Do you like change? All of us go through times of transition in life. We experience transitions between stages of life, changing relationships, jobs, and in other ways. Perhaps you have been involved in a church or a business that was growing so quickly that additional staff members were needed – or one that was declining to the point of having to combine jobs. 

 

Transitions may come as the result of an intentional change in the focus or operational strategy of an organization or movement. 

 

Whatever the cause, times of transition can be challenging. Today’s text marks an intentional transition in Jesus’ ministry as he empowered his closest disciples to go out and expand his work of preaching and healing.

 

That work is not finished: today’s disciples still have work to do.

 

 

 

Our text begins with a summary of Jesus’ ministry that is almost a verbatim repetition of 4:23. “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” (9:35). 

 

Here the writer of Matthew portrays Jesus as having an inclusive ministry to all the cities and villages. He did not avoid places with bad reputations or differing ethnic makeups, but reached out to all people through preaching, teaching, and healing. 

 

This suggests that Jesus may lead us not only to places where we are comfortable, but also to those settings where we may be distinctly uncomfortable.

 

Jesus’ ministry met educational needs as he taught in the synagogues throughout the area. He worked to help people understand how his life and work fit into God’s plan through the ages. 

 

Jesus met spiritual needs as he “proclaimed the good news of the kingdom” in the synagogues and elsewhere. 

 

Jesus also ministered to the physical needs of those who surrounded him, “. . . curing every disease and every sickness.” He had compassion not only for people’s lost souls, but also for their crippled feet, their troubled minds, and their bleeding sores.

 

This is why Christ-followers through the years have supported not only preaching and teaching, but education and social ministries. All of these continue the work of Christ.

 

But why would Jesus give himself to such a mission to begin with? Because of love: “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (9:36). 

 

When we look at the world with a Jesus-centered view, do we not also see many people who seem lost or troubled? Contemporary disciples can easily get caught up in “cocooning” and become blind to the needs of others. If we don’t see their needs, then we are not motivated to feel compassion, and thus we don’t feel responsible for helping them.

 

When Jesus looked at the multitudes, he saw them distressed and downhearted. Jesus still calls his followers to see the needs of the elderly, who are often lonely and afraid. He calls on us to see the disillusioned people who have given up on church, to see the open eyes and tender hearts of youth who are so easily influenced and so in need of good examples and loving friends, to see the grimy hands and innocent hearts of children who are growing up in a world that is far from innocent.

 

Jesus emphasized both need and opportunity: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (9:37-38). 

 

Surveys show a persistent rise in the number of people who claim no religious affiliation. A small minority of churches are thriving, but most are in decline, some with little hope of recovery. The age of “Christendom” has passed. Sunday is no longer considered sacred: it is a day for sports and shopping and taking it easy. We live in a new world, but the harvest is still plentiful. [DD]

 

Jesus told his disciples to pray that the Lord would send out laborers. As it turned out, they were about to become the answer to their own prayer. If we are convicted and compassionate enough to pray earnestly for missions, we will also be convicted and compassionate enough to share the love of Jesus in our own daily living. 

 

 

Focus on disciples (10:1-4)

 

The summary of Jesus’ activities and his challenge to pray for laborers is followed by the disciples’ own commission to head for the fields. “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” (10:1). 

 

It’s hard for us to imagine being invested with such power, and despite scattered reports of miraculous healings, we don’t see evidence of people with a consistent gift of healing today. Jesus’ granting of such power to the disciples was a special gift for a special time, and even then it may have been a temporary sign of the gospel’s truth and power. Seeing people cured of physical ills in Christ’s name could encourage people to believe he could manage their spiritual ills, too. 

 

Only here, deep into his gospel, does the writer of Matthew list the twelve disciples who were closest to Jesus. Mark and Luke name them much earlier (Mark 3:13-19, Luke 6:13-16). Listing the disciples’ names in conjunction with their impending mission gave a more formal sense to the moment, like a commissioning ceremony in which candidates’ full names are called. 

 

The synoptic gospels and Acts all have lists of the 12 disciples who became formally known as “The Twelve,” and as apostles. [DD] There are some differences among them, generally explained by an assumption that some may have gone by different names (see “The Hardest Question” online for more on this). Matthew lists them with a bit of commentary: “first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.”

 

The names are listed in pairs, perhaps echoing Mark’s account that Jesus sent them out “two by two” (Mark 6:7). The writer has put the two sets of brothers together and identified Matthew as “the tax collector.” The second Simon’s appellative does not mean he was from Canaan: “Cananaean” is from an Aramaic word sometimes translated as “zealot.” [DD]

 

The disciples’ names are less important than their number: the selection of 12 disciples parallels the 12 foundational tribes of Israel and has obvious symbolic value: Jesus was laying the foundation of a new covenant.

 

 

 

The following verses begin a lengthy collection of teaching materials that Matthew has combined in the form of instructions to the disciples before they go out on mission (10:5-42). Instructions for the journey in Mark 6:8-11 and Luke 9:3-5 are much shorter. [DD] Matthew seems more interested in the collected teachings than the mission itself: unlike Mark (6:12, 30) and Luke (9:6, 10), he says nothing about the disciples’ departure or return. 

 

Matthew is also unique in beginning with a stern order that we may find confusing: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:5b-6). 

We know that Jesus intended the gospel for all people, as texts like Matthew 28:19-20 (see last week’s lesson) and Acts 1:8 make clear. The writer of Matthew believed, however, that Jesus intended for the gospel to be shared first among “the lost sheep of Israel” before being extended to the Gentiles. His purpose, it appears, was to express a belief that in God’s plan of redemption, Jesus came as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan for Israel. Once the gospel had been preached among the Jews, it could then be extended to all nations. 

 

The disciples’ mission, echoing 10:1, was to “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (10:7-8a). In other words, the disciples were to do precisely what Jesus had been doing: preaching the gospel and healing the sick. They were not just to talk like Jesus, but to act like him: with compassion and self-sacrifice. [DD] [DD]

 

A literal reading of Jesus’ traveling instructions that follow seems to suggest that Jesus sent the disciples out broke, barefoot, and without even a staff. His emphasis was not on asceticism, however, but on expediency: perhaps the point is that they didn’t need extra luggage. The mission was apparently to be of short duration, and they were to depend on the hospitality of receptive hosts in each town. [DD]

 

The disciples were to expect both warm receptions and cold rejections, and to continue the work in either case. The fear of rejection has kept countless Christians from sharing their faith or even acts of caring with others. It’s important to know that rejection does not indicate failure when we are being faithful. 

 

Fields of need surround us. Where – and when – will we go?