s protection is not for everyone. Just as we all can write our own ticket to hell, we can also force Jesus’s hand when he talks to the Father. Jesus said,

32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 10:32-33

Jesus does not acknowledge Christians before the Father.

What?

Good. I got your attention. As far as we know, Jesus never actually used the word “Christian,” that term came years later when the disciples of Antioch were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). Now, I don’t want to make a big stink about terminology, but it’s important to recognize that Jesus called us to be his disciples, he didn’t call us to become part of a group of people called “Christian.” Jesus called us to be a follower and a disciple of his, not just to be good and adhere to a high moral code. And those who have, before men, acknowledged that Jesus is the son of the Father and that Jesus is the way the truth and the life (John 14:6) will be acknowledged by Jesus before his Father in heaven. But those who just see being a “Christian” as a social status or a term for being morally sound will not be acknowledged by Jesus before his Father in heaven.

Following Jesus means we model our lives after Jesus’s life and teachings regardless of what others might say. Following Jesus is about our love of him not our judgment of others. Following Jesus is about proclaiming the message of the kingdom and following the will of the Father even if we are called children of the devil and are persecuted. And, following Jesus is about eternal life not mortal death. Disciples love their teacher, persevere through persecution, proclaim the message of the kingdom on the housetops, fear and trust their Lord, and acknowledge Jesus before men. And, while these are just parts of Jesus’s instructions about what to expect when turning out onto the road for ourselves, they are important parts for which we must pray as we seek to participate in the Father’s kingdom coming and the Father’s will being fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven.

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