A, Post-Pentecost 3 Proper 6 - Matthew 9: 36, 10:5-6, 16a, Romans 5:1–8 "Flayed and Flung"
Matthew 9: 36, 10:5-6, 16a (ESV) “When Jesus saw the
crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd. These
twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and
enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Behold, I am sending you out
as sheep in the midst of wolves.’”
Jesus paints the picture of sheep without a shepherd. The sheep are harassed and helpless. Harassed and helpless are rather tame words
here in the English. The Greek suggests
the sheep are flayed and flung without a shepherd. To be flayed is to be stripped of skin, to be
skinned alive!
This picture is much grimmer when we realise the sheep have
no protection from the shepherd or even their own skin, dispersed all over the
place without the protection of numbers. They were walking meals for every wild
beast out there. That’s not good! In our English slang we might say they were
skint! But it’s for these, skint, skinless
sheep, Jesus has compassion.
It is to the sheep of Israel that Jesus sends his
apostles. They are ones sent to stand in
the place of Jesus, having carried his command to “go” and “proclaim as you go
that the kingdom of heaven is near”, in Jesus Christ and his word of promise. The authority he receives from our Heavenly
Father, is to send the apostles with authority to clothe the skinless, helpless
sheep with his love. To give them protection,
he brings his kingdom into the world with his human presence, and with it, the
authority to pass on what he brings from our Father to those he longs to clothe.
The reality is those whom Jesus sends are sheep too! They are not called to go out with a thick
skin, so to speak, but to go to the skint lost sheep of Israel, skint as
well. The only thing they were to take
was the word of Jesus. A word he promises
is so powerful in judgement, that if those who heard it were to reject it, they
would be in greater peril than Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement.
Yet, it is to these “sent ones” he also says, you sheep
will encounter wolves. Jesus paints a
picture that is far from rosy and romantic.
There is no bait and switch in his word, but rather the unhidden truth
of reality.
In the midst of this picture of death, Jesus reassures
those he sends, “When they deliver you
over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what
you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit
of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child,
and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s
sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:19–22 ESV)
As they go, they will suffer pain, hatred, and death, for
bearing his name. Yet here is the
opportunity God will create for one to speak with authority the word, given by
the Holy Spirit, from Jesus and the Father.
In Romans chapter eight, Saint Paul asks the church in
Rome, “Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is
written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded
as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans
8:35–37 ESV)
One would assume that with the promise of being flayed and
flung, that not many would accept the call to carry Christ, out into the world
of wolves. Yet, the history of the
church, tells us otherwise, demonstrating over and over again the power of the
Holy Spirit is greater than that of the human being.
The fear of suffering is real, we all know it and feel
it! Self-preservation kicks in! We, in our natural state, will do anything to
flee a fight, especially knowing we are not thick skinned. But rather, are helplessly skinless, flayed
and flung out into the wilds of the world without protection. Such is our default human nature!
Paul speaks of Abram’s hope against hope to the
Romans. He says, “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of
many nations.’” (Romans 4:18a ESV)
However, we struggle with a fear and a hope that leaves us
hopeless like sheep without a shepherd.
Our sinful nature tells us the love of Christ will separate us from the
comfort in which we clothe ourselves. Everything
against the kingdom of God, tells us being killed for Christ, being regarded as
sheep to be slaughtered, makes us conquered, not more than conquerors!
In our hopelessness we are tempted to believe against
hope. The opposite of Abram. And in doing so we seek to clothe ourselves
with the righteousness of the world.
These clothes of comfort might seem to be appealing but they are not
clothes of endurance character or hope.
Rather they cover one’s flayed helplessness and provide no security or
salvation.
Paul makes the claim that we who are in Christ, “stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God”. (Romans 5:2b ESV) This is the hope in which Jesus called the apostles
to stand and rejoice, despite the wolves, and it is the hope in which we are
called to stand and rejoice too!
These are the clothes of Christ put on by the Holy Spirit
for helpless flayed and flung sheep, to be righteous and joyful as we face
death all day long, knowing we are more than conquerors in the clothes of
Christ’s righteousness.
Not only do we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, but
we also rejoice in our suffering. How
can this be?
In an age that’s so focused on pleasure, suffering is to be
avoided at all costs. In fact, ridding
our lives of suffering, and not accepting suffering as an event that makes us
mature as humans, has blinded people as they pursue pleasure and comfort.
Saint Paul says, “we
rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love
has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us. For while we were still weak, at the
right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:3–6 ESV)
If we have no suffering, we have little to no
endurance. When we have no endurance, we
have no character, and without character we have no hope. Without suffering and the understanding of
suffering’s function in the world, one sets themselves up for hopelessness!
Seeking self-comfort in the things of this world, while
avoiding suffering, does not lead one in hope to Christ. When we see ourselves with strength because
of worldly comforts, our spirit might seem secure. But when these comforts no longer give us
comfort, or when they die, our hope too proves to be hopeless. Rather than being, more than conquerors, we
are more than conquered, we are flayed and flung, skint and skimped of
salvation, helpless sheep without a shepherd.
So, suffering allows one to grow to maturity. This happens in a worldly sense, but also in
a spiritual sense.
Where suffering in a worldly sense makes us harden up,
suffering in a spiritual sense softens us with the love of Jesus Christ, to be
comforted, and to comfort, with forgiveness.
His love is why we rejoice in our suffering, suffering both physically
and spiritually as believers and receivers of his love.
This love is a new skin! For our peace with God the Father, the Spirit
puts on the good news garment of grace in Christ. This outfit bears the fabrics of faith and forgiveness. We can hope to not only have our own sin
conquered, but the wolves in sheep’s clothing will know their weakness and are given
opportunity to receive forgiveness too.
In fact, the wolves are flayed sheep! In their hopelessness, they look threatening,
hidden in sheep’s clothing. But in
reality, they are sheepish and ashamed wolves, flayed and flung, skint and
skimped of salvation too.
Because you are covered in the clothes of Christ’s
righteousness, as the saved sheep of Israel, the Holy Spirit allows you to know
that suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope.
The Holy Spirit encourages us, as he does all he sends out,
to put on the garments of suffering, endurance, character, and hope. A covering that does not end in shame. Instead, these four coverings you wear, and
bear, are the clothes of Christ’s love.
The picture of us as flayed and flung sheep is not as grim
as we would expect. Now knowing we wear ,so
to speak, the eternal skin of Christ, we awake and wear this bright new reality
every day.
Death no longer has power over Jesus Christ, whose skin
bears the marks of death but has risen in power over death. So too with us! We are conquerors of death, the devil, and
the wolves of the world, with the covering of Christ. No one can flay from us the flesh of
Christ! Nor can we be flung from the
kingdom of heaven, while the Holy Spirit leads us, in, with, and under, the
forgiven body and blood of Jesus Christ!
Amen.
