Have No Fear

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00 Written by Administrator Friday, 05 June 2009 20:22

Ask most people what the most repeated phrase in the Scriptures is, and many, I suspect, particularly those raised with the notion of an angry or vengeful God out to get us, would assume it to be some kind of stern or demanding admonition: Shape up! Repent! Live more faithfully! Behave yourself! Pray diligently! Love God and one another, or else! But the most common admonition in the Scriptures is not one intended to strike fear into our hearts, but the very opposite. Indeed, this much-repeated message has to do with the letting go of our fears—fears that inhibit us, fears that hinder our relationship with God and with one another, fears that keep us from walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Is it any wonder that the most frequent call in all Scripture is the call, Have no fear! Fear not! Be not afraid!

In the birth narratives found in Luke’s Gospel, it is a dominant message of the angels. Appearing to the priest Zechariah while he is serving in the inner sanctum of the Temple in Jerusalem, the angel Gabriel, bringing word that Zechariah and Elizabeth will give birth to a son, John the Baptist, begins with the caution, Do not be afraid! (1:13).In like manner, Gabriel appears to Mary, bringing news that Mary shall conceive and bear Jesus, the Son of the Most High God. After the startling words, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you,” Gabriel continues, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (1:28-30). And the angel who appears to the group of shepherds in the hills surrounding Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’ birth announces, “Do not be afraid; for see, I am bringing good news of great joy for all the people” (2:10), a message that is followed by a multitude of the heavenly host singing of peace on earth and good will for all humanity and all creation.

In today’s Gospel lesson, three times Jesus urges the disciples not to be afraid. And yet, those three challenges fall in the midst of an intriguing context, to be sure. For Jesus is sending the disciples out two by two to proclaim the good news of life in the kingdom of God. Immediately after giving them their commission, Jesus warns the disciples that they will encounter opposition. “I am sending you out as sheep into the midst of wolves . . . Beware of [your opponents], for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me . . .” (Matthew 10:16-18). Hardly a litany of experiences unlikely to engender anxiety and fear!

Nevertheless, Jesus asserts that the disciples need not be afraid. In his book The Road to Peace Henri Nouwen attests that the invitation of Jesus is always an invitation “to move out of the house of fear and into the house of love; to move away from that place of imprisonment into a place of freedom.” It is a matter, suggests Nouwen, of keeping our eyes fixed on the One who says, “Do not be afraid. It is I.”

In this morning’s text, however, Jesus first offers as motivation, not the assurance of his comforting and upholding presence, but rather the peculiar assertion that “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known” (Matthew 10:26). Do not be afraid, Jesus is urging the disciples, because the time is coming when your loyalty and faithfulness will come to light. Those who now offer resistance will eventually see the error of their ways, and will come to accept the promise at the very heart of the gospel—that life can indeed be transformed, that fear and suspicion, violence and warfare, brokenness and division—none of these shall have the final word. Do not be afraid, Jesus proclaims, because the kingdom of God is now unfolding in your midst. Tom Wright in his commentary Matthew for Everyone paraphrases the message of Jesus this way: “Truth will out, justice will prevail, and those who have lived with integrity and innocence, despite what the world says about them, will be vindicated.”

The key for those early disciples—and for us as well—is to trust in the abundant goodness of our God. Not surprisingly, then, some are troubled by the next reference for putting aside our fears. “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” (10:28). The most common interpretation is that Jesus, when speaking of one who can destroy life, is talking about God. But God, we soon discover, is the very one we do not have to fear—the one we can trust with our very lives. Jesus, instead, is reminding us of the power of evil at work in the world; Jesus reminds us that we stand in danger whenever we are tempted to adopt the very methods of what we oppose. Tom Wright asserts, “The people of light are never more at risk than when they are lured into fighting the darkness with more darkness.” Centuries ago Augustine put it this way: “Imagine the vanity of thinking that your enemy can do more damage than your enmity.”

