Reading: Matthew 10.5-15,40-42
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From time to time, all of us have uninvited and unexpected callers at our front door. It may be that the person herself is “the Avon lady”. Or else it may be a collector with a LifeLine or Red Cross identification badge. At other times it is a census caller or someone checking the electoral rolls. We don’t really mind – each is authorised and clearly identified.
We have other callers too. A bit over a month ago, two smartly dressed young men appeared at our door. Each wore an engraved black badge – yes, they were Mormons. I had a visitor and no time to talk. As courteously and briefly as I could I indicated that I was unable to stop and talk, but they were quite determined to get their word in first. I bid them go and gently closed the door.
At other times, we have other unidentified door-knockers. It doesn’t take me many sentences now to identify them and name them “Jehovah’s Witnesses” or “from the Watchtower Society”.
But then there are other occasions. Someone appears with a harmless-looking questionnaire. But I like openness and directness, so I ask them, “Who do you represent?”
That is a rather important question, isn’t it? If someone is representing a government agency, the visit has an authority much greater than a survey done by a local service club! And that isn’t to put down the importance and relevance of a service club’s survey!
Jesus was sending out his twelve disciples as servants of the King, as his personal ambassadors!
In Matthew 9.35, we are told that Jesus “taught in the synagogues, preached the Good News about the Kingdom, and healed people with every kind of disease and sickness.” But that task, as I was saying three weeks ago, would not be completed by Jesus alone. “In becoming a human being, Jesus the Son of God had accepted human limitations. His time was limited and he could only be in one place at a time. The need of all these people was so great. Yes, he describes himself in John 10 as the Good Shepherd who is gathering his flock together and who has other sheep to call who are not yet part of this flock. He is willing to die for his sheep. But his time is limited. He can’t do it all. The gathering of his flock – the harvest – must be committed to others!” So the call to prayer at the end of chapter 9 was that the owner of the harvest – God – would send out workers to gather in the harvest.
Now, in chapter 10, we find that Jesus “called his twelve special disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness.” Notice the term that is used – “he gave them authority.” It is not simply a matter of the “power” or “ability” to heal, but “authority” (exousia). They are not going out on their own behalf, but as his representatives. They are servants of the King!
He gives them specific instructions. They are not to enter Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. It is not that the message of the Kingdom has nothing to do with Samaritans and Gentiles – why, in time it will embrace you and me! But Jesus only had three-and-a-half years of active ministry. During that time his attention had to be focused almost exclusively on the Jewish people – they had already received God’s promises – and he was going to depend on his followers to take the message to the ends of the earth.
Recall 9.36 – “As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Now he tells them, “You are to go to those lost sheep, the people of Israel” (10.6). The others are lost too, but these are the ones who ought to know that “The Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need” (Ps. 23.1). They need to know that hope has become reality, that promise has become fulfilment – that their promised Shepherd-King has come! “The Kingdom of heaven is near!” they are to say wherever they go.
There will be signs of the nearness of the Kingdom in healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, driving out demons – the powerful and compassionate acts that marked the ministry of Jesus.
And they are to depend on the people among whom they go for the supply of their physical needs. Jesus seems to contradict himself here. On the one hand, “You have received without paying, so give without being paid” (v. 8b). On the other, “A worker should be given what he needs” (v. 10b). I remember my father saying to me many years ago that a minister is paid a stipend, not a wage. He is not paid for all the preaching, pastoral, educational and other work that he does, Rather he is paid a living allowance. The preaching of the gospel cannot be sold. But the people of God always have a responsibility to ensure that the ministers of the gospel are able to live adequately so that they are free to fulfil their calling.
The twelve had an urgent task. The opportunity for people to respond to their preaching was immediate. The greeting “Peace be with you” was no simple polite Shalom! It was the offer and invitation to receive the peace of God, to become part of the Kingdom of God. To refuse the greeting was to refuse God’s gracious offer of peace and to be subject to the wrath of God on the Day of Judgement (vv. 11-15).
At the end of the chapter, Jesus makes clear promises to those who offer welcome. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (v. 40).
They were royal ambassadors. They were representing the King himself! To welcome them was to welcome the King. To give heed to their message was to respond to a royal decree.
“Whoever welcomes God’s messenger because he is God’s messenger, will share in his reward. And whoever welcomes a good man because he is good, will share in his reward” (v. 41). For to welcome the messenger because he is a messenger is to receive and welcome and accept the message that he brings. It is to become identified with the one he represents. It is to receive the peace of God that he offers and to enter the Kingdom of God. The good man to whom Jesus refers is not the self-righteous Pharisee, but the person who has repented of his sins, accepted the forgiveness of God and entered the Kingdom.
“You can be sure that whoever gives even a drink of cold water to one of the least of these my followers because he is my follower, will certainly receive a reward” (v. 42). Even a cup of cold water given to the most outwardly unimportant disciple is performing a simple but real service to Christ himself. We recall the words of the King in the final judgement, “I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!” (25.40). We have tended to see those words as referring exclusively to the poor and the sick and the needy of this world. As in our present passage, we need also to see in them a reference to the ways in which we have responded to even the least of Jesus' followers. Certainly he speaks of great reward – “Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you since the creation of the world” (v. 34b).
A well-known minister, Andrew Bonar, brought home a brick from his travels in the area of ancient Babylon. One Sunday he showed it to his congregation. He said that every brick in the temple from which it was taken bore the name of the king who was reigning at the time the structure was built. Making the application, Bonar said, “We must let everything we do bear the name of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Some time later, a woman came to the minister and exclaimed, “Those bricks. Oh, those bricks of Babylon!” Sensing the implication of her statement, he asked, “Did you find them while sweeping the floors?” “No,” she said, “I found them while making the beds. You remember you said that everything we did should bear the name of our Saviour. Well, shortly after that, I had to change the beds, a job I thoroughly dislike. So I said, ‘1 will do this in the name of Jesus and for his glory!’”
The question is whether we see ourselves as servants of the King. Like our question about the door-knockers, who are we representing – just ourselves or Another? The task of getting the message of the Kingdom into this confused, bewildered – and sinful – world is one that Jesus had to commit to his messengers. He alone is the Saviour of the world, but the Good News had to be committed to others. It was more than he could do in his lifetime. And it is more than all the missionaries and ministers of today can achieve of themselves either.
All of us have a part in the task. All that we do and say is to be in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Wherever we go we belong to him and are his representatives. And our words and actions can bring the possibility of God’s peace and Kingdom into the lives of others.
But there is also a prior question, for the ambassadors are those who themselves have heeded the call of the King. “Peace be with you” is no idle meaningless greeting. Jesus himself is offering forgiveness and peace to all who will come to him. Have you welcomed Jesus and his peace?
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© Peter
J. Blackburn, Buderim, 2 July 1995
Except
where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New
International Version,
© International Bible Society, 1984.