Pentecost 3 – (Matthew 10.24-39)
June 21 2020
Neil Millar
Matthew chapter 10 is full of words that are familiar to most of us in the Christian church. One wonders if they were all originally spoken together as they appear here? More likely they were disconnected sayings which have been woven together here as a kind of manifesto. The context in Matthew 10 is mission (this section is sometimes called The Sermon on Mission). Jesus has gathered his twelve disciples and is about to send them out. Before they go, he gives them this ‘list’ of instructions. They make for pretty sobering reading and have been known to cause some squirming in the pews when read in church. Being a disciple is no stroll in the park – it requires single-mindedness, courage and trust. It is helpful to know that the original community to which ‘Matthew’ is writing was likely a Jewish Christian community living in the north of
Israel/Palestine in the period after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple (70CE). Given that they were under threat from without and that there were tensions within the community, the uncompromising sense of Matthew’s text makes sense. There is joy, but there is also challenge and we must rise to this if we are to stay the course. Throughout the chapter, the words ‘fear not’ function as a kind of refrain, and to explore this theme, I am going to draw heavily on a reflection prepared by New Testament scholar Stanley Saunders. Saunders teaches at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. He also visits men on death row in Georgia. Saunders writes…
Full reflection here