The Gospel of Matthew contains five rather long discourses of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6 & 7 was the first. Today’s reading begins the second. (These discourses are easy to spot if you have a red letter edition of the Bible.) I will be pondering three insights from today’s reading:
1- 1- I think it is interesting how Matthew adds identifiers to the names of eight of the twelve apostles. (The word apostle means the ‘one who is sent.’ The disciples are given this title as Jesus sends them out on their missionary journey.) Six of the eight identifiers clarify family relationships or identifies those with the same name, but two of the identifiers really stand out to me. Matthew the tax collector and Simon the zealot. A tax collector was a collaborator with the Romans and a zealot was one who hated the Romans. In service to Jesus they are side by side as disciples and apostles. Such is the power of Jesus to give us new lives that transcend the prejudices and tensions of our former life.
2- Jesus puts much emphasis on the apostles proclaiming the Good News of God’s Kingdom to those who want to hear. They are not trying to manipulate or intimidate their listeners. They are to trust to the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of those they will encounter.
3- 3- The last portion of today’s reading seems to suggest there is only one opportunity to receive the Good News and that there is harsh judgment of those communities and people who do not welcome the apostles and their message. However, to reach that conclusion you have to discard just about everything you have learned from Jesus thus far in Matthew’s Gospel. I hear Jesus using a bit of hyperbole in making two points. First, when we are engaged in sharing the Good News we are engaged in something that is vitally important. Second, to reject the faithful witness of the Good News is a dire loss, a most regrettable missing of the treasure of living in the Kingdom of God.
What does today’s reading reveal to you about God?
What does it reveal to you about yourself?
Think about what God wants you to do or remember about this passage.
Does God want you to change anything in your life?
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