Reading: Matthew 10-12.
Right from the start, being a disciple of Jesus was never easy as these chapters show. But the difficulties associated with remaining openly and faithful to Christ before a watching and unsympathetic world must not cause us to become secret or silent disciples. We are to live out the reality of our faith in Him despite the possible consequences; the stakes are too high not to.
Chapter 10: By the end of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus' disciples will be sent out on a Great Commission to "make disciples from all nations" (Matt 28: 18-20). The short-term missions' trip described here in Chapter 10 (an answer to 9:37-38?) is an opportunity to sense what they can expect in the future, to learn missions and disciple-making 'on-the-job', and to come back knowing that Jesus will be there to debrief their experiences and to offer support and encouragement.
His preparatory instructions underline the difficulties they will face, despite their intention to bless others in Jesus' name (v1,8). Ahead of them lies the insecurity of neither food nor shelter (v9-16); the probability of civic hostility, arrests and trials (v17-20); family divisions, betrayal, persecution, even death (v21-23, 28, 32-34); misunderstanding and shame (v35-37), and all the while - having to persevere against these push-backs with Christlike grace (v40-42). Such loyalty and faithfulness to King Jesus is the pathway to life (v38-39) in which the love and protecting care of the Father are sensed (v28-31) in ways that could otherwise never be. Who'd be a missionary, eh? And yet many experience these very same difficulties today as they serve in Jesus' name. Have you prayed for any you know today?
Chapter 11: the darkness in ch. 10 spills over into this chapter. John the Baptist is in prison; furthermore, his faith in Jesus as the promised God-appointed Messiah has been knocked (v2-3) because He is not doing what the people think a Messiah should do. Others have drifted further into unbelief, worthy of God's judgement (v20-23). But for struggling disciples, trying to be faithful but overwhelmed with exhaustion, doubts, questions, burdens, fears, the unexpected and the inexplicable, there is the assurance that Jesus knows, that He cares, that He loves and that He will meet us in our needs with the comfort of His presence and peace (v28-30).
Chapter 12: if anything, the darkness deepens here as the opposition of the religious establishment against Jesus comes into the open. Convinced that He is not of God and in order to protect the people from His malevolent influence and further God's true cause, they set out to trap Jesus as a blatant Law-breaker by becoming Law-breakers (v14). They accuse Him of disobeying Sabbath regulations (v1-14) and of being in cahoots with Satan (v22-37), thereby revealing their own hardness of heart and of being dominated by Satan themselves (v43-45).But Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, bringing blessing to those in need (v11-13); He is God's true Servant (v18), come to bring justice and relief to those ensnared in the Pharisees' legalism; and He is the One who is greater than the Temple (v6), greater than the prophet Jonah (v41) and greater than King Solomon (v42). Don't think that mere religious reverence is the road to God, it's not. This chapter shows mere religious observance hardens hearts; Jesus has come to change them (v48-49).
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