Matthew Chapter 11

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his twelve disciples,*he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

2* a When John heard in prison* of the works of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to him

3* with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

4Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:

5* the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.b

6And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

7As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?c

8Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces.

9Then why did you go out? To see a prophet?* Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

10This is the one about whom it is written: “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare the way before you.”

11Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.*

12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence,* and the violent are taking it by force.e

13All the prophets and the law* prophesied up to the time of John.

14And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come.f

15Whoever has ears ought to hear.

16g “To what shall I compare this generation?* It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,

17‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’

18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’h

19The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”i

20j Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented.

21“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon,* they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.k

22But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

23* And as for you, Capernaum:

‘Will you be exalted to heaven?l

You will go down to the netherworld.’

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

24But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”m

25n At that time Jesus said in reply,* “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.

26Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

27All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.o

28* “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,* and I will give you rest.

29* p Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.

30For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

What Is a Yoke?

A yoke is a wooden frame fitted on working animals to evenly balance the load on each individual animal and allow them to work as a team. Jesus wears the yoke and we are yoked to him.

A teacher read to her class the text, “My yoke is easy.”

“Who can tell me what a yoke is?” she asked.

A boy said, “A yoke is something they put on the necks of animals.”

Then the teacher asked, “What is the yoke God puts on us?”

A little girl said, “It is God putting His arms around our necks.”

Jesus’s yoke helps us to lay-down unnecessary burdens; to illustrate:

Dr. George McCauslin was a very effective YMCA director. But some years ago, he was selected to serve at a particularly challenging YMCA in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. And that western Pennsylvania YMCA was losing membership, had financial difficulties and a multitude of staff problems, so George McCauslin found himself working 85 hours a week. He found himself getting little sleep at night. He took little to no time off. And when he was not working, he was worrying and fretting about the problems at his job.

He went to a therapist who told him he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He realized that he had to learn somehow to let go and let God into his problems. He didn’t know quite how to do that.

So George McCauslin took an afternoon off, took a pad and paper, and took a long, unhurried walk in the western Pennsylvania woods. As he walked through the cool woods, he could eventually start to feel his tight body and his tight neck start to relax. He kept walking, and eventually sat down under a tree and just sighed and breathed deeply. For the first time in months he felt relaxed.

He got out his pad and paper, and he decided that although he would keep his job, he would release his mental “over-control” in trying to manage every detail. He wrote God a letter. He said, "Dear God, today I hereby resign as general manager of the universe. Love, George."

Then, with a twinkle in his eye, George McCauslin said, "And wonder of wonders, God accepted my resignation."

George McCauslin stopped his obsessive work habits. One lesson George teaches us is that if our religion is primarily about obsessively or fearfully meeting religious duties and other obligations, then it is indeed a hard yoke and heavy burden.

Jesus wanted to free us from the burdensome religious and legal interpretations of the scribes and Pharisees, and our own.

It is an act not of juggling balls on a stage, but of carrying eggs from a barn.

Make no mistake: it is sometimes the act of carrying a cross. But it is "light" in the sense when our purpose and priorities in life are clear.

Regarding George’s case, sometimes, among devout or practicing religious people, there can be a resistance to self-care because of fear of putting “self” at the center, as in self-centeredness. They would make the argument that we’re not the priority: the people we serve are. Yet, this concern may reflect an individualistic understanding of “self” shaped by the dominant culture.

Self-care is not self-absorption or isolation, and self-care emphasizes the importance of relationships and community in the way we do self-care. The purpose of self-care is to put vitality back into one’s ministry and vocation over time.

Like a woman who said that she used to obsess over her daughter’s mental illness, believing that the right combination of labels would lead to her daughter’s healing. The daughter now is hopefully receiving treatment, and the mother is hopefully leaving the labels or diagnosis to doctors so she can just concentrate in loving her daughter as a labor of love. The difficulty is when we take up the labor before love. When we get it right, the work of love is hardly work at all.

What other “yokes” need to be broken today besides workaholism , and over-functioning by care-givers?

2.The greatest yoke is the oppression and slavery of sin. It’s like “you used to hold the Yoke but now the Yoke holds you.”

I am speaking of those who are tired and weighed down with the burden of self, those who want to be rid of the load but can’t. It’s a tiredness of spirit. It’s a call to those who are trapped in the prison of self by sin but know no way out. It’s okay to be absolutely powerless over self. This is where we join the human race. There is the help of grace that comes through powerlessness, because we are yoked to Jesus who is our highest power.

