Pentecost 2 (Matthew 9.35-10.4)
14 June 2020
Neil Millar
‘The church today is not as enthusiastic about mission as she was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’, FD Bruner writes in his commentary on Matthew (2004.445). There are reasons for this, including our growing awareness of how earlier missionary endeavours were often tainted by imperialistic thinking and action. ‘Yet’, Bruner maintains, ‘there is never a good theological reason for a diminished commitment to mission in the church’, and certainly, mission is a strong theme in Matthew’s gospel. In the reading set for today, mission is front and centre – indeed, this whole section of Matthew is sometimes called ‘The Sermon on Mission’. One reason is that this section opens with a summary statement strikingly
like the one that prefaced the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (cf. Matt 4.23). As this
summary states, Jesus’s pattern during this time was to travel around to ‘all the cities and villages, teaching… proclaiming… curing…’ In other words, his way was: (i) to go to all people – not discriminating against some, (ii) to share good news – not judgment and condemnation (bad news), and (iii) to respond to their need – not
adding to their burden. This has not always been the church’s pattern and perhaps explains a certain wariness about mission.
Full reflection here