Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• One of the unique organizational features of Matthew’s Gospel is it combines the teachings of Jesus into five long speeches. This is the second of those five speeches, what is known by scholars as the Missionary Discourse. Both Mark and Luke contain a missionary charge to the disciples, but only Matthew brings all of these teachings together into one location.
• The Missionary Discourse is organized in a chiastic structure (a common literary organizational tendency of Matthew, a simple example would be two ideas A and B, and two variants A’ and B’, organized A, B, B’, A’). The structure for this speech is A: sharing the authority of Christ and his reception (10:5b-15), B: the fate of the disciples (10:16-23), C: call to courageous confession (10:24-33), B’: the cost of discipleship (10:34-39), A’: sharing the presence of Christ and his reception (10:40-42). Today’s reading is the center point of this speech, the call to courage for the disciples, and the variant on the cost of disciples. In 10:16-23, Jesus told them that they would be handed over to councils, flogged, hated, etc. In 10:34-39, he repeated some of those hard truths, not bringing peace but a sword, setting families against each other, etc.
• V. 24-25 are the transitional verses in the speech. That the disciples are to be or become like their teacher is conventional wisdom. Since only Jesus could be the teacher, this moves the speech from generalities to the specific relationship of Christians to Christ. Just as Jesus was persecuted, so too will be his disciples. Just as he did not retaliate but withdrew, so too should his disciples not retaliate.
• This honest portrayal of persecution, and the persecution the disciples may already have faced, may have caused some disciples to already be afraid to speak. To counter that, Jesus twice repeated the command not to be afraid. It should be noted that the harshness of v. 32-33 is not directed at new followers of Jesus making an initial confession of faith, but of disciples who already profess faith and yet are afraid to speak out.
• V. 34 with its peace and sword language is confusing, especially when we think of Jesus as the “Prince of Peace.” Two thoughts, one from Pastor Kjersten’s own head, and one from Dr. Boring. From Pastor Kjersten’s own head, “peace” in the Roman empire was a loaded political term. The “pax romana” or “peace of Rome” was not peace like equality or justice, it was peace through strength. “Peace” was held in place by control, and anyone who broke the peace was killed or otherwise removed. Jesus, in fact, will be crucified essentially for disturbing the peace. The peace of Rome, a peace that relied on violence, fear, and the oppression of those on the bottom by those on top, was not what Jesus came to bring. Jesus came to bring eternal life, but to bring eternal life requires toppling the power structures that keep some oppressed, and toppling those structures does not feel very peaceful. From Dr. Boring on the sword Jesus came to bring. Boring says the “sword” here is not a political symbol, not a reference to violence, but an eschatological (related to the judgment at the end of days) one.
• V. 35-36, “I have come to set…” family members against each other reflect the very real situation the people who were reading Matthew’s Gospel were experiencing, where they were at times called to choose between their family and their faith.
• The abruptness of the cross reference in v. 38 is another example of the post-Easter perspective of the writer of Matthew’s Gospel. The disciples in the moment would not have understood what Jesus was talking about, but there is no mention of their surprise or confusion, because the audience reading the Gospel already knew where the story was headed.
Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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