Where there is legitimate fear, says Jesus, this is it—choosing the pathway that leads us away from genuine life, living as if the realities of this world—the suspicions and fears, the warring madness, the divisions and abuses—living as if all of this does indeed have the final word in life. In marked contrast, the gospel reminds us again and again, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., that “only love can conquer hate.” “Darkness cannot drive out darkness,” preached King; “only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” And we are empowered to live in the light of God’s love, precisely because we have come to know a God whom we need not fear—a God who even knows the number of hairs upon the heads of each of God’s creatures, a God who numbers each one of us among the ranks of God’s beloved children, a God who loves us with a love that will not let us go even when we fall woefully short of God’s vision for our living.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has a book entitled God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time in which he writes confessionally of the faith that has nurtured him and of the qualities of life that have challenged and sustained him through the years of his leadership in opposing South Africa’s system of racial apartheid—qualities of love, forgiveness, humility, generosity, and courage. Tutu is convinced that God invites us to be co-creators of the kingdom of God, to be agents of transformation, that the world might truly be made new. God’s dream, writes Tutu, is “of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, where there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing.”

Have No Fear 

Just as Jesus warned the first disciples that the road will seldom be easy as they embrace the call to proclaim life in God’s kingdom, so we too may encounter opposition and resistance as, yet today, we seek to live as messengers of God’s unfolding realm of new life. To heed the gospel’s call to take up the cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus is not a matter of pretending that evil does not exist. Instead, it is a matter of living courageously. And, as Archbishop Tutu reminds us, “Being courageous does not mean never being scared; it means acting as you know you must even though you are undeniably afraid.”

Jim Wallis tells the story of being in South Africa in those days when apartheid’s grip seemed complete—a time when that nation’s power brokers sought to squelch any talk of justice and freedom for its black population. A political rally had been forcefully canceled by the white government, and in an act of defiance Desmond Tutu called for a worship service in place of the rally, to be held in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. As the hour for worship neared, riot police and armed soldiers amassed outside the church building. Inside, all along the cathedral walls, stood more police openly taping and writing down every comment made from the pulpit. The atmosphere was tense as Tutu rose to speak, and the tension only deepened as he proclaimed that the “evil” and “oppression” of apartheid “cannot prevail.”

And then Tutu, short in physical stature, stretched up on his toes and pointed at the police recording his words, shouting, “You may be powerful, indeed very powerful, but you are not God!” And the God we serve, continued Tutu, “cannot be mocked!” “You have already lost!” thundered the preacher, who then came out from behind the pulpit, softening his demeanor with a smile. To the police Tutu now offered, “We are inviting you to come and join the winning side!” The crowd gathered in that cathedral erupted in celebration, and the police quickly retreated. Tutu displayed the courage of conviction, acting as he knew he must, even in the face of fear.

We live in a world bound by fear, a world on “orange alert,” ever suspicious of the stranger, ever wary of those who speak of change, ever cautious about the unknown. And our temptation is to buy into those fears, to live our own lives bound by suspicion, wariness, hostility, resentment, fear. Yet the gospel of Jesus, in the very face of fear, proclaims a challenging invitation to embrace a new perspective, to trust that the God who numbers the hairs of our heads—this God can release us from our fears; this God can free us to live peacefully and neighborly in the world around us; this God can transform us, heart, mind, and spirit, with compassion, courage, and grace beyond measure.

Back in the days of the exile, that dark period in Israel’s history when all seemed lost, when Jerusalem had been destroyed and many of the people were forced to live in enemy land, a prophet arose, proclaiming something radically new on the horizon. In one of Isaiah’s most powerful passages the prophet speaks for God, seeking to bring courage and strength to the despairing exiles:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
|For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel . . .
You are precious in my eyes, and honored,
and I love you . . . .
Do not fear, for I am with you (Isaiah 43:1-5).

My friends, this is the good news that continues to touch our hearts, filling us with newness of life arising out of brokenness and fear, filling us with courage, compassion, peace and hope. Thanks be to God!