Notice that, like George McCauslin, we first must come to the admission of powerlessness over our afflictions and powerlessness over our defects.

E.g. Our Second Reading speaks of being freed from being “debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.” The word in Greek is “sarx” which means the whole fleshy existence of persons, including all the human passions and emotions, which can range from greed, prestige to jealousy, and any kind of temptation such as the list given in Galatians 5:19.

In that verse, St. Paul is telling of his response to God from his sin-enslaved “I” who cried for deliverance, and God’s intervention. Such a cry is the point where self-honesty begins to grow, e.g. in our Opening Prayer, we hear through the humiliated God, who was an “abasement,” a fallen world was raised up.

So too with us, it is only by the humility of heart to make an admission of powerlessness over what afflicts us and then receiving victory through the grace of God, will we feel yoked to Jesus as our higher power.

It is only by the Spirit, not raw willpower, that the deeds of the body are put to death or quieted. Galatians 5:22 is very enlightening: among the gifts of the spirit is love, generosity, self-control.

It is true that spiritual warfare is part of our daily Catholic faith simply because fighting temptation and striving for virtue are themselves forms of spiritual warfare.

Thankfully, God promises in Ezekiel 34:27, “I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.” The enemy is constantly trying to force his own yoke upon us—a yoke of slavery and bondage of sin.

In the Aramaic tradition, "yoke" and "lordship" were seen to be synonymous ideas.

Jesus’ yoke helps us hold our tongue or choose encouraging words, to be giving to a person in material need, keeping holy the Sabbath by the Sunday Mass obligation. An easy yoke means we are not afflicted by an onslaught of greed, envy, greed, etc.; it’s the joy of a quiet conscience.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 2, 2023

To be a disciple is to identify with Jesus

Matthew 10:37–42

Jesus said to his Apostles: 37 Whoever prefers father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever prefers son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38 and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
41 Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.

Music Meditations

• “Whatsoever You Do” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “Jesus” (by Chris Tomlin) [YouTube]
• “Be Thou My Vision” (John Rutter; sung by Cambridge Singers) [YouTube]
• “I Have Loved You” (by Michael Joncas) [YouTube]
• “Come to the Water” (by John Foley; sung by Matt Maher) [YouTube]
• “We Remember” (by Marty Haugen) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Lord, being disciple is demanding and fulfilling. Help me to receive your word graciously and openly, to give freely and receive fully, when needed. I ask for the humility to listen, to hear, to notice, and to respond to those requests of me as disciple.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from a commentary in 2014 by Alice McDermott:

We all like to be rewarded for our efforts. Gold stars on our school papers as children. Praise from parents and teachers as we get older. Money as payment for our expenditure of our time and talents in our work. Perhaps being recognized publicly with a plaque or round of applause for our community service. We all appreciate recognition and benefits from our actions.

Jesus is promising a reward for those who welcome prophets and righteous persons to the community, and for those who offer small kindnesses to the vulnerable in their midst. That reward is participation in the kingdom of God, which has both a present and a future component.

This text comes after Jesus’ promise that those who lose their life for his sake will find it (Mt. 10:39). It’s an answer to the question, “What is our reward for risking the loss of our lives as we know them for you?” Or, as Simon Peter so pragmatically puts it, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” His question and Jesus’ answer show up three times in almost exactly the same wording in Matthew 19:27, Mark 10:28, and Luke 18:28. In Matthew 10:42, Jesus refers to “the reward of the righteous.” It appears to be a bountiful compensation for the sacrifices we have made in this life, one that has both a worldly and eternal life component (Mt. 19:29; Mk. 10:29-30; Lk. 18:29-30).

What are those addressed by this text going to be rewarded for? Since Jesus sends his disciples to act on his behalf, those who receive them also receive Jesus (10:40a). And in receiving Jesus they also receive God, the one who sent him. Underlying this saying is the shaliach conception of ancient Jewish law, according to which a man’s duly authorized messenger “is as the man himself.” (Hare, Interpretation Commentary on Matthew, 118) The one sent out represents the one who sent him, so that to receive a disciple of Christ is to receive Christ and to receive Christ is to receive God. (Argyle, Cambridge Commentary on Matthew, 83-4)

Participation in the kingdom of God is the reward of the righteous person. It is not wholly extrinsic like the gold stars and the round of applause. The righteousness Jesus is talking about in Matthew carries with it an intrinsic reward, one that is an integral part of the action of welcome and kindness. Such righteous acts participate in and point us toward God, toward the Kingdom which is now and not yet.

