Matthew 10:9-25

Matthew 10:9-15 Travelling Light

⁹ Keep no gold or silver or copper in your belts,

¹⁰ no pack for the journey nor two tunics

nor sandals nor walking stick.

The worker is worthy of his food.

Their lifestyle would serve to indicate their confidence in the God whose powerful and provident love they proclaimed.

¹¹ In whatever town or village you enter,

find out who is a suitable person,

and stay there until you leave.

¹² As you enter the house, give the greeting.

¹³ And if the household proves worthy,

let your peace come upon it.

If it is not worthy, let your peace come back to you.

¹⁴ If a person does not receive you or listen to your words,

leave that house or that town,

and shake the dust from your feet.

¹⁵ I tell you clearly that it will be more tolerable

for the land of Sodom or Gomorrah

on the Day of Judgment than for that town.

Time was short, and they were not to waste time working with people whose minds and hearts were closed. They would come offering peace, and if their offer was not accepted, their response was not to be one of violent confrontation. By shaking the dust from their feet, they would aim to sensitise people, graphically but non-violently, to the seriousness of their choice.

Sodom and Gomorrah had become a common figure of speech in the culture. Their sin was that of betrayed hospitality; its outcome was utter destruction. Matthew may have included the image as a threat, or perhaps as a means to alert the apostles to the weight of their responsibility.

Sent on Mission –The Early Communities

Matthew 10:16-25 The Church’s Mission to the World

(Mk 13:9-13; Lk 21:12-17)

¹⁶ “Look, I am sending you as lambs in the midst of wolves.

So be as prudent as snakes and uncomplicated as pigeons.

The experience of the missioners would be like that of the oppressed of Israel. Though they might feel like lambs in the midst of wolves, they were to be uncomplicated but careful, neither scheming nor naive.

¹⁷ But be discerning about people.

They will hand you over to synagogues,

and in those synagogues they will scourge you;

¹⁸ they will drag you before governors and kings;

and on my account you can give witness

to them and to the Gentiles.

Synagogues reflected a Jewish setting, perhaps an experience already familiar to members of Matthew’s community; governors and kings spoke rather of Gentile authorities. The values of God’s Kingdom would certainly conflict with and radically challenge the values of all other administrations.

¹⁹ When they hand you over,

do not worry about what you should say.

What to say will be given to you at the appropriate time,

²⁰ since it will not be you speaking

but your Father’s Spirit speaking in you.

The message was clear: they would be handed over (as Jesus was handed over). The reference to the Father's Spirit would be heard again at the end of the Gospel in the context of the mission of the (by then) eleven disciples to the nations [28:19].

²¹ Brothers and sisters will betray each other to death,

and parents their children;

children will stand up against their parents’

and have them put to death.

²² You will be hated by everyone because of my name;

but whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

Already, Matthew had indicated the opposition to Jesus of some scribes and Pharisees [9:3, 34]. Disciples could expect the same. Some members of Matthew’s community may have personally experienced ostracism from family. Jesus was relentless in his insistence that commitment to the Kingdom overrode devotion to family.

²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.

I assure you, that you will not have finished the towns of Israel

before the Son of Man comes.

Matthew’s time-frame reverted once more from the situation confronting his community to the period of the original mission of the twelve around Galilee. Jesus’ identification of himself as the Son of Man was a reference to his role as judge of the world – his way of life being the criterion of people’s ultimate destiny. Matthew saw the glorious coming of the Son of Man enacted with his death.

²⁴ “Disciples are not above their teacher,

nor slaves above their master.

²⁵ It is enough that disciples be like their teacher

and slaves like their master.

If they called the master of the house Beelzebul,

how much more those who live in it.

Pharisees had already called Jesus Beelzebul [9:34]. Jesus had maintained earlier, indeed, that the experience of being reviled and persecuted and having had all kinds of evil uttered against them would be proof of blessedness [5:11].

Jesus was speaking figuratively in using terms such as teacher-disciple and master-slave. He did not intend that disciples relate to him co-dependently. His hope was always to set them free – free to relate to others and to him as mature adults: free to relate from love. Service of Jesus would always be the service of free persons.

Next >> Matthew 10:26-33