Today's Gospel

The Paradox of the Gospel

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we take a few minutes together to reflect on the gospel of the day, to explore the genius of Jesus' life and teachings, and to look for ways to elevate our lives by embracing the gospel more fully. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 10:34-11:1. "'Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son and daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. He who receives you receives Me. And he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.'"

"'He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.' And when Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities." Today's reading is a great example of why we do what we do in the way we do it each day here together as we reflect on the gospels. I often encourage you to choose a word, a phrase, or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture attention, to intrigue your imagination, to challenge you, to encourage you. And I often encourage you, if there's something you don't understand, that's not what God's saying to you today.

There is a time to study the scriptures as an intellectual academic exercise. That's not what we're doing here. We're trying to allow God to speak into our lives. We're trying to learn how to listen to the voice of God in our lives. And so this reading is a classic example of that. So what does Jesus mean when He says, "I haven't come to bring peace on earth. I've come to bring the sword, set man against his father and daughter against daughter and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law," and all of this? What does all that mean? I'm not sure. But I'm okay with that. Does a word or a phrase or an idea jump out at me today? Yeah, it does. There's a few of them. Obviously, the reminder, "He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me." Imagine Jesus sitting you down and saying, "You're not worthy of Me." What would that do to your heart? Jesus sits you down and says, "You're not worthy of Me." So what's He saying? "He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me." There's no mystery. It's not a secret. He says it over and over. And then the second part of the reading, I think, is really rich. Jesus says, "He receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. He receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward." That's beautiful, right? Why? Because throughout history, how many people have been thinking to themselves, "Wow, I'm a great sinner, and I'm not a prophet, and you know I'm not a righteous man or woman. And yeah, I'm not any of that." We have a lot of these self-doubts, right? And what is Jesus saying? Saying, "Those who receive these people will receive their rewards." And that's just one of those things where Jesus takes things and just turns them upside down, right? It's the paradox of the gospel. You would think, "Okay, here we've got the righteous man, and here we've got the not-so-righteous man, but he welcomes the righteous man because he's a righteous man or the prophet because he's a prophet." And they receive the same reward. That's the paradox of the gospel. It's the paradox of the gospel that Jesus is constantly challenging us with because we want to see the gospel through the rewards and punishments of our social systems. But that's not the gospel.

Not that that doesn't have a place, not that that's important, but that's not the gospel. And so Jesus is constantly presenting these paradoxes to turn our lives upside down, to challenge us to see the kingdom of God as it actually is, not as we would like it to be. Who is God challenging you to receive into your life? Because he or she shares the gospel. Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.