Those who receive the disciples also receive the same benefits or reward they receive, the blessing of participation in the kingdom of God as outlined by Jesus by way of Matthew in the Beatitudes (Mt. 5:3-10). The Beatitudes have a future, but also a present reference. The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake—all participate in the present in the blessings of divine presence, comfort, wisdom, forgiveness, which are the realities of the reign of God now and forever.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Have I ever been in relationship that was so all-consuming that I lost myself in the process?
• To what/whom am I attached so firmly that it interferes with my relationship God or with others in my life?
  Has there been an attachment to a person, a habit, a conviction or a principle that has estranged me from others or my own self?
• Jesus does not advocate armed conflict, but divisions might occur when people are forced to decide between the words of Jesus and the words of those we love. When could there be a conflict between our love for another and our love for God?
  Are there times, however, when I alienate people I love by rendering an opinion that is unjust or too harsh?
  Have I ever assumed I was saying something for someone’s else’s good, but it was really for my personal satisfaction that I spoke?
  How do I discern between my opinion/prejudices and God’s?
• Have I ever received opposition for my beliefs from someone I loved?
  What did I do?
  Have I ever suffered the rupture of a relationship because of my relationship with Jesus?
• Do I truly see myself as a disciple of Jesus?
  What is the cost to me for being a disciple?
• What is the difference between adherence to a moralistic law or system of rules and the interior freedom that comes for knowing God’s sill and doing it?
• Am I ever motivated in my actions by the hope of a later reward or is my motivation rooted in a desire to be closer to Jesus right now?
• What, exactly, is my relationship with God, with my fellow disciples, with the desperate?
• What is my role of “welcoming others” that I see in this reading?
• Do I think of being disciple as a large dramatic gesture/choice, or can I look at my small efforts to help others and myself as discipleship?
  When did I last buy a poor person a cup of coffee?
• Do I expect happiness, or at least a cessation of anxiety or unhappiness as a result of doing God’s will?
• What does it mean, in the lives of us ordinary saints, to “lose one’s life”?
  What does it mean, in the lives of us ordinary saints, to “save one’s life”?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Participation in the Kingdom of God is the reward of the person who is a true disciple. What follows are some quotes from thinkers who seem to have taken seriously the message of Jesus in this passage. They are talking about giving one’s life away for some purpose beyond oneself that, paradoxically, results in a gain. As Christians we would call that the reward of the righteous. Which of the following do you agree with? Do any surprise you? Examine your motivations for doing God’s will and making sacrifices in the process:

• “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it”—John Ruskin
• “Happiness is a virtue, not its reward”—Baruch Spinoza
• “If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed”—Albert Einstein
• “Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward”—Thomas Merton

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

We are rarely asked for a cup of water. We live in a more complex society, but the same care and generosity to which Jesus calls us in verse 42 to are found in all walks of life. There are those who work for clean healthy water in a thousand hidden ways, for instance maintaining a city water system, or caring for public hygiene, as civil servants, plumbers, activists, engineers, scientists, and street cleaners.

Wherever people devote themselves to the service of others by caring for the environment, by creating safe and good schools, by working toward affordable healthcare and affordable housing for everyone somehow, by making our governmental systems, local and national, ensure safety for all, we are, in effect, giving someone who needs it a drink of water.

So verse 42 is a metaphor for doing things for others in the name of Jesus. And the rewards promised by Jesus are entrance into the Kingdom of God. Our first job, then, is to be aware of the opportunities and desperate needs that are out there. But we need to go further. Undeterred by the sheer enormity of the task, we must start somewhere. Do I look for the grand gestures instead of offering a simple “cup of water”? How does giving someone a cup of water play out in practical terms: is it a hug, or a listening ear, or giving someone a ride, or giving a small donation to an agency like CRS? Do I believe that each act of mercy, no matter how insignificant, can make a difference that really matters? Mother Teresa said that we are not called to do great things, we are called to do small things with great love. We need to go beyond studying the issues to actually help in in some small way to alleviate the thirst for water, for food, for justice, for safety. What can I do? What can I do this week?

