When Jesus sent out his disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits and to cure every disease and illness, he did it with very specific instructions. The full context is the 10th chapter of Matthew; I will share a few highlights.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words – go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.
He said this because not only were they acting on behalf of Jesus, they were doing so because it was not for their own elevation or edification, but for Gods, and everyone they helped or healed should be immediately aware on whose authority they acted upon. Jesus also knew that there would be plenty of opposition to the words and actions they would be bringing to the “lost sheep of the houses of Israel” Jesus knew that the people of God had swayed far from what was necessary to bring forth the Kingdom of Heaven, and he wanted them to be prepared:
Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother or sister will hand over brother or sister to death, and the father or mother their child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. No disciple is above their teacher, no slave above their master.
I used to be worried and confused about this part of Jesus message, but as a precursor to what actually happened throughout the history of Christianity’s movement in the world, it’s pretty accurate. Jesus knew there would be those who contorted his teachings to their own edification and power structures, and wanted to make clear that the disciples should not be afraid of them:
Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father. Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
I think we should all pause, especially in this day and age where there is a growing war with who controls the Word of God, and how it can be weaponized as a tool for the darkness. If you preach hate against any member of the body, you are not speaking for God, if you preach superior status in any way, you are not speaking for God, if you preach exclusivity and reject anyone, you deny the premise that all people are of consequence and you do not act on God’s behalf, and if your actions are rooted in fear, anger, hatred, judgment, and chaos, you do not act for God. If your actions reject forgiveness, and embrace violence, you do not act for God. You cannot kill sin or the sinner, that isn’t how Heaven’s sword works. I think we need to remember the power and energy of Heaven’s sword…is the power of love. Jesus says this poignantly in the gospel of Luke:
How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Brother, sister, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your sister or brother’s eye. A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in their heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”
If you truly read scripture, it isn’t difficult to understand how we are expected to behave as a follower of Christ, its laid out pretty clearly. So, in moving forward, like when the disciples were first sent out, HOW you move forward as a follower of Christ couldn’t be more important. In large ways and small, trusting that God will be present in every word and action if you pray out of the store of goodness in you heart, God will be there. After his death and resurrection, when Jesus sent the disciples out and they were worried about their authority moving forward without his physical presence, he told them simply this: They will know you are my disciples by how you love one another. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. I don’t need to stand out on a street corner and proselytize (that is not to say if you feel called to do so you shouldn’t), it is by my simple and yet consistent actions of love that mark me as a follower of the Savior. And I personally believe that actions speak louder than words.
Throughout my entire life I have faced scrutiny and judgement about the actions and words I speak on behalf of God, especially regarding this particular journey of mine and how often my ideas seem to run contrary to the structures who believe only they speak on behalf of God, as a result, I’ve become much stronger at letting go of how those structures can limit or harm me. Because in every daily prayer I make, I trust that the Lord lets me know what it is I need to say and that it will be God’s love as I understand it through the teachings of Jesus that moves me, and that as a result I will remain precious to him. This does not mean that I am placing an imprimatur on my actions and the words I say and write, because I know how fallible and imperfect I am, but that it is my genuine and honest request to God for whom I am a whisperer, that all I say and do comes from a source of goodness and love in my heart that will endure until the end.