Sent with his authority: the mission discourse of Matthew 10

Matthew is the first book of the New Testament and the first of the four Gospels. The book does not name its author. From the second century the Church held that it was written by Matthew, the tax collector whom Jesus called (9:9; 10:3). The earliest witness is Papias of Hierapolis, quoted by the historian Eusebius, who says that Matthew compiled the 'sayings' of the Lord in the Hebrew manner. What Papias meant is disputed. Many modern scholars hold that the Gospel was written in Greek by an unnamed Jewish Christian who drew on Mark; others defend authorship by the apostle, perhaps building on an earlier Aramaic collection.

The date is debated too. Most scholars place the Gospel in the 80s of the first century, after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, because they read the king who burns a city in the parable of 22:7 as an allusion to it. Others argue for the 60s or earlier. The first readers were most likely Jewish-Christian congregations in a Greek-speaking city, with Antioch in Syria a frequent proposal, though that is an inference. The purpose is clearer: Matthew shows that Jesus is the Messiah, son of David and son of Abraham (1:1), in whom Israel's Scriptures are fulfilled, and he gathers Jesus' teaching into five discourses, each closed with 'when Jesus had finished' (7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1).

The relation of Matthew to Mark and Luke is the synoptic problem. The most widely held solution is that Matthew and Luke each used Mark together with a collection of sayings called Q, known only by inference. Some drop Q and argue that Luke used Matthew; a minority hold that Matthew came first and Mark abbreviated it.

Matthew 10 is the second discourse. It follows the Sermon on the Mount and a run of miracles in chapters 8 and 9, and Jesus' word that the harvest is great and the workers few (9:37-38). The twelve are now sent to do what he has been doing. Mark 6:7-13 and Luke 9:1-6 report this sending briefly; Luke 10:1-12 reports a similar sending of a larger group. Matthew's chapter is longer because it gathers warnings that Mark places in the Olivet discourse (Mark 13:9-13) and sayings that Luke scatters (Luke 12:2-9, 51-53; 14:26-27). The effect is that words to the twelve reach beyond their first journey to the whole later mission.

Matthew 10 is a teaching discourse inside a narrative: a master instructing commissioned messengers in commands, warnings, proverbs and promises. Two features need care.

• First, Jesus uses vivid, sometimes deliberately extreme speech (the sword, loving family less than him, losing one's life). In Jewish teaching such sayings fix a priority and are not literal rules.
• Second, the discourse blends two horizons. Some instructions belong to this first journey in Galilee, such as the ban on carrying a bag and the limit to Israel. Others plainly look past it, as when the disciples stand before 'governors and kings' and 'the Gentiles' (10:18). Matthew has joined the sayings so that the first journey becomes a pattern for the whole mission.

The literary context is chapters 5 to 9, where Jesus has been shown as teacher and healer (4:23; 9:35), and Matthew has just said that the crowds were like sheep without a shepherd (9:36). The mission is the shepherd's answer. The chapter is best read historically first: what these instructions meant to twelve Jewish men sent to Jewish villages in Galilee during Jesus' ministry. Then, because Matthew arranged the material for churches that would read it, ask how the same sayings frame the later mission.

Verses 1–4

Jesus 'gave them authority over unclean spirits' and over 'every disease and sickness'. The Greek word for authority (exousia) is the one Matthew used of Jesus' own teaching and healing (7:29; 9:6). The twelve receive no power of their own; they are given his. The number points to the twelve tribes of Israel, and Jesus will later say the twelve will sit on twelve thrones judging the tribes (19:28). In calling twelve he is gathering Israel anew. The word apostle means 'one sent'. Peter is called 'first', and Matthew names himself 'the tax collector', a reminder of how far grace reached. The list ends with Judas Iscariot, 'who betrayed Jesus'. 'Simon the Zealot' may mean zeal for the Law rather than the revolutionary movement, which took shape later.

Verses 5–6

'Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.' The limit is surprising in a Gospel that ends with 'all nations' (28:19), and Matthew keeps both. The mission comes first to Israel, as the promise to Abraham came first to his family, and the opening to the nations follows the resurrection. Jesus uses the same phrase of himself in 15:24. 'Lost sheep' draws on Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 50:6, where Israel's shepherds had scattered the flock.

Verses 7–8

The message is the one John the Baptist (3:2) and Jesus (4:17) preached: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' The works that go with it are the signs Jesus names to John in 11:5, and only Matthew's list includes raising the dead. The rule follows: 'Freely you have received; freely give.' What they carry is a gift and is not sold.