Poetic Reflection:

We turn to a tried-and-true reflection written by Thomas Centollela, a former Stegner fellow. He encourages us to do even more than the minimum of giving a cup of water to “one of these little ones.” How can you live “further in?”:

“At Big Rec”

A few hours spent in the dry rooms of the dying.
Then the walk home, and the sudden rain
comes hard, and you want it coming hard,
you want it hitting you in the forehead
like anointment, blessing all the days
that otherwise would be dismissed
as business as usual. Now you’re ready
to lean on the rail above the empty diamonds
where, in summer, the ballplayers wait patiently
for one true moment more alive than all the rest.
Now you’re ready for the ancient religion of dogs,
that unleashed romp through the wildness, responding
To no one’s liturgy but the field’s and the rain’s.
You’ve come this far, but you need to live further in.
You need to slip into the blind man for a while,
tap along with his cane past the market stalls
and take in, as if they were abandoned,
the little blue crabs which within an hour will be eaten.
You have to become large enough to accommodate
all the small lives that otherwise would be forgotten.
You have to raise yourself to the power of ten.
Love more, require less, love without regard
For form. You have to live further in.

Closing Prayer

I give thanks to you, Lord, for what I have learned about myself and about you in my prayer this week. I pray also for the courage I need to let my experience of you, Jesus, be evident in my life. Help me to turn fear into resolution, turn despair and hopelessness into joy.

The Five Discourses in the Gospel of Matthew

In Christianity, the term Five Discourses of Matthew refers to five specific discourses by Jesus within the Gospel of Matthew.

These five discourses are, according to some scholars, meant to reflect/recall the first five books of the Jewish Scriptures. The five discourses are listed as the following: the Sermon on the Mount, the Mission Discourse, the Parabolic Discourse, the Discourse on the Church, and the Discourse on End Times.

Each of the discourses has a shorter parallel in the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of Luke.[3]

Structure:

The first discourse

Matthew 5-7

The first discourse (Matthew 5–7) is called the Sermon on the Mount and is one of the best known and most quoted parts of the New Testament.[6] It includes the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer and the Golden Rule. To most believers in

Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount contains the central tenets of Christian discipleship.[6] The Beatitudes are a key element of this sermon, and are often expressed as a set of blessings. Jesus presents the Beatitudes as a list of those he considered "blessed," or "fortunate," (due to his arrival and their subsequent invitation into the "Kingdom of Heaven"), as opposed to Ben Sira's list of "blessed" peoples (Ben Sira 25:7-11). The Beatitudes work as a welcoming statement to this group of people, and as an introduction to the sermon.[7][8]

The second discourse

 Matthew 10

The second discourse in Matthew 10 provides instructions to the Twelve Apostles and is sometimes called the Mission Discourse or the Missionary Discourse[5] or the Little Commission in contrast to the Great Commission. This discourse is directed to the twelve apostles who are named in Matthew 10:2-3. In the discourse Jesus advises them how to travel from city to city, carry no belongings and to preach only to Israelite communities. He tells them to be wary of opposition, but have no fear for they will be told what to say to defend themselves when needed: "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.", as also stated similarly in Luke 12:12.[9]

The third discourse

Matthew 13

The third discourse in Matthew 13 (verses 1-52) provides several parables for the Kingdom of Heaven and is often called the Parabolic Discourse.[5] The first part of this discourse, in Matthew 13:1-35 takes place outside when Jesus leaves a house and sits near the Lake to address the disciples as well as the multitudes of people who have gathered to hear him.[10] This part includes the parables of the Sower, the Tares, the Mustard Seed and the Leaven. In the second part Jesus goes back inside the house and addresses the disciples. This part includes the parables of the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl and Drawing in the Net.[10]

The fourth discourse

Matthew 18

The fourth discourse in Matthew 18 is often called the Discourse on the Church.[5] It includes the parables of The Lost Sheep and The Unforgiving Servant which also refer to the Kingdom of Heaven. The general theme of the discourse is the anticipation of a future community of followers, and the role of his apostles in leading it.[11][12] Addressing his apostles in 18:18, Jesus states: "what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven", see also Binding and loosing. This power is first given to Peter in chapter 16 after Peter confesses that Jesus is the "son of the living God". In addition to the powers of binding and loosing, Peter is given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and is sometimes considered the "rock" on which Christ built his Church. The discourse emphasizes the importance of humility and self-sacrifice as the high virtues within the anticipated community. It teaches that in the Kingdom of God, it is childlike humility that matters, not social prominence and clout.[11][12]

