Matthew 10:16-23 – The Difficult Road, Part 1

Sticking with the metaphor from last week, Jesus is still standing next to the driver’s window giving instructions to the disciples before they head down the driveway. After telling the disciples where to go and where not to go, discussing the accumulation of wealth, trust for their daily food and wages, and when to leave town and move on, Jesus shifts gears —

Really? A pun so soon?

Yeah…at any rate…Jesus shifts gears to warn them about the sort of people they will meet as they spread the word of the kingdom on earth and do the will of their Father in heaven. He said,

16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves,

Matthew 10:16a

Jesus called the disciples sheep, just as he had called the “harassed and helpless” crowds sheep. The disciples knew the harassed and helpless crowds needed a shepherd — someone to bring the simple gospel of freedom to them so they might be healed and have a restored relationship with their Heavenly Father — but the disciples, the shepherds of those crowds, were also sheep in need of a shepherd. While they guided and protected the flocks they themselves were in need of guidance and protection from the wolves prowling about the Jewish landscape.

We must not miss that this fact of the disciples needing a shepherd is also appropriate and applicable today. Those who bring the gospel of peace to a wolf-torn world need to realize they do not sit at the top of the pyramid; that place and throne is reserved for the true shepherd, Jesus. And, just as a lone sheep or even a flock of sheep cannot protect themselves against a wolf, so also cannot a pastor, preacher, teacher, servant, or healer protect themselves from the wolves around them. To this end, Jesus tells them, “So hire yourselves a bigger wolf to scare away the little wolves.”

What?

Well, not really. Jesus actually told them,

so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:16b

But we don’t like to hear that. What we probably want to do when threatened is go on the offensive and give the wolf an eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-a-tooth, but Jesus told his disciples no such thing. He wanted the disciples to know the wolves seeking to harm them, and even be wise about their wicked ways, but the disciples must be innocent of any wrongdoing. But this isn’t the first time Jesus spoke words like these to them. When he was teaching on the mountainside he told them to “turn the other cheek” (Matt. 5:39). And in this case, that meant they should be wary of the wolves, but not return evil with evil. Remember, it is God’s right alone to repay the towns and people who reject the gospel, not ours (Deut. 32:35). And even though our natural instinct might be to return the attack, that’s not something a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven should do, and it’s not the will of the Father. Just in case, however, the disciples didn’t fully grasp what he meant, Jesus added these words,

17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake,

Matthew 10:17-18a

Not only will the wolves seek to harm them, but the wolves will also imprison the disciples, place them in chains, and take them to court, to the religious leaders, governors, and kings. They will be accused of blasphemy, denying the faith, following this crazy blasphemer, Jesus, and breaking the laws of man.

Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if at this point during Jesus’s instructions some of the disciples would have wanted to turn off the car because they realized how difficult driving on their own was going to be; it was comfortable to remain a passenger while Jesus sat in the driver’s seat. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if Jesus, once the disciples thought about turning the car off, stopped talking and looked them in the eyes. I can imagine an uncomfortable moment passing before the disciples saw the love and compassion in the eyes of their shepherd. And the eyes of their shepherd reminded them they were to be an extension of his love and compassion to the “harassed and helpless” sheep as they took the message of the kingdom and the healing will of the Father to them. But I don’t imagine Jesus left it at that. He had more they needed to know before he finished his sentence. He said,

to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

Matthew 10:18b

They had just been told to only drive around the block and preach the message of the kingdom to the house of Israel, but I think they understood what Jesus meant. Their first few times of driving on their own might have been limited to the house of Israel but, given the way the Pharisees and Sadducees had already reacted to Jesus, they knew the nation of Israel would eventually reject the message of the Father. And they knew that by being taken in front of courts and kings the gospel of the kingdom would inevitably spread to the Gentiles.

This is something Paul, much later, would discuss he wrote, “that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross” (Eph. 2:15-16). This reconciliation of both the Jews and Gentiles to the Father, Paul wrote, “was according to the eternal purpose that he has revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:11). This simple message of the kingdom to all nations has roots in the eternal mind of the Father in ways so complex that Paul, when finished writing about God’s plan of redemption in Romans, declared, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways” (Rom. 11:33).

