Missionaries: Learning Through Practice

This post contains comments on Lesson 5, Matthew 10: Jesus and His Disciples.

The Study Guide focuses on Matthew 10. Parallel passages or passages with similar themes can be found at Mark 3:13-15; 6:7-13; Luke 6:13; 9:1-2; also Luke 10:1-12; John 13:12-17; Luke 12:2-9, 22-34, 51-53; John 15:18-16:4; 16:12-15.

The one idea that caught my attention was how Jesus sent out the disciples even though they had wrong just about all their ideas about the coming kingdom. The sending out probably occurred mid-way during Jesus' public ministry. It was before the Feeding of the Five-Thousand, which means it would have been before the Bread of Life discourse of John 6. In that light, the disciples understood even less than what I had assumed prior to looking at the chronology a bit more closely.

The message here I think is that God is able to use anyone whose goal and devotion are to Him. Does devotion have to even be primary? Could it be that the practice and experience of doing good for God helps develop devotion?

Another idea that is present is that God meets people where they are and He is able to use them as they are. The disciples were primarily Galilean Jews with all the nationalism and prejudice that came along with it. In their missionary trip Jesus accommodated their prejudices by not sending them out to the Samaritans or the Gentiles. I wonder if the "shaking the dust off" was also partly to accommodate the disciples' imperfect understandings and expectations regarding God's treatment of those who reject Him, either intentionally, or because they aren't yet ready to accept?

A third point I got is that the message of the kingdom of heaven is about healing, cleansing, and restoration. When I see the practical works mentioned twice in close proximity, I have to conclude that they are quite important. I also tend to see Matthew 10:8 describing the practical works to be an explanation of v. 7, which is the message, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (c.f., Luke 10:9 where the connection is even more explicit).

Could this account be suggesting that practical service to others is more helpful in developing a Christ-like character than sitting through more doctrinal classes? Could it be that the best way to grow closer to our heavenly Father is to go work in the vineyard (which is where I suspect He is) rather than spending more time studying the vineyard? Could it be that even our imperfect efforts in practical service are better than sitting in an ivory tower trying to perfect our knowledge of what practical service ought to look like?

The idea that salvation is somehow dependent upon knowledge has been ingrained into me, and I suspect quite a number of other Christians. Taking this week's lesson together with the parable of the final judgment of Matthew 25:31-46 begins to paint a radically different picture. The kingdom apparently is for those who are concerned about others and who do something about it, rather than those who are preoccupied with their own, individual salvation. If this is true as I strongly suspect, there are some things that I know I need to change in both my head and my hands.

I just have one observation on Matthew 10 itself. My reading leads me to conclude that this chapter is a compilation by Matthew on the theme of apostleship. The first 15 verses address the immediate situation of the disciples going out on a practical apostleship learning experience. The remainder of the chapter is probably from a later period in Jesus' ministry. Some of the subthemes appear in the other Synoptics at later points. But the bulk of it seems to share quite a bit in common with Jesus' final address (during and after the Last Supper) in John's gospel account (regarding the master/servant relationship, persecution, and the Holy Spirit). I think John himself gives strong evidence that the discussion of persecution and hardships didn't take place until the very end (c.f., John 16:4). I think, too, that the discussion of hardships wouldn't have made any sense to the disciples and would have been completely out of context since Jesus was still a very popular figure (recall this was prior to the Bread of Life discourse after which many left Jesus).

The reason I bring this up is that the lesson implies (Thursday) that the latter discussion was part of the earlier one when there is strong evidence to the contrary. By removing the direct tie between the two parts, I think it provides even more support to the idea that we do not need to know or understand everything before we go out and serve God.

The primary principle I learned from this week's study is that God has already given us enough knowledge. Our mission is to go and put that knowledge into practice. In doing so God can work with our efforts (and mistakes) to teach us what we need to learn to take the next step. What I think He wants us to learn more than anything else is His love and compassion for the world. He wants to grow in us the same kind of love and compassion. How can God teach us more about Himself if we aren't putting what we know into practice?