The fifth discourse

Matthew 23, Matthew 24, and Matthew 25

Although assessments of its scope vary, the final discourse can be taken to include Matthew 23, 24, and 25. Matthew 24 is usually called the Olivet Discourse, because it was given on the Mount of Olives; it is also referred to as the Discourse on the End Times.[5] The discourse corresponds to Mark 13 and Luke 21 and is mostly about judgment and the expected conduct of the followers of Jesus, and the need for vigilance by the followers in view of the coming judgment.[14] The discourse is prompted by a question the disciples ask about the "end of the age" (end times or end of this world and beginning of the world to come),[15] and receives the longest response provided by Jesus in the New Testament.[16] The discourse is generally viewed as referring both to the coming destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, as well as the End Times and Second Coming of Christ, but the many scholarly opinions about the overlap of these two issues, and exactly which verses refer to which event remain divided and complex.

Matthew Chapter 10 Text and Notes on Second Discourse

Matthew Chapter 10:

Chapter 10 of Matthew is the entire second discourse of Jesus of which today’s Gospel is a part. It sometimes helps to see the context of the Sunday reading:

The Mission of the Twelve.

1 Then he summoned his twelve disciples* and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.

2 The names of the twelve apostles* are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

3 Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus;

4 Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

The Commissioning of the Twelve.

5 Jesus sent out these twelve* after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.

6 Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

7 As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’\

8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

9 Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;

10 no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.

11 Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave.

12 As you enter a house, wish it peace.

13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.*

14 Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.

15 Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

Coming Persecutions.

16j “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.

17* But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues,

18 and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.

19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.

20 For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

21 Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.

22 You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end* will be saved.

23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

24 No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master.

25 It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!

Courage Under Persecution.

26p “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.

27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.

30 Even all the hairs of your head are counted.

31 So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

32* Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

33 But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.

Jesus: A Cause of Division.

34t “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

35 For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

36 and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’

The Conditions of Discipleship.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38 and whoever does not take up his cross* and follow after me is not worthy of me.

39*Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Rewards.

40 “Whoever receives you receives me,* and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

41*Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward.

42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

NOTES on MATTHEW 10:

* [10:1–11:1] After an introductory narrative (Mt 10:1–4), this chapter covers the second of the 5 major discourses of Matthew’s gospel. (see separate sheet for the five major discourses in Matthew) this second discourse deals with the mission now to be undertaken by the disciples (Mt 10:5–15), but the perspective broadens and includes the missionary activity of the church between the time of the resurrection and the Parousia (second coming).

* [10:1] His twelve disciples: although, unlike Mark (Mk 3:13–14) and Luke (Lk 6:12–16), Matthew has no story of Jesus’ choosing the Twelve, he assumes that the group is known to the reader. The earliest New Testament text to speak of it is 1 Cor 15:5. The number probably is meant to recall the twelve tribes of Israel and implies Jesus’ authority to call all Israel into the kingdom. While Luke (Lk 6:13) and probably Mark (Mk 4:10, 34) distinguish between the Twelve and a larger group also termed disciples, Matthew tends to identify the disciples and the Twelve. Authority…every illness: activities the same as those of Jesus; see Mt 4:23; Mt 9:35; 10:8. The Twelve also share in his proclamation of the kingdom (Mt 10:7). But although he teaches (Mt 4:23; 7:28; 9:35), they do not. Their commission to teach comes only after Jesus’ resurrection, after they have been fully instructed by him (Mt 28:20).

* [10:2–4] Here, for the only time in Matthew, the Twelve are designated apostles. The word “apostle” means “one who is sent,” and therefore fits the situation here described. In the Pauline letters, the place where the term occurs most frequently in the New Testament, it means primarily one who has seen the risen Lord and has been commissioned to proclaim the resurrection. With slight variants in Luke and Acts, the names of those who belong to this group are the same in the four lists given in the New Testament (see note on Mt 9:9). Cananean: this represents an Aramaic word meaning “zealot.” The meaning of that designation is unclear (see note on Lk 6:15).

* [10:5–6] Like Jesus (Mt 15:24), the Twelve are sent only to Israel. This saying may reflect an original Jewish Christian refusal of the mission to the Gentiles, but for Matthew it expresses rather the limitation that Jesus himself observed during his ministry.

