Cattle in a Field of Butchers

From time to time, while reading familiar Scripture, I see something new in a verse or passage that I have never seen before…and it excites me.  I become like a kid who finds a box of toys in the basement that they haven't seen in a long time and instantly begins playing with new vigor and imagination. 
That happened to me today while reading Matthew 10.  

Jesus is sending out his disciples for a training exercise. Until then they had seen Jesus do some amazing miracles and teach people about the Kingdom of God powerfully.  Now they are the ones being sent out to teach and heal. Classic Jesus discipleship. Starting in verse seven, the instructions go like this...

"As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,[e] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

9 “Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— 10 no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. 12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town."

There's a ton I could write here, but I'll stay on point. He is teaching them that apart from a divine (His) empowerment and provision, they would be left trying to work this thing out on their own with their own resources.  So Jesus strips them of extra earthly possessions and securities. They had to trust that the path they were being sent on was both purposeful and safe by something entirely different from their personal experience or what their logical world would tell them.  

It's the next statement that got to me, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves."

Now wait a second. If I were to be honest, I don't much like that statement.  If I were honest, I want nothing to do with wolves.  I prefer others of the ovis aries family.  At least send me among deer. If you really want me to be risky, send me to the baboons! 

I wish I could insulate myself from difficult people. Reality is that God sends us to people whom we would otherwise avoid. Jesus called it "sheep among wolves". The picture I saw in my mind was more like "cattle in a field of butchers".  Idea…better be smart or you will get yourself killed.  It takes faith.  It takes observation.  It takes courage.  It takes control.  And it takes the knowledge that there's a cowboy nearby for protection.  

What I realized today is that the resistance I feel toward the difficult people to whom God has sent me is the lack of faith I have in Jesus to work in and through me.  I live in fear. Fear of feeling ill-equipped, incompetent or unwilling to even like "those" people.  It will take supernatural faith, eyes, courage and control.  Though I know this instinctively, it went beyond that for me today….I NEED the power of Jesus in me and through me.  Time to surrender again.

Here's some craziness that grasped me just now…what if the sheep comes to the wolves and attracts them enough to get closer to the shepherd…not so the shepherd will destroy them, but to transform them?!