Conversation Points for Matthew 10:40-42

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 very end of the speech, about sharing the presence of Christ. At the beginning, Jesus addressed the disciples about how they were to spread the message, Jesus ended with how they were to receive.
• Implied in the phrase “whoever welcomes you welcomes me” is the Christological claim that Jesus is God. Not only are the disciples representatives of Christ under his own authority and power, but through Christ they represent God who is Christ.
• This section also makes clear that the focus of this message is not only on the Twelve, but on all the disciples, both those called to travel and spread the message and those called to stay and welcome the travelers.
• “Prophets” is an important phrase to unpack. The modern understanding of prophet is along the lines of a fortune teller or future predictor. But the Greek and Hebrew understanding of prophet was quite different. A prophet wasn’t someone who predicted the future; a prophet was a person who told the truth about the present. The prophets in the Old Testament recognize the hard truths of Israel’s failures and share those failures and the natural consequences of them.
• “Little ones” (v. 42) is a common Matthean phrase for ordinary Christians, new converts, and/or people with low societal status.

Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.