Verses 9–15

They are to carry no gold, silver or copper, no bag, no spare tunic, no sandals, no staff, because 'the worker is worthy of his provisions.' They depend on the hospitality of the towns. Mark 6:8-9 allows a staff and sandals while Matthew forbids them. Both stress dependence; interpreters suggest Matthew means no spare ones. The greeting, in Hebrew shalom, was a real blessing: if the house is worthy, the peace rests on it; if not, it returns. Shaking dust from the feet was what a Jew did on leaving Gentile land, so doing it to a Jewish town says that it has put itself outside the covenant people. Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 15) show that rejecting this message carries a graver judgment than the notorious sin of those cities.

Verses 16–23

'I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.' The sheep are not made safe. To be 'as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves' pairs prudence (phronimos) with purity (akeraios, 'unmixed'). Verses 17-18 describe trials before councils, floggings in synagogues and appearances before governors and kings; Paul says he received the synagogue flogging five times (2 Corinthians 11:24). 'As witnesses to them and to the Gentiles' turns the trials into occasions for testimony. In verses 19-20 'the Spirit of your Father' will speak through them. Family members will betray one another, and they will be hated 'because of My name'; the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. Verse 23 is difficult and is taken up in the note below.

Verses 24–25

A disciple is not above his teacher. If the master of the house was called Beelzebul, the household will be called worse. This is the accusation Jesus' opponents will make in 12:24. The disciples share his treatment, and the first hint appears that their calling includes his suffering.

Verses 26–31

Three times Jesus says 'do not be afraid'. The reasons are: hidden things will be made known, so the message is to be spoken openly; the One to fear is God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna); and the Father cares for sparrows, sold for almost nothing, and counts the hairs of the head. The argument runs from lesser to greater: 'you are worth more than many sparrows.'

Verses 32–33

Whoever confesses Jesus before men will be confessed before the Father, and whoever denies him will be denied. Jesus places himself at the centre of the final judgment.

Verses 34–39

'I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.' The sword means division, as the quotation of Micah 7:6 in verses 35-36 shows. Even the closest family may be split by the claim of Jesus. Love for family is not forbidden; it must not be set above him. The cross appears here for the first time in Matthew. The hearers knew crucifixion as a Roman punishment, so 'take up his cross' meant to accept the road to execution. Verse 39 is a paradox: holding on to life loses it, and losing it for Jesus finds it.

Verses 40–42

The chapter ends in welcome. To receive the messenger is to receive Jesus, and to receive Jesus is to receive 'the One who sent Me'. The line of sending runs from the Father through the Son to the apostles. A cup of cold water given to a 'little one', a disciple, will have its reward.

The chapter gathers themes that run through the whole Bible. The first is mission. God sending a person with a word, seen in Moses (Exodus 3:10) and Isaiah (Isaiah 6:8), is here extended to twelve who carry the word and deeds of the Messiah. The order, first Israel and then the nations, follows the promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham's family (Genesis 12:3) and recurs in Acts 1:8 and Romans 1:16. The message that the kingdom of heaven is near means that God's promised reign is arriving in the person and deeds of Jesus; healings and raisings are signs of it, as Isaiah promised (Isaiah 35:5-6).

• The second is suffering. The mission will meet hatred, in line with a pattern of rejected messengers from Elijah and Jeremiah to the prophets who were beaten and killed (Matthew 23:34-37). Opposition is not proof that the mission has failed.
• The third is providence. The Father who counts the hairs of the head knows the fall of a sparrow.
• The last is the Spirit's help in witness (10:19-20), a promise that finds its fulfilment in Acts, where the apostles speak before councils and kings.

The chapter says a great deal about Jesus without describing him. He has authority to hand on authority over demons and disease (10:1). He is the sent One, and the line of sending runs from the Father to him to the apostles (10:40). His name provokes hatred (10:22), the charge of Beelzebul is aimed at him first (10:25), his confession before men settles confession before the Father (10:32-33), and his claim on love exceeds that of father, mother, son and daughter (10:37). No Old Testament prophet said such things of himself.

The Old Testament text in view is Micah 7:6, where the prophet described a society so broken that a man's enemies are in his own household. Jesus says he has come to bring that division. This is best read as fulfilment in the sense that Micah's picture of broken households finds sharper occasion when the Messiah arrives and demands first loyalty. The saying about the cross points ahead to 16:24 and to his own execution; the one who tells the twelve to take up a cross will carry one, and their road follows his.

The line 'He who receives you receives Me' anticipates the end of the Gospel. There the risen Jesus, having been given all authority, sends the disciples to all nations and promises to be with them always (28:18-20). The authority given in 10:1 and the presence promised in 28:20 are the same, now unlimited.