The Church is Sent Out: 14 June, 2020

Matthew 9:35–10:8 [9-23]

The church’s activity is directed by Jesus’ compassion. Seeing the needs of the crowds, he sends the twelve disciples out to announce the nearness of the kingdom of heaven and to enact its nearness by healing. . . . There is an implicit condemnation of the religious leadership, in that the people are judged to be “without a shepherd.”

. . . The Twelve not only served as Jesus’ inner circle, but also symbolized a restored twelve tribes of Israel, standing as a sign that through Jesus’ ministry God was renewing the covenant people. When Matthew names the twelve, he also calls them “apostles” (apostolos, messenger, ambassador). The shift in vocabulary suggests that the church exists for the sake of the world, sent out as Jesus’ representatives to announce the reign of God.

The following verses begin the second large block of teaching in Matthew. Known as the “Mission Discourse,” it functions on two levels at once. It tells the story of Jesus sending the Twelve as his representatives to Israel, while at the same time it speaks to the needs of Matthew’s Jewish Christian community in its mission to the gentiles. . . .

They are sent without money, bag, extra tunic or staff. They are to remain dependent upon the hospitality of those who will receive them, a sign of depending upon God . . . The command may also express an explicit rejection of common attitudes toward wealth, power and violence (a staff was not merely a walking stick, but also a weapon for defending oneself). Jesus’ followers are sent out poor and defenseless, like sheep among wolves, because human devotion to wealth, power and violence is one of the mortal diseases Jesus has come to heal. –– Aaron J. Couch

Exodus 19:2–8a

This reading recalls the arrival of the tribes of Israel at Mt. Sinai. God prepares the people to receive the covenant, reminding them of how they were delivered from the Egyptians. God rescued Israel so that the people could receive God’s covenant and become God’s “treasured possession.” Israel is to be “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” . . . God’s people are to be a light to nations, revealing the goodness of God. –– Aaron J. Couch

Romans 5:1-8

Paul celebrates the peace that comes from God through Jesus. Peace is . . . living in the wholeness of restored relationship with our Creator God. . . a consequence of what God has done. . . .

Knowing such peace causes us to boast! We take pride, not in our own accomplishments, but in the goodness of God (something we do not possess, but receive as a promise). But then Paul’s thinking takes a surprising turn. We even boast in our suffering! The afflictions of this life are not meaningless for those who know God’s love in Jesus. . . . As we persevere through affliction, we see that God is truly at work in our lives, which makes our hearts alive with hope. –– Aaron J. Couch

Aaron Couch is a co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon.

Homily Service 38, no. 7 (2005): 15-25.