Geoff

A common idea in Christian circles is that young Christians should invest themselves in doing outrageous things for Christ.

I submit that a better idea is contained within Matthew 10:16:

Beware, I am sending you out as sheep amongst wolves, therefore be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves.

Jesus, while sending his disciples on a particular mission that could, by certain modern reckoning, be considered an “outrageous thing for Christ” told his disciples to be cunning or clever.

The passage is not a direct command to all Christians, but rather Jesus’ instructions for a specific mission. But, in the grand scheme of Matthews gospel, it seems directly applicable to Christians today. What does Jesus mean by “be as cunning as serpents”?

I suspect that the traits of wisdom in the four gospels and Proverbs are what Jesus has in mind (ESV used below):

1. Conversational Prowess
   Pro 16:23-24 ESV  The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.  (24)  Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
2. Discernment of Human Character
   1. Pro 26:4-5  Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.  (5)  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
   2. Joh 2:24-25  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people  (25)  and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
3. Foresight (to stay out of trouble when possible)
   1. Pro 4:25-26  Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.  (26)  Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
   2. Pro 6:6-8  Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.  (7)  Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,  (8)  she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
4. Discernment Between Right and Wrong
   1. Pro 3:5-7  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  (6)  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.  (7)  Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
   2. Luk 12:56-59  You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (57)  “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? (58)  As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. (59)  I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

Good reasons exist to see the meaning of this passage as a call to be thoughtful about our discipleship. Indeed, one might say that Matthew included it so that growth in wisdom would be seen as a part of daily Christianity because it was required of the earliest preachers of the gospel during their time under Jesus’ tutelage. Such a point seems too obvious to drive home, but a great deal of young people have heard that caution and wisdom should be tossed to the wind in obedience to Christ. In fact, I have received resistance from people when trying to encourage them to be wise as though I were encouraging them not to follow Christ.

Anyway, we could reconfigure the saying in the title this way:

Do put Jesus’ teachings into practice in a way that is thoughtful and pray for his help.”

We often associate Jesus’ word in Mark 8:35 with martyrdom. The reason for this, in context, is obvious:

Mar 8:34-37 ESV And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (35)  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (36)  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (37)  For what can a man give in return for his soul?

I suggest that neither Jesus nor the early disciples treated literally dying for the gospel as a necessary consequence of discipleship. In fact, later in Mark’s gospel, Jesus is clear that with the possibility of persecutions in this life, so also there could be several elements traditionally associated with the good life in this life (also, the elements of the good life will be certain in the age to come):

Mar 10:29-31  Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, (30)  who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. (31)  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

The point being that losing ones life, in Mark 8:35, is not necessarily the same thing as literally dying. It would seem that it is a commitment to a form of personal transformation under Jesus’ tutelage. I think that George Herbert captures this concept quite well in his poem Clasping of Hands.

Clasping of Hands

LORD, thou art mine, and I am thine,
If mine I am: and thine much more,
Than I or ought, or can be mine.
Yet to be thine, doth me restore;
So that again I now am mine,
And with advantage mine the more.
Since this being mine, brings with it thine,
And thou with me dost thee restore.
If I without thee would be mine,
I neither should be mine nor thine.

Lord, I am thine, and thou art mine:
So mine thou art, that something more
I may presume thee mine, then thine
For thou didst suffer to restore
Not thee, but me, and to be mine:
And with advantage mine the more,
Since thou in death wast none of thine,
Yet then as mine didst me restore.
O be mine still! still make me thine;
Or rather make no Thine and Mine!

George Herbert, The Works of George Herbert (London: George Routledge & Co., 1854), 165.

Herbert essentially captures that learning to be possessed of God is precisely to come to oneself as well. Jesus makes this same claim in the parable of the prodigal son. His repentance is described as, “coming to himself” (Luke 15:17). In losing oneself, one comes to knowledge of God. Similarly, in coming to knowledge of God, one comes to true self-ownership.