Not Everyone is a Wolf

“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq toppled the strong-arm government of Saddam Hussein, the country fell into a chaotic and violent insurgency. Multiple factions fought against each other, the coalition forces, and the emerging government. The U.S. military transitioned to stability and counter-insurgency operations shortly after the Ba’athist regime fell. Service members patrolled the streets, worked to restore essential services, and tried to create an effective government. In this context, Marine General James Mattis is reported to have told his Marines, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” That might be understandable in the midst of a violent insurgency when it’s hard to tell friend from foe, but it is a horrible way to live your life.

The phrase my colleagues used during this time was, “Keep your head on a swivel.” Stay alert. Stay ready to act. Stay vigilant. You never know where or when you might be attacked. Constant vigilance, however, is the gift that keeps on giving. How many service members brought hypervigilance home with them as a component of their PTSD?

Dealing with everyone you meet as a potential threat affects the mission. How can you switch in an instant from dealing with people as partners in bringing their country back to health to fighting them with deadly force. Suspicion and distrust creep into the relationship and poison it.

And, horribly, sometimes you mistake the innocent for the enemy. A climate of suspicion coupled with fatigue, anger, and fear leads to deadly errors of judgment by men and women with guns.

So what does any of this have to do with Matthew 10:16? Some Christians, I fear, see every outsider as a wolf, as an enemy, as a threat. This was not Jesus’ intention.

“Walk into town with nothing but the clothes on your back, find some stranger who will feed you and give you a place to rest, and then lay your head down each night to sleep in this stranger’s home,” does not sound like an invitation to fear and distrust. Entrusting yourself to another and making yourself vulnerable is the opposite of “keep you head on a swivel.” You cannot build the kingdom relationships that Jesus sought on a foundation of suspicion.

The whole purpose of the disciple’s mission was to make the kingdom of God present for those they encountered. The disciples proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, cured the sick, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, and cast out demons. And they did this while having no resources, not even a staff to defend themselves.

Jesus sent his disciples out in utter vulnerability. Their vulnerability was the point. God makes himself vulnerable in Jesus in order to bring us into his kingdom, even to the point of suffering the worst the world could throw at him.

Yes, God’s people are to be wise about the world in which they live. Naivety is not the same as innocence. But fear and suspicion are not supposed to be characteristic of our relationships with others.

Jesus sends his church into the world in active love and compassion, not in constant suspicion and distrust. How can we find the faith and confidence to live as Jesus lived? Only, I believe, as we see ourselves united to his cross and resurrection.

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