Breaking the Word

 As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words– go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that town. (Mt 10:7-15)

The instruction which Jesus gives to the apostles seems to be totally unique. No leader who wants to form or propose a movement would give such instructions. The instructions tell them to be healers, restorers, and people of hope. It does not give any status to the apostles and they are in no way to make money out of their work. Their journey should in no way be seen as provided. That is they were not to carry anything (even a sack which probably a beggar would carry)  

About the arrival into a village and the related rules are still interesting. They were not to be like religious leaders who visit house after house sharing a new God experience. They were not to visit the villages with new teachings. They were going into the villages to announce the arrival of the kingdom and keep moving. Their mission was urgent.

Their message and their mission were to announce the message that new life was dawning in Jesus. It was a life of peace. If they accept it, well and good. Otherwise it would be like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19, 24-28). So the mission of the apostles should be such that it has no relation to what the contemporaries would be doing. It was totally a new way of approach. 

Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' (Mt 10:1-7)

The passage begins with the content of the activities the twelve. Jesus gives them authority. This authority is over unclean spirits and the physical conditions of the people. Naturally, it is not a social or a civil authority but an authority from the divine. Jesus has come in the name of God and he is the son of God and it is this authority that he shares with his apostles.

He has chosen exactly twelve. In the biblical world the number twelve signifies totality. This is the first time in Matthew’s gospel they are called apostles. Jesus own belief was that God was working in him and God was restoring and renewing Israel. Israel had twelve tribes. The twelve apostles were part of the means through which God was renewing and restoring Israel for a new Exodus.

Probably that is why he tells the apostles not to go the gentiles. It is true that he had come for the salvation of all. He himself had said that the Gentiles would flood into the kingdom (8:11). After his resurrection Jesus would reverse his instruction and ask the apostles to go the Gentiles (28:19). But there is an immediate and urgent mission. Israel must hear the message first and they should be given chance first. God first fulfils his promise to Israel and the to the rest of creation.