The wolves thought that by attacking the sheep they would put an end to the Father’s kingdom on earth, but in reality, they were the very ones by whom the Father’s plan of redemption would be made available to the entire world. This is what Paul wrote about when he penned one of the most debated verses in the Bible. He said, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory — even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Rom. 9:22-24). Following Paul’s argument in Romans closely, it is simple to conclude that the leaders in the house of Israel — the Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected the message of the kingdom — were the “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” who allowed, by their rejection of Jesus, for the gospel of the kingdom to be made known to the Gentiles.

I realize not all of these thoughts passed through the minds of the disciples when Jesus stood outside the driver’s window. But I’m pretty sure all of this, and more, was in the mind of Jesus when he told the disciples to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Jesus knew the Father’s complex plan would be fulfilled when the simple sheep, the disciples, went out to shepherd the “harassed and helpless” sheep. He knew they would encounter wolves who would try to thwart them. And he knew that persecution by the wolves would spring the gospel open to the entire world. But Jesus didn’t want to lay all that on his disciples; it would be too much for them to handle at the time. They would have enough anxiety when it came to handling the coming persecution, they didn’t need an extra load of anxiety that came along with the knowledge of being vessels through which God’s eternal plan would be accomplished. It is with this in mind that Jesus offered these next words of assurance,

19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Matthew 10:19-20a

Jesus, the true Shepherd, was not sending the disciples out amongst wolves without the help of the Spirit. But the Spirit would not empower the disciples to bring the hammer down on the wolves. Rather, the Spirit would give the disciples the right words to say when the time came. They might have wanted assurances of protection, comfort, and predictability, but Jesus didn’t provide that. He told them the main and plain thing: bearing witness about the kingdom fulfills the will of the Father on earth as it is in heaven. As much as the disciples, or we might want protection, comfort, and predictability, we aren’t promised that. But God does promise us that the Spirit will provide the words when we are taken by the hands of wolves to be judged by our church, our community, or our nation.

That sounds like a difficult path.

Yeah, it is.

At least we have our families. That seems like one group of people who will always be there for us.

Well, about that. Jesus isn’t finished with his instructions. In fact, the next thing he says is,
21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

Matthew 10:20b-22a

Oh, flibbertigibbet!

Exactly. Jesus isn’t a pessimist, but with the kingdom needing to be preached to the Gentiles, Jesus is telling the disciples to get ready for a bumpy ride. But it isn’t a ride Jesus hasn’t, or won’t have already taken before they do. Jesus, as we all probably know, will be taken by the hands of wolves to the religious leaders and political leaders, his family will think him crazy, and pretty much all of Jerusalem will turn on him when they cry out “crucify him.” Even his closest friends, these very disciples whom he is instructing, will scatter the moment he is arrested. Jesus isn’t calling his disciples to a missionary version of glamping or some sort of protective staycation. Jesus is calling his disciples to head down a treacherous road while wolves tear at their car trying to drive them off a cliff. But traveling such a road is not a tragedy. Jesus said,

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Matthew 10:22b

We might want to place the emphasis of this sentence on the word “saved,” but the emphasis should really be placed on the word “endure.” Jesus does not say that eternal salvation is given to those who work really hard for the kingdom and endure persecution; such a thing would nullify Jesus’s work on the cross. Jesus is telling the disciples that the wolves may be able to persecute, torture, and put the disciples to death, but they have no power over the eternal home of those who stay true to the message of the kingdom and continue in the will of the Father.

