Today's main idea: Jesus cares deeply for people and sends his followers to share his good news. Following him can be costly, but the Father knows us and our service matters to him.
Read Slowly
Main reading: Matthew 9:35–10:42
Read the opening scene before moving into Jesus' instructions. Keep his compassion in mind as he speaks about the work, its dangers, and the care his disciples will receive.
In Day 13, we saw Jesus give personal attention to a suffering woman and a grieving family. Here, his care for the crowds leads him to involve his disciples in his work.
Jesus Sees People Who Need a Shepherd
Jesus travels through cities and villages, teaching, announcing the good news of God's kingdom, and healing. The kingdom is God's rule coming near through Jesus. His words and actions show people what that rule brings.
When he sees the crowds, he has compassion for them. Matthew describes them as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep need someone to guide, protect, and feed them. Jesus sees people who need that kind of care.
This recalls Moses' prayer in Numbers 27:15–17. As his leadership nears its end, Moses asks God to appoint someone to lead the people so they will not be sheep without a shepherd. Here, Jesus sees the need, cares for the people himself, and prepares others to serve them.
Then he speaks about a plentiful harvest and too few workers. There are people to reach, and the disciples should ask God to send help.
Notice what happens next: the people told to pray for workers are the people Jesus sends. Their prayer draws them into the need they have brought before God.1
When I pray for someone to receive help or hear about Jesus, I can also make myself available. Compassion begins with noticing the person, and it can lead to a responsibility I had not expected.
Remember: Jesus sees people's need, and he can involve me in the help I pray for.
Jesus Gives His Disciples Work That Resembles His Own
Jesus calls the twelve disciples and gives them authority over evil spirits and disease. Matthew names them individually, including Matthew the tax collector and Judas, who will betray him. These are particular people whom Jesus calls and equips.
The description of their authority repeats the description of his healing work at the beginning of the reading. They are to announce God's kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Their work is an extension of the mercy they have seen in Jesus.2
He sends them first to the lost sheep of Israel. This mission has a specific starting place. After his resurrection, Jesus will send his followers to make disciples of all nations in Matthew 28:18–20.
Jesus also tells them to give freely because they received freely. The authority and help they offer come from him. That gift should shape the spirit in which they serve.
For us, this invites a generous response to what Jesus has given. We can speak about him plainly and serve without making people earn our attention or gratitude.
Remember: What I receive from Jesus should shape what I give to others.
Jesus Teaches Them to Depend on Help and Take His Message Seriously
For this journey, Jesus tells the disciples to travel without money and extra supplies. They are to receive food and lodging from people who welcome them. The workers who bring help will also need help themselves.
That is a humbling part of their mission. They have authority to heal, yet they still need someone to give them a meal and a place to stay. Serving Jesus includes receiving ordinary care from other people.
They enter homes with a greeting of peace. Where people reject both them and their words, they are to leave and shake the dust from their feet. This visible action marks the seriousness of the rejection.
Jesus says that such a town will face a judgment more severe than Sodom and Gomorrah. The good news carries a real call to respond. Rejecting the messengers and the message means rejecting the one who sent them.
The disciples are responsible to speak faithfully and move on when they are refused. God will judge the response. We can take Jesus' message seriously while entrusting people's response to him.
Remember: I can serve faithfully, receive help humbly, and leave judgment with God.
Jesus Prepares Them for Opposition and Promises the Spirit's Help
Jesus now describes the disciples as sheep among wolves. Earlier, he saw sheep who needed a shepherd. Now he sends his followers into danger. The change is striking: sharing his compassion can make them vulnerable.
They will need wisdom and innocence together. They must recognize danger and act carefully while remaining honest and free from malice.
Jesus speaks of arrests, beatings, appearances before rulers, and betrayal within families. His instructions reach beyond this first journey into the suffering his followers will face as they continue his work. Even forced appearances before rulers will become occasions to speak about him.
In those moments, the Spirit of their Father will give them words. The Father is involved in their witness. They will not face their accusers with only their own resources.
Jesus calls them to endure and promises salvation to the one who endures to the end. He also tells them to flee to another town when persecuted. Continuing to follow him can mean leaving one place and carrying the message elsewhere.
His statement about the Son of Man coming before they finish the towns of Israel is difficult. Christians differ over whether it refers to an event such as his resurrection or judgment on Jerusalem, or to his final return. Craig Blomberg understands it as the continuing mission to Israel remaining unfinished until Jesus returns. In the flow of the passage, Jesus calls his followers to keep carrying the message forward despite opposition.3
For us, courage can mean telling the truth about our faith when silence would protect our reputation. We can ask for the Spirit's help and take the next faithful step.
Remember: Jesus knows the opposition his followers face, and the Father's Spirit helps them bear witness.
Jesus Gives Us Reasons to Be Courageous
A disciple should expect to be treated like his teacher. Jesus has been accused of being connected with the ruler of demons. His followers may also be slandered.
Then Jesus repeatedly tells them not to fear. What is hidden will be revealed. They are to speak openly what he has taught them. Other people's hostility cannot make his message untrue.
