Ep. 38: Sent out
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MATTHEW 10:1,5-42, MARK 6:7-13, LUKE 9:1-6
From now on he will begin to send out his disciples to spread the Gospel, to share his task and mission. He sent out labourers to the harvest. Those visited by the twelve disciples were like sheep that have no shepherd. And it was to deliver them from the distress caused by ‘grievous wolves’ and to gather into his fold those that had been scattered, that Jesus sent out the Twelve with the special commission that we will now discuss. We turn mainly to Matthew, Chapter 10.
From what he speaks of here, it is clear that he is going far beyond that mission of the Twelve, beyond even that of the early Church, but right up to current times in our dealings with a hostile world. The Twelve were to go forth two by two, furnished with ‘power and authority’, over demons and disease. The special commission, for which they received such power, was to proclaim the near advent of the Kingdom and to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons. They were to speak good and to do good in the highest sense. They were not to make any special provision for their journey, beyond the absolute immediate present. They were but labourers, their support will come from God, but also others would be expected to help.
Before entering a city, they were to search out who in it was ‘worthy’ and to ask them for hospitality. If it was given, then the ‘Peace with thee!’ with which they had entered their temporary home would become a reality. Jesus would make it such. As he had given them ‘power and authority,’ so he would honour any hospitable reception. But even if the house should prove unworthy, the Lord would nonetheless own the words of his messengers and make them real, though, in such cases the peace would return to them who had spoken it.
Yet another case was possible. The house or city into which they had entered might refuse to receive them because they came as Jesus’ ambassadors. Great would be their guilt and more terrible would be their future punishment. So Jesus would vindicate their authority as well as his own, and show the reality of their commission.
In their present mission, they were not to touch either Gentile or Samaritan territory. It would have been fatal to have attempted this and it would have defeated Jesus’ desire to make a final appeal to the Jews of Galilee.
Jesus knew the hardships that they – and indeed the Church in all ages – would encounter. So he laid it on the line. They would be handed over to the various councils and visited with such punishments as these tribunals had the power to inflict. More than this, they would be brought before governors and kings. The support in those terrible circumstances was the assurance of such help from above. And with this, they had the promise that he who endured to the end would be saved.
It is of the greatest importance to realise the seriousness of this prediction and promise, at whatever period of his ministry, starting with the apostolic preaching in the cities of Israel, right up to the destruction of Jerusalem. But it is not to end there.
As regards its manner, the ‘second coming’ of Christ may be said to correspond to the state of those to whom he comes. To the Jews, his first coming was visible and as claiming to be their King. They had asked for a sign and no sign was given them at the time. They rejected him and placed the Jewish nation in rebellion against ‘the King.’ To the Jews, who so rejected the first visible appearance of Christ as their King, the second appearance would be invisible but real; the sign which they had asked would be given them, but as a sign of judgment, and his coming would be in judgment.
Neither the mission of the disciples nor their journeying through the cities of Israel was finished until the Son of Man came. There were those standing there who would not taste death until they had seen in the destruction of the city and state the vindication of the Kingship of Jesus, which Israel had disowned. And even in those last teachings when this coming in judgment to Israel merges with the greater judgment on an unbelieving world, this earlier coming to the Jewish nation is clearly marked.
‘This generation should not pass away until all things were fulfilled’. And it is most significant that the final utterances of the Lord as to his coming were his answers to questions arising from the predicted destruction of the Temple. The early disciples associated this with the final Coming of Christ.
Because of the treatment which their Master received, the disciples must expect misrepresentation and verbal abuse. Nor could it seem strange to them, since even the common Rabbinic proverb had it, ‘It is enough for a servant to be as his lord’. And very significant is its application by Jesus, ‘If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more them of his household.’ This charge, brought of course by the Pharisees had a double significance. The expression ‘Master of the house’ looked back to the claims which Jesus had made on his first purification of the Temple.
We almost seem to hear the coarse Rabbinic witticism in its play on the word Beelzebul. For, Zebhul means in rabbinic language, not any ordinary dwelling, but specifically, the Temple and Beel-Zebul would be the ‘Master of the Temple.’ On the other hand, Zibbul means ‘sacrificing to idols’ and so Beelzebul would, in that sense, be equivalent to ‘chief of idolatrous sacrificing’ - the worst of demons, who presided over, and incited to, idolatry! ‘The Lord of the Temple’ (which truly was his Church) was to them ‘the chief of idolatrous worship’.
Jesus encouraged his followers to set aside all regard for personal safety, even in preference to the duty of preaching the Gospel. There was a higher fear than of men, that of God and it should drive out the fear of those who could only kill the body. Two sparrows cost only about a third of a penny, yet even one of them would not perish without the knowledge of God. No illustration was more familiar to the Jewish mind than that of his watchful care even over the sparrows.
Nor could even the additional promise of Jesus, ‘but of you, even the hairs of the head are all numbered,’ surprise his disciples. But it would convey to them the assurance that, in doing his work, they were performing the will of God and were therefore in his keeping.
Even the statement about taking up the cross in following Jesus, although prophetic, would not be a strange idea. Crucifixion was, indeed, not a Jewish punishment, but the Jews must have become sadly familiar with it. The Targum speaks of it as one of the four modes of execution which Naomi described to Ruth as customary, the other three being stoning, burning and beheading. Indeed, the expression ‘bearing the cross’ is so common, that we read, ‘Abraham carried the wood for the sacrifice of Isaac, like who bears his cross on his shoulder.’
Nor could the disciples be in doubt as to the meaning of the last part of Jesus’ address. They were old Jewish forms of thought, only filled with the new wine of the Gospel. The Rabbis taught of the extravagant merit attached to the reception and entertainment of Sages. The very expression ‘in the name of’ a prophet, or a righteous man’, is strictly Jewish and means ‘for the sake of’ or ‘with intention’. It appears to us that Christ introduced his own distinctive teaching by the admitted Jewish principle that hospitable reception for a prophet or a righteous man, would produce a share in the prophet’s or righteous man’s reward.
And we are repeatedly assured, that to receive a Sage or even an elder, was like receiving the Shekhinah itself. But the final promise of Jesus, concerning the reward of even ‘a cup of cold water’ to ‘one of these little ones’ ‘in the name of a disciple,’ goes far beyond the furthest conceptions of his contemporaries. These ‘little ones’ were ‘the children,’ who were still learning the elements of knowledge, and who would by-and-by grow into ‘disciples.’ For, as the Midrash has it: ‘Where there are no little ones, there are no disciples; and where no disciples, no sages: where no sages, there no elders; where no elders, there no prophets; and where no prophets, there does God not cause his Shekhinah to rest.’
We have focussed on Jewish parallelisms here because it seemed important to show that the words of the Lord were not beyond the comprehension of the disciples. Starting from forms of thought and expressions with which they were familiar. He carried them far beyond Jewish ideas and hopes. It was of their time, as well as to us and to all times, so we can see how far the teaching of Jesus exceeds any limitations we may put on it.
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)