In Year A, the Gospel text for the Second Sunday after Pentecost is Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23) — that is, the core is 9:35-10:8, and 10:9-23 is optional. I can see why they give the preacher the opportunity to cut it off partway. The text sort of morphs in the middle, subtly shifting topics.
Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)
- 9:35-38 Jesus is in ministry, and talking with his disciples about the need of the people.
- 10:1-8 Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission trip to address that need, telling them how to focus their labors.
Then there is a transition away from the actual work. Instructions on where to stay lead to warnings that are increasingly apocalyptic:
- 10:9-14 Jesus adds specifics about where to stay and not to stay while on the trip.
- 10:15 Jesus gives a warning about how rotten it will be on Judgment Day for towns that reject the disciples.
- 10:16 Jesus says how he’s sending them into danger.
- 10:17-20 Jesus predicts that they’ll be arrested and have to testify for him, but the Spirit will provide.
- 10:21-22 Jesus predicts that families will be divided over him, and they’ll have to endure through being hatred.
- 10:23 Jesus tells them to flee persecution, and keep preaching as they go, which won’t be done “before the Son of Man comes.”
There is a real shift here.
At first Jesus is talking to the twelve about what they are going to do over the next chapter or so. (Matthew is not at all clear about when they came back. Mark is much tidier about such narrative details.) There is no indication that on this mission trip they faced opposition, arrest, or hatred.
By the end, Jesus is talking about things that go on between the end of his earthly ministry and his return at the end of the age — things like opposition, arrest, and hatred.
The dire and gloomy speech will continue through the rest of the chapter, and we’ll hear it in coming weeks.
Matthew 9:35-10:8
There’s plenty of good stuff to focus on in the shorter version of the reading. It stays with a coherent narrative, and that makes it easier to focus on. I’ll comment on a couple of things I find most moving or evocative as I meditate on this story.
Compassion on the Crowd
I am most struck by a passing reference in verse 36. Jesus had been doing all his usual (and frankly amazing) work: teaching, preaching, and healing. As we see more vividly in Mark, his wisdom and his generosity with grace have won him popularity. A crowd has gathered.
Pause briefly, and think about how we would be likely to respond today if a crowd gathered in response to our work.
Hey! This ministry stuff finally working!
Wow! I’m popular! This is so cool!
We need to build for the future! I think we have the makings of a megachurch here…
Or maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, compare Jesus’ response when people came out in droves:
When he saw the crowds,
he had compassion for them,
because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.”Matthew 9:36 NRSV
What might happen if compassion drove all parts of our work?
Praying for Laborers
And what was Jesus compassionate response to these sheep without a shepherd? It was a call to prayer.
I always like that.
Notice that Jesus calls us disciples to pray on a particular topic:
The harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.”Matthew 9:37-38 NRSV
We are supposed to pray, asking God to send more people into his service, helping gather God’s harvest.
I suspect I’m not alone in spending rather little time praying on that topic.
I do better on the topics summarized in the Lord’s Prayer, and the all-embracing cry for help embodied in the Jesus Prayer.
The Psalms lead me through a lot of topics, as do corporate prayers in worship. These remind me of many things that New Testament texts say we should pray for: enemies, rulers, and so on.
But it seems I’m rather lax in obeying the call for God to send more Christians into ministry.
I totally see the need. I’ve seen churches languish for lack of leadership, and I’ve seen people who ought not be leaders volunteer for the role. Neither is a recipe for a healthy and effective church.
We need God to be doing the deep work within people that equips them to serve well, and we need God to be nudging those prepared people to move toward service.
So let’s pray about that. I mean it.
Answered Prayer
One thing I love about this particular text is what happens next.
First Jesus calls his disciples to pray for laborers.
Then, in the next verse, he goes ahead and answers the prayer right away.
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to cure every disease and every sickness… …These twelve Jesus sent out…Matthew 10:1 & 5 NRSV
That’s efficient.
And why not? He’s God. Answering prayers is what he does.
Doing Christ’s Mission
So what, really, did Jesus want them to do on this first short term mission trip?
He wanted them to do exactly what he had been doing for the first nine chapters of the Gospel.
Here’s Jesus in action:
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom,
and curing every disease and every sickness.”Matthew 9:35 NRSV
Here again is what Jesus equipped them to do:
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to cure every disease and every sickness.”Matthew 10:1 NRSV
Notice that in terms of the healing ministry, their empowerment is both audacious and exactly what Jesus himself did.
I’ve noted before that Jesus’ healing ministry is portrayed as a single-person universal health care plan.
Now we see that Jesus’ followers were likewise set up to provide universal health care coverage.
(That seems like it ought to still be a priority for Christians, eh? Even if we can’t do it by miracle, couldn’t we throw our support behind making sure every disease and sickness is tended to competently? And no, I’m not digressing.)
Now let’s turn to the imperatives Jesus gave the twelve as he sent them out. It was focused: Just a short tour within the Jewish community. But the mandate should sound familiar:
As you go,
proclaim the good news,
‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Cure the sick,
raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers,
cast out demons.
You received without payment;
give without payment.”Matthew 10:7-8 NRSV
By golly, it is a description of Jesus’ own work in the previous pages of the Gospel. In fact it is what is described in the first verse of this week’s reading.
Nice of him to give them a reminder that they are supposed to do all this teaching, and preaching, and healing for free.
He’s not against giving people in ministry material support — he says as much in 10:9. But he emphasized generous service, giving freely what we ourselves have received.
So what should our mission be? Do we choose between preaching the Gospel and tangible acts of compassion, like providing health care?
No. Jesus did both and so should his disciples—and now.
What’s our mission? His mission.
What does it look like? Look at what he did.
Sharing Christ’s Result
Then comes that last part of the reading, the optional, and increasingly apocalyptic bit.
I think the connection is that if we do engage in Christ’s mission, we’re going to share in the result he experienced. He was betrayed, accused, hated, and killed. He says these things will happen to his followers too.
Obviously not all the time.
Some seem to be overzealous in assuming that these things happen all the time — Listen to my fellow Americans, free to worship and serve Christ’s purposes, complaining that they feel persecuted because we no longer have quite the dominant voice in the culture that we once did.
But you know, if you go out there as a Christian saying the Gospel teaches you to support universal health care, given generously to all, somebody’s gonna want your head on a platter.
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