Jesus “Talking Smack” for Resisting Fear and Seeing to Practice Deliverance
Luke 13:31-35
August 28, 2016
Ted V. Foote, Jr.
First Presbyterian Church, Bryan, Texas
Some persons talk smack. Some who talk smack do so to prop themselves up because, when
in competitive or in threatened situations, they know “fear” will do them no favors. For this reason,
“No fear” is the mantra of armed forces on the threshold of a combat mission. “No fear” is also printed
on the t-shirts of athletic teams who may even be undersized and underskilled when compared with
other teams they will play. When facing serious opposition, all but the most naïve or inexperienced
realize fear will be a liability. I’ve known from a young age that when facing serious opposition, fear
will be a liability, yet I never found that talking smack helped me in taking exams. I never said about
major exams: “Bring it on, Professor! I am so prepared that your hardest question will be no more than
an intellectual mosquito bite!” I never said that, or thought it. The only help I ever felt in taking exams
was careful preparation and a clear, relaxed mind. What we’re considering here is beyond preparing
for and taking exams. Armed forces personnel and athletic teams are correct: Fear does no one any
favor in defending themselves against defeat, harm, or annihilation.
Before anyone ever thought about a “No Fear” bumper sticker or t-shirt, there’s the “Be not
afraid,” spoken by God’s angel-messengers many times in several books of the Bible. Here, at Luke
13, though, Jesus actually talks smack to his religious opponents who, themselves, are afraid – not
really for Jesus’ own arrest but – for the destabilization which results should Roman authorities show
up to arrest Jesus. “That day some people of faith who were bothered by Jesus – by name then, some
Pharisees, but today it could have been some Presbyterians or Methodists or Baptists, some Lutherans
or Episcopalians, etc. (some people of faith who were bothered by Jesus) – approached him and said,
‘You need to leave this area because Governor Herod has a warrant out for your arrest. He’ll send the
sheriff and sworn officers and the National Guard if necessary to arrest and kill you.’” Jesus said to
them, “Go tell that fox to do what he will, because all the powers of hell cannot stop God’s work
through my life with God’s people. I have miles to go before I sleep, and, soon enough, I’ll walk right
into his own courtyard, then, face-to-face, he can deliver his best shot.”
Jesus “talks smack” from the heart of faith in the middle of life – as hard as life can be – because
he (Jesus) believes arrest, torture, and even death simply will not win. Arrest, torture, and even death
will not conquer God’s outreach of love-willing-to-die among even: the marginalized, the foreigner,
the ones whose religion is different; among those divorced, those never married, those married
multiple times, those still married for the first time, and those widowed; among intellectuals and
professionals; among rednecks and bikers; among clothing models and those who need a community
clothes closet for a single shirt and pair of slacks; among those battling diseases and among fitness
fanatics and tri-athletes! Jesus “talks smack” from the heart of faith in the middle of life – as hard as
life can be – because he believes arrest, torture, and even death simply will not conquer God’s outreach
of love-willing-to-die.
Mohammed Ali’s smack-talk in the rising of his career told his strategy to both his fans and his
opponents planning to face him in a boxing contest: “I’ll float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”
Jesus’ smack-talk in the middle of his ministry said, “I’ll gather my own – all of God’s people – Did
you hear me religious-exclusivists and religious-deniers and religious-opponents alike? – I’ll gather
my own, who are all of God’s people, and you can rip me apart like a fox against a hen, but God is
with all those whom God claims, whether they realize it or not; and your best shot of death will not
change God’s reach and embrace with love-willing-to-suffer-and-die for God’s own!”
So how does this work out? A key may be in the simple verb “to see.” At verse 35 of Luke,
chapter 13, Jesus says, “Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you
say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Two Greek words which both can be
translated as “see” occur in Jesus’ last phrase, though in English, often only one is translated as “see.”
The word often translated as “behold” or “pay attention here” or “take note here,” literally is “look”
or “see.” So the verse actually begins with Jesus saying, “See, religious leaders and people, your house
is forsaken. Your religion is not helpful and holy; your religion is not sacred and full of value; because
you fear too much. You fear Governor Herod. You fear the threat of your dying which he can cause.
See, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!”
I’m 63 years old. I’ve been looking at Scripture for the majority of those years. Only this
month did I realize that this seemingly disjointed and even strange quote from Jesus in Luke, chapter
13, when he’s essentially “talking smack” to religious traditionalists – as many of us as Presbyterians
are religious traditionalists – this quote is linguistically – in its language – very, very closely related
to the possibly more well-known parable in Matthew’s Gospel account, chapter 25, verses 31 to 46.
In the parable of Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells of persons at the final judgment before the Ruler of
Righteousness – different from Herod who can arrest and create death and dying. At the final judgment
before the Ruler of Righteousness, Jesus says, “People will ask (verses 37,38, and 44), ‘But when did
we see you (that word “see” again!) – But when did we see you, O Ruler of Righteousness?” Jesus’
reply, in Matthew 25, oddly enough, does not include the word “see,” but his criteria for “see” is
“doing” . . . “As you did ‘it’ – as you ‘did’ care and outreach to others, as you ‘did’ true respect and
generosity for others, as you ‘did’ giving and struggling with others, you ‘did’ it to them, you did it to
me – or you did not.” “Doing” as Jesus understands basic relationships among people who do not
even know each other – “doing” care, outreach, respect, generosity, giving, and struggling together –
is the essence of “seeing” Jesus as God’s love among God’s people, then and now and every day in
the future. Matthew 25:31-46, as Jesus’ parable of the final judgment of the Ruler of Righteousness
may be linked by the word “see” with Jesus’ seemingly talking smack to too-often fearful traditionally
religious people then and now. “See, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes
in the name of the Lord!”
I heard recently of school employees in a school district who, at an administrator-and-facultypreparation meeting, were hearing about, debating, and struggling with discipline policies and
practices and with extenuating circumstances in those situations. The issue arose about a student in
the previous year who was taken from a high school class because his sweat pants and t-shirt did not
meet the public school’s dress code. He said to the school officials taking him from class, “But I don’t
want to be taken out of class.” They later discovered that the sweat pants and t-shirt the student was
wearing were all he had to wear. Sometimes official policy – those school employees pointed out to
one another – fails to take account of real-life extenuating circumstances.
Sometimes official policies and practices of any institution or group are developed from an
impaired perspective which fails to “see” as closely as Jesus calls us to see and “do” with personal
care and outreach, respect and generosity, giving and struggling together – as Jesus calls us to do.
“That fox Herod’s capacity to arrest and kill,” Jesus is saying, with a little bit of smack-talk, “is never
so fearful a capacity as the self-inflicting capacity of people to separate themselves from one another’s
struggles, no matter what the official policies of religious tradition, or families, or schools, or states,
or nations. ‘See’ the One who comes to pour out love so you will do the same, and you will ‘see’ to
‘do’ with care, outreach, respect, generosity, giving, and struggling together. Then will the words on
your lips testify to what you have heard with your ears and sense deep within your own life: You are
blessed because of this One who comes to bring deliverance in the name of the Lord; and your life and
the whole world with you are changed as you see and practice that deliverance. Death’s power pales
in comparison.” Jesus taught that with words and life; and he wants those who follow him to believe
from deep within and to live boldly the deliverance he was teaching.
– All honor and praise be to God.