He tells them to fear God, who has authority over both body and soul and can judge the whole person in hell. Human power can be terrifying, but it is limited. God's judgment has the final weight.
Immediately, Jesus describes this same God as their Father. He knows when a sparrow falls and has counted the hairs on their heads. His authority and personal care belong together. The disciples' courage rests in knowing whose judgment matters and how closely that Father knows them.4
Jesus then promises to acknowledge before his Father those who acknowledge him before others. He also warns that he will deny those who deny him. Our response to Jesus matters beyond the moment when it feels uncomfortable.
When someone asks what I believe, I can answer honestly and respectfully. The Father's knowledge of me gives me a reason to speak even when I cannot control how the answer will be received.
Remember: My Father knows me completely, and Jesus calls me to acknowledge him openly.
Jesus Calls for a Love Greater Than Every Other Loyalty
Jesus says his coming brings a sword, and he explains that image through divided households. People within the same family will respond differently to him. Following Jesus can bring conflict into the relationships we value most.
His words draw on Micah 7:5–7, where trust has broken down even within families. Micah responds by looking to God for salvation. Jesus prepares his disciples for that same painful need to trust God when the people closest to them oppose them.
He says that loving a parent or child more than him makes a person unworthy of him. That is an extraordinary claim. Jesus asks for the first place in our love, even above our closest family bonds.
Then he calls his followers to take up their cross. A cross was an instrument of execution. Following him means accepting shame, suffering, and even death for his sake.
The next saying explains why someone would do this: the person who loses life for Jesus will find it. Trying to preserve life by refusing him ends in loss. Entrusting life to him, whatever obedience costs, leads to the life he gives.
This reaches into our daily decisions. If pleasing someone I love requires disobeying Jesus, I must follow Jesus. I can speak with tenderness and still obey him when agreement is impossible.
Remember: Jesus is worthy of my deepest love, even when following him costs me dearly.
Jesus Notices the Person Who Offers a Cup of Water
After the warnings, Jesus speaks about welcome. Receiving his messengers means receiving him, and receiving him means receiving the Father who sent him.
This gives hospitality a meaning larger than the act itself. Someone who welcomes a prophet or a righteous person because of their service to God shares in the reward connected with that welcome.
Jesus brings the example down to a cup of cold water given to one of his disciples. The person receiving it may seem unimportant, but Jesus identifies that disciple with himself and promises that the giver's kindness will be remembered.
This also answers a need from earlier in the chapter. Jesus sends people who will depend on food, lodging, and welcome. At the end, he honors the people who provide that care. The one who goes and the one who opens a door both participate in his work.
We can help someone serving Jesus through a meal, a place to stay, or practical support. A small act offered because that person belongs to him matters to him.
Remember: Jesus values the ordinary care I give to someone who belongs to him.
What We Learn About Jesus
Jesus sees people with compassion. He cares about their suffering and their need to hear the good news of God's kingdom.
He has authority to send and equip his disciples. Their message and their service come from him, and the way people receive them is connected to the way they receive him.
He speaks honestly about judgment, suffering, and the cost of following him. He asks for our deepest love and promises life to those who give themselves to him.
He also assures his followers that the Father knows them. Even in danger, they are known and valued. Even a cup of water given in his name matters.
How the Reading Fits Together
The passage begins with Jesus looking at needy people and ends with someone giving a disciple a drink. Between those scenes, Jesus sends workers whose lives will involve both offering mercy and receiving it.
The repeated picture of sheep holds compassion and danger together. Jesus sees the crowds' vulnerability, then prepares his own followers for vulnerability. His care continues through the Father's Spirit, the Father's detailed knowledge of them, and the welcome of people who receive them.
There is also a growing connection between Jesus and those he sends. They do work like his, face treatment like his, and represent him when they enter a home. Knowing Jesus draws his followers into a life that increasingly resembles his.
Take a Moment with Jesus
- Who have I been praying for, and what part could I take in the help or encouragement that person needs?
- Whose disapproval makes it hardest for me to speak honestly about Jesus or obey him? What does the Father's care invite me to trust?
- Who is serving Jesus in a way I could support through ordinary hospitality or practical help?
Prayer
Jesus, give me your compassion for people I pass by or find difficult to love. Help me speak about you honestly and follow you when I am afraid of the cost. Teach me to trust my Father's care, receive help humbly, and give generously. Amen.
One Thing to Do
Choose one person who is serving Jesus and offer a specific form of help this week, such as a meal, a ride, or help with a task. Pray for that person by name, then make the offer.
Carry This with You
Jesus calls me to share his compassion and follow him with courage. My Father knows me, and even my ordinary acts of care matter to him.
Sources Consulted
Source citations
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Chelsey Harmon, Center for Excellence in Preaching commentary, on the disciples becoming participants in the answer to their prayer. ↩
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Colin Yuckman, Working Preacher commentary, on the repeated descriptions of Jesus' ministry and the disciples' commission. ↩
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Craig Blomberg, discussion of the Son of Man's coming, on the mission's longer horizon and differing interpretations of the saying. ↩
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Stanley Saunders, Working Preacher commentary, on Jesus' repeated encouragement against fear and the Father's authority and care. ↩
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