Proclaiming: what?
Matthew 9:35-10:8 [9-23]
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. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
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 are the names of the twelve apostles: 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.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 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.
[Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”]
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We have a good preacher who will preach us a good sermon Sunday (not me). Already we had a hint of it in his Midweek Manna service last evening. In my years as a parish priest, I would have preached on this gospel once every three years, about seven or eight times, and maybe a few more times in my additional dozen years retired serving as helper priest. But I don’t remember what I said even one time, and my notebooks upon notebooks of old sermons were for the most part trashed in our mammoth unto frantic 2014 downsizing from The Old Place to 7H. I have no idea what I might have said if I’d been preaching next Sunday.
Furthermore, looking at it now and in light of my octogenarian faith as it has evolved especially over the past decade, I think it’s a far better lesson for Sunday School bible discussion than for a preaching text. So, while I’m confident it will be well preached, I’m glad it's not my Sunday in the pulpit.
Read the lesson above. I like Matthew’s memory of Jesus as a compassionate man and healer. And this is consistent with the other Synoptic gospels’ recalling Jesus' healing and other miracles as something Jesus does anytime he comes upon the scene, sees the need, and responds to it lovingly. I think it’s as most of us visualize.
As we’ve discussed in Sunday School, this lovingkindness use of dunamis, power that he draws from God, is different from what we find in the Gospel according to John, where Jesus’ miracles are semeia, signs by which Jesus intentionally shows who he is: in Gospel John, Jesus is I AM, and Jesus is Logos, the Word of God present with God’s creating and re-creating power. Gospel John's presentation is quite different from the synoptics. Folks in our Sunday School class are inquiring adults who are not afraid of the dictum “seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will”. Nor do we mind seeing our faith age and mature along with us.
I’ll admit to not liking Matthew’s presenting Jesus forbidding his apostles (remember, a disciple is one who is called, follows and emulates; an apostle is one who is sent out with a message) - - sending them out strictly limited to Jewish audiences, forbidden to preach to gentiles or even to quasi-Jewish Samaritans. But it's quite specific; it's also indicative: you don't emphasize not to do something unless there's a reason. In Matthew, I wonder if it was because he wanted to assure his audience that Jesus the Jewish messiah was meant only for them? Maybe in view that the gospel was already spreading outside the synagogues? Anyway, to restrictively curb the gospel is distressing to me, and it doesn’t sound like the savior who later in Matthew heals the clever Canaanite woman’s daughter; and who at John 4 has a bantering almost flirty conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.
Of course, I try not to mix my gospels (as we do with the two different Nativity narratives from Luke and Matthew, which in a sense gives us a third Christmas story). BTW if you think Jesus was too straight-laced to have a flirty conversation with a woman, maybe you don't believe core Christian doctrine that he was fully human, a real man?
We do remember that Matthew seems to have been a Jew writing, maybe about 85AD, more than half a century after Good Friday and Easter, to members of his Jewish-Christian church at a time when, and to folks for whom, the Jewishness of Jesus messiah would have been important, and gentiles would not necessarily have been welcome to come in, be converted from paganism, and start taking over the developing church. So there's reason for Matthew to report Jesus telling his apostles, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel".
Moving on with the gospel reading, I am intrigued with the passage's idea of a movable, retractable Shalom, that if they don't like you, you can take your Shalom back, shake off your shoes at them, and go your way. Not too sure I see Jesus in that sort of conditional agapé. No matter.
We do remember that Matthew seems to have been a Jew writing, maybe about 85AD, more than half a century after Good Friday and Easter, to members of his Jewish-Christian church at a time when, and to folks for whom, the Jewishness of Jesus messiah would have been important, and gentiles would not necessarily have been welcome to come in, be converted from paganism, and start taking over the developing church. So there's reason for Matthew to report Jesus telling his apostles, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel".
Moving on with the gospel reading, I am intrigued with the passage's idea of a movable, retractable Shalom, that if they don't like you, you can take your Shalom back, shake off your shoes at them, and go your way. Not too sure I see Jesus in that sort of conditional agapé. No matter.
Sunday’s gospel reading has an apocalyptic note, about the End and Jesus saying the Son of Man will come even before the apostles complete their assignment. Not everyone agrees, and scholars are divided (which is what keeps them writing and selling books and making a living) on the extent to which Jesus may be seen as an apocalyptic preacher. I say yes without prejudice of any sort. Which is where the Son of Man comes into it. Members of our Sunday School class know that I am fascinated with the Son of Man, the apocalyptic cosmic figure of Daniel 7 who, during Jesus' lifetime, seems to have been widely expected.
A compelling thing is whether Jesus viewed himself as that coming Son of Man, or viewed his ministry as helping folks prepare for the End in which the Son of Man would come. What we believe, and what Jesus believed, and what Matthew believed, and what Matthew believed Jesus believed, are all up for mingling discussion. Moreover, that we go into the gospel stories already ourselves believing that Jesus was that Son of Man, renders our points of view other than objective. Not to say taints our discussion, especially if we go off vehement!
It’s always interesting too, when the twelve disciples are named, to compare Mark’s and Matthew’s and Luke’s lists and consider why some names are different. One example: the tax collector is named Matthew in this gospel but Levi in Mark and Luke.
And inevitably comes up discussion of Judas Iscariot, here an apostle. Was Judas loved anyway? Foreordained as designated betrayer? Remorseful? Repentant? Forgiven? Saved? Forgiven from eternity for having taken on the predestined dirty work of betrayer? Sinner who changed the course of Christian and human history? What if Judas had not betrayed Jesus? Which is the greater sin, betrayal or denial? And what exactly do you mean by “saved”?
Sunday School question and speculation: if Judas Iscariot had not taken his own life in grief at what he had done, and instead had been with the others who later went fishing and met Jesus on the beach, would Jesus have asked him as well as Peter, “Judas Iscariot, do you love me?” Can we visualize that? Christian theology is that Jesus died for the sins of everyone: does that include Judas? WWJD, what would Jesus say? Is your savior vengeful, or truly forgiving?
The picture above is of an ordinary marketplace, visualizing Jesus' apostles wandering about, trying to proclaim the kingdom of God (Matthew says kingdom of Heaven). Are the men who are dressed in white meant to be apostles? IDK. I found it on line while searching for art depicting them doing that and in a couple minutes' looking it's the best I came across, sorry. Mind, they are not to "proclaim Christ" (later Christian) but to proclaim the kingdom.
TW