Remember, these disciples haven’t left the driveway; they don’t know what is ahead. But Jesus tells them if, no matter what troubles they find on the road in front of them, they endure — if they continue preaching the kingdom and doing the will of the Father until their road ends — then they will have nothing to worry about. Every one of Jesus’s disciples, us included, travel roads of different lengths lined and filled with different obstacles, and Jesus only asks that we endure to the end of our road. But Jesus also knew there would be some obstacles too large for us to climb, so he told the disciples,

23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next,

Matthew 10:23a

I certainly do not wish to discount the work of the Spirit, but we can only do what we can do. Jesus told the disciples that when they encountered persecution they should move on. I realize this may sound defeatist, but I have seen enough in my years to know that sometimes we are like those monkeys who hold on to the slices of apple in the tethered coconuts: everything about the situation tells us we should move on, but we’ve become so determined to prove everyone else wrong and ourselves right that we are unwilling to let go. But Jesus does not call us to be stubborn; this sort of stubbornness often grows out of pride and misplaced responsibility. We are stubborn because we don’t want to appear to have failed and we think that how other people respond is our responsibility. But we are not responsible for the response to the message of the kingdom; we are only responsible for proclaiming and teaching the kingdom and providing aid where accepted.

The disciples were told to go, that’s it; they weren’t judged based on how others responded. Jesus said the harvest needed workers to glean the fields, the need only go. Whatever abundance is found in the fields is due to the power of Jesus and the Spirit. And if the field is found empty, we should move to another field where the crops are ripening. Jesus knew it made no sense to cast pearls before swine if the next town was filled with people who are awaiting the pearls of God’s kingdom. Jesus’s instructions were to spread the message of the kingdom as far as possible and to as many people as possible, nothing more. But Jesus also knew they wouldn’t complete the task he set before them. Jesus said,

for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Matthew 10:23b

Usually, when I read the phrase “before the Son of Man comes” I begin thinking about the second coming of Jesus, but I’m not sure that’s the way we should read these words. Jesus, still clearly instructing his disciples about their first trips out on their own, wasn’t teaching them about eschatology; they probably didn’t even know what that word meant.

Uh…I don’t either.

Eschatology is a big word meaning “the study of the end times.” We engage in eschatological thinking when we study the book of Revelation or Daniel or Ezekiel or Matthew 24 and 25 and try to understand what they are saying about the time when Jesus returns. But, at this point in the disciples’ lives, I think there’s a good chance they thought that Jesus, the Son of Man, would physically build his kingdom here on earth during their lifetime. But Jesus wasn’t even talking about that; he had something else in mind. When Jesus said, “before the Son of Man comes,” he was speaking of the coming of that kingdom he began proclaiming after his 40-day trial in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-17). Jesus was telling the disciples they wouldn’t finish their task of going to all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man, Jesus, was raised on the cross and headed to the grave.

I’m fairly certain the disciples had no idea what Jesus was saying at the time, but as we look back on his words, through the eyes of the Gospel writers, it becomes obvious that Jesus was preparing the disciples to endure the trials and persecutions awaiting them in the future. And, he was assuring them they would be protected and prepared, in the most important ways, as they passed along this life’s road proclaiming the kingdom and doing the will of the Father.

But who is going to sign up for all that? I mean, wolves persecuting them and taking them before synagogues, courts, and kings and family members seeking to kill them, and constant movement to avoid persecution, and not even finishing the task given them before the Son of Man met his death. Wow, what a deal!

Well, we do know that eleven out of twelve disciples took the deal; Judas, obviously, tried to get out of the hurt that was coming. But, instead of thinking about those 12, I wonder if later disciples — the disciples of today — have had the same percentage of people signing on to drive down the road surrounded by wolves? I mean, humble willingness to follow Jesus at any cost seems to be a rare trait. It seems like there are so many people, not just now but historically seeking their own glory, avoiding persecution at all costs, needing complete control over all situations, wanting to be remembered for their contribution…

I get the idea.

Even though Jesus isn’t done instructing his disciples, we are starting to get a fairly clear picture that he wasn’t calling his disciples to a life of comfort. Jesus called his disciples to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and to meet the needs of others even though such a path was laden with danger and persecution. Disciples are called to endure as they drive the car the way Jesus intended and along the path Jesus lays out for them, even if they aren’t in the car when it crosses the finish line. That is, in part, what it means to pray “…on earth as it is in heaven.”

That’s a lot to think about…

Yes, it is.

• Click HERE to go to the page containing all the posts for this study on The Lord’s Prayer and Matthew’s Gospel