Matthew 10
is the second great discourse of Jesus in Matthew. It’s usually called the
missionary discourse, because Jesus speaks it as He sends His disciples out to
carry his message to the people of Israel. The fourth discourse in chapter 18
is usually called the ecclesiastical discourse, or the discourse on the Church.
However, I’m not sure exactly how helpful those titles are. I think they place
an artificial wedge between the church and mission, and those two things always
belong together. The church is the answer to Jesus’ prayer to send workers into
the harvest field. The church exists for the sake of her mission.
Consider
this detail: Matthew 10:1-2 is the first time Matthew specifies that Jesus has
12 disciples, or, at least, 12 disciples who are designated apostles. The
twelve-ness should make us take note. After all, that’s the number of sons that
Jacob, also called Israel, had, and those 12 sons became the forefathers of the
12 tribes of Israel. 12 ought to make us think of the people of Israel. When
Jesus designates these 12 men, he is in effect reconstituting Israel—renewing her,
rebuilding her, re-energizing her—around himself.
And “old”
Israel, Israel according to the flesh as Paul calls it, is the object of the “new”
Israel’s outreach. “Old” Israel, after all, had failed of her promise; she had
rotted on the vine. By Jesus’ day she was concerned with her own special status
and keeping others out of it than she was with being salt and light for the
world.
Listen
there’s a lot going on here, but I think the point to be made is
straightforward: God will always have a people. Who they are and where they
live might change over the years, but he will always have a people who will
carry His message of grace and forgiveness into the world. The call for us is
to remember the incredible gifts we have been given and to share those gifts with
the world around us.
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