Who are you??

Find yourself

I am continuing the journey with Matthew chapter 10 and we heard yesterday that Jesus is calling us into conflict.

I pointed out that often conflict can come because of the way I see myself rather than the issue at hand.

In this passage Jesus builds on the whole notion of personal identity and basically says “Get over it!”:

^38-39“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

^40-41“We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help.

In this passage Jesus blows apart most of the self-help books ever written and basically says “Stop worrying about yourself, worry about Me and what I’m up to, and as a side benefit you will really find yourself”.

One of my favourite quotes by Bono is:

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.

Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.”

As we come to the end of Matthew chapter 10, Jesus is trying to address the core issues that hold us back, and it doesn’t get much more core than being self obsessed.

Everything about our culture says that’s the way it is supposed to be. We have thousands of books and magazines telling us how to be more self-centred.

Jesus is saying “It’s not about you – get over yourself. Even when people do accept you, they are accepting me so don’t get a big head”.

I know intellectually this is obvious, but can we really let ourselves hear it? This is one of the truths that I can intellectually agree to, but I’m then inclined to act as though it is not true.

This is a radical gospel that doesn’t make sense in our world. Even for someone in full-time Christian ministry, I keep bringing my world back to me and living as those these words aren’t true.

Somehow I don’t think I’m Robinson Crusoe.