Living the Gospel requires letting go of what others think.
Sometimes, when I’m anxious, a hug from a friend helps tremendously. A smile or a giggle from one of my daughters can lift me up. We need reminders of love. We need to know that we are loved just as we are. We desperately need these reassurances if fear, anxiety, or insecurity overwhelm us.
In the gospel, Jesus reassures the disciples as he sends them out to preach the good news. These reassurances are for us, too. Jesus wants us to preach our faith out in the world. He does not want us to keep our faith private. Hence, the sayings contrast whisper with proclaim, darkness with light, hiddenness, and revelation. Now, when we are out in the world living and proclaiming our faith, Jesus tells us not to be afraid but to keep ourselves centered in God. He gives us these reassurances because living the faith in daily life, giving witness to Jesus, will most certainly meet resistance.
An example can help us understand. Imagine yourself at work and having a conversation with your co-workers. Someone mentions the boss and each person starts to complain. How quickly would the complaints turn to insults, backbiting, or plain mean-spiritedness? How would you act in this scenario? Now, ask yourself what Jesus calls us to do when people around us start complaining about someone when they backbite and talk negatively about someone. We can proclaim the good news in this situation in a few ways, but certainly, God would not want us to also talk negatively about the boss. One way we show love for another is through our speech. So, God may call us to redirect the conversation or to confront the people in the conversation that negative talk like that is unloving. Likely, we will get a reaction, maybe a bad one. It might be the case that these folks start to exclude us, even if it's subtle. Whatever happens, Jesus tells us to keep our focus on God who loves us with such great intimacy that the hairs on our heads are counted.
We are addicted to people thinking well of us. Faced with the choice of being liked or not being liked, who wouldn't choose to be liked? Preaching the gospel in daily life will challenge people's assumptions. It will upset the status quo. Naturally, people don't always appreciate that. Not only do we not like change but we also don't like being told we're wrong. Witnessing to the good news in any situation will reveal the grace inherent in each person and event, but it will also reveal the sin and injustice present. The gospel always meets resistance, often vigorous. This is especially true in our society, which is consumed with distortions of the truth and claims of "fake news." Simply telling the truth appears to be a stupendous act of courage.
God loves us. That's the good news. God is one with each of us and therefore each of us has an inherent dignity, whether a rich businessman or a widowed refugee. Proclaiming God's love necessarily means standing up for the rights of the poor, the elderly, the immigrant, the refugee, the prisoner, and anyone society deems unworthy, unacceptable, or unimportant. To stand with the poor in any situation will create enemies, the powerful who will definitely fight back. Remaining faithful to the mission of preaching the gospel absolutely requires bare faith in God, a clear-sighted focus on the God within that enables us to see God in both the poor and those who oppose us. With this centering in God fear will not oppress us. Even if we feel fear, it won't overcome us.
It might seem like Jesus is ending on a dire note. He says, “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.” Acknowledging Jesus before others means being faithful to him, that is, to our relationship with God in Jesus through the Spirit. At times it means literally saying, “I believe in Jesus.” At other times, it means behaving like Jesus. This public acknowledgement is tied to our being acknowledged by God. God is with us as we live the faith in daily life. God is with us as we confront negative talk about our boss. God is with us as we take the side of the immigrant or the refugee. If, however, we don’t acknowledge Jesus in either word or behavior, we won’t ever know God is with us. This presence of God in our lives and in our hearts is the very essence of the Gospel.