I recently read Matthews 10 and was struck by the details Jesus instructed his twelve special disciples whom he called apostles for the first time. The word apostle from Greek is apostolos, which means messenger, or from apostellein, which means to send off (which was later translated into Latin as missio, the source of the English "missionary"). Matthew spent the whole chapter to record Jesus' instructions to his apostles before sending them off (Mark's Gospel has a shorter version but highlighted that Jesus sent them out two by two to towns in Galilee - Mark 6:7-13). He gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. This is particularly relevant to me since my vocation involves the "healing" of disease and sickness. I have never driven out impure spirits in the sense of casting out demonic forces in other people's lives but I take this to mean helping people see the "light" of Jesus. This is similar to Paul's understanding of Jesus' call to him in Acts 26:18 "I am sending you to them (gentiles, or non-Jews) to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’"
For Jesus' disciples, Matthew recorded the famous "Sermon on the Mount" in chapters 5 to 7. The sermon describes what the perfect kingdom of God looks like. It's like a roadmap for us as a community of believers - showing us how to relate to each other and to the world. Chapter 10, the "Sermon for the Apostles" focuses more on how we relate to those to whom God sends us with the gospel which is nicely summed up in Psalm 103:2-5
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Who are these apostles (see a good reverence)? Their names are "Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." (verses 2-4). There is an interesting comparison of the "list" between the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in Wikipedia. Of these, four (Andrew and Peter, James and John) were known to be fishermen by trade. Matthew, who was the only apostle whose ancestor was from the priesthood tribe (Levi), was a tax collector. Tax collectors were generally despised by the Scribes and the Pharisees as greedy and corrupt, since they collected taxes from the Jews for King Herod Antipas, the client ruler of the great Roman empire, while reaping a profit in the process. It is interesting to see how this rich tax collector, who should have been a priest, became the early missionary to a people who despised him. It most certainly required "power from above" for sure! Simon the Zealot was a radical and a revolutionary against the ruling Romans. Little else is known about him but it's interesting to imagine someone who changed from wanting to make change by force to someone doing it with love! And then of course there is Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus and hanged himself when he became remorseful with what he had done. Did he not also receive power from Jesus to do good to those he was sent to? Or did he get corrupted along the way by the fact that he was the treasurer of the new Jesus movement and he didn't like doing good without proper return on investment? Hard to say but it's definitely a caution for me (see my work with OSCAR).
This blog is getting too long already. I will do another one on Jesus' instructions in Matthew 10.
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