This has been a week dominated by fearful news. There is no more powerful motivator for humanity than fear.
No more fear
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I’m sure, at some point, we have confronted our concern as we’ve listened to the news of the lost submersible Titan. We’ve thought about the horror of being confined in such a small space, of realizing you’re dying and being completely powerless to do anything to save yourself. The coverage on the news has been both captivating and frightening. We have been unable to hide from the fear. The fear is everywhere. There is fear whenever we turn on the television or radio or talk to a loved one. What would we do? How would we feel? What would we say to each other in our last moments on Earth? The fear has become our inescapable reality.
Fear is also the primary theme of this week’s lectionary passage. Jesus calls fear out by name. In Matthew 10:26-28, Jesus tells the disciples, “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” He adds in verse 31, “So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Jesus speaks a great deal about fear and our obsession with it. As I’ve listened to the news reports this week and considered the darkness at the vast depths of the ocean, the inability of sunlight to penetrate to 13,000 feet below the sea, his words addressing fear in the darkness rang true. I read and heard them as whispers. No one yells in the dark. The dark seems to lend itself to the softness of speech, a certain fearful calmness that disarms one’s normal ability to perceive sight, sound, and touch. We are powerless.
Jesus is not. Jesus whispers to us in the dark when we are compromised by fear; what he tells us will eventually be heard in broad daylight and with firm conviction. For now, we listen.
To keep us calm when we are paralyzed with fear, trying to conserve our energy and reorient our senses; Jesus speaks softly because he knows we are afraid. He acknowledges our fear by telling us we do not have to be frightened. Jesus is not chastising us. He’s saying that our fear will not last forever. Our lives have an intrinsic worth and value that we cannot imagine or conceive. Because we are valued, our fears need not be hidden or internalized. Our fears, this passage tells us, need not define us.
No matter how dark and cold the water is around us, there are whispers of comfort and assurance which can be heard amidst the fearful news in murky world in which we live. Like crews listening for sounds of life in a vast ocean, keep listening for Good News and the marginalized who also need to hear, “Be not afraid.”