* [10:8–11] The Twelve have received their own call and mission through God’s gift, and the benefits they confer are likewise to be given freely. They are not to take with them money, provisions, or unnecessary clothing; their lodging and food will be provided by those who receive them.

* [10:13] The greeting of peace is conceived of not merely as a salutation but as an effective word. If it finds no worthy recipient, it will return to the speaker.

* [10:14] Shake the dust from your feet: this gesture indicates a complete disassociation from such unbelievers.

* [10:17] The persecutions attendant upon the post-resurrection mission now begin to be spoken of. Here Matthew brings into the discourse sayings found in Mk 13 which deals with events preceding the parousia.

* [10:21] See Mi 7:6 which is cited in Mt 10:35, 36.

* [10:22] To the end: the original meaning was probably “until the parousia.” But it is not likely that Matthew expected no missionary disciples to suffer death before then, since he envisages the martyrdom of other Christians (Mt 10:21). For him, the end is probably that of the individual’s life (see Mt 10:28).

* [10:23] Before the Son of Man comes: since the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age had not taken place when this gospel was written, much less during the mission of the Twelve during Jesus’ ministry, Matthew cannot have meant the coming to refer to the parousia. It is difficult to know what he understood it to be: perhaps the “proleptic parousia” of Mt 28:16–20, or the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, viewed as a coming of Jesus in judgment on unbelieving Israel.

* [10:25] Beelzebul: see Mt 9:34 for the charge linking Jesus with “the prince of demons,” who is named Beelzebul in Mt 12:24. The meaning of the name is uncertain; possibly, “lord of the house.”

* [10:26] The concealed and secret coming of the kingdom is to be proclaimed by them, and no fear must be allowed to deter them from that proclamation.

* [10:32–33] In the Q parallel (Lk 12:8–9), the Son of Man will acknowledge those who have acknowledged Jesus, and those who deny him will be denied (by the Son of Man) before the angels of God at the judgment. Here Jesus and the Son of Man are identified, and the acknowledgment or denial will be before his heavenly Father.

* [10:38] The first mention of the cross in Matthew, explicitly that of the disciple, but implicitly that of Jesus (and follow after me). Crucifixion was a form of capital punishment used by the Romans for offenders who were not Roman citizens.

* [10:39] One who denies Jesus in order to save one’s earthly life will be condemned to everlasting destruction; loss of earthly life for Jesus’ sake will be rewarded by everlasting life in the kingdom.

* [10:40–42] All who receive the disciples of Jesus receive him, and God who sent him, and will be rewarded accordingly.

* [10:41] A prophet: one who speaks in the name of God; here, the Christian prophets who proclaim the gospel. Righteous man: since righteousness is demanded of all the disciples, it is difficult to take the righteous man of this verse and one of these little ones (Mt 10:42) as indicating different groups within the followers of Jesus. Probably all three designations are used here of Christian missionaries as such.

Cross references to other scriptural texts:
a. [10:1–4] Mk 3:14–19; Lk 6:13–16; Acts 1:13.

b. [10:5–15] Mk 6:7–13; Lk 9:1–6.

c. [10:6] 15:24.

d. [10:7] 3:2; 4:17.

e. [10:9–10] Mk 6:8–9; Lk 9:3; 10:4.

f. [10:10] Lk 10:7; 1 Cor 9:14; 1 Tm 5:18.

g. [10:11–15] Mk 6:10–11; Lk 9:4–5; 10:5–12.

h. [10:14] Acts 13:51; 18:6.

i. [10:15] 11:24; Gn 19:1–29; Jude 7.

j. [10:16] Lk 10:3.

k. [10:17–22] Mk 13:9–13; Lk 21:12–19.

l. [10:17] Acts 5:40.

m. [10:19] Ex 4:11–12; Jer 1:6–10; Lk 12:11–12.

n. [10:21–22] 24:9, 13.

o. [10:24–25] Lk 6:40; Jn 13:16; 15:20.

p. [10:26–33] Lk 12:2–9.

q. [10:26] Mk 4:22; Lk 8:17; 1 Tm 5:25.

r. [10:28] Jas 4:12.

s. [10:33] Mk 8:38; Lk 9:26; 2 Tm 2:12; Rev 3:5.

t. [10:34–35] Lk 12:51–53.

u. [10:37–39] 16:24–25; Lk 14:26–27.

v. [10:39] Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25.

w. [10:40] Lk 10:16; Jn 12:44; 13:20.

x. [10:42] 25:40; Mk 9:41.