Matthew 10:41-42, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward..."

Matthew 10:41-42

It may be hard to understand the language of this passage when Jesus says, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, etc." But from my commentary reading I understand that he means to say, "He who receives a prophet just for the sake of his being a prophet." You may not know the guy personally, but if all you know is that this is a prophet of God, and you show him hospitality, you will receive a prophet's reward. You've done your part in the ministry that God has given him, and you won't be overlooked.

The same goes with receiving a righteous man. Quite often you read in Paul's epistles how he would send Timothy or Titus to minister in his stead to the Corinthians or to some other church congregation. The congregation didn't know who these men were personally, but knowing that these workers were sent by the apostle Paul was good enough for them, and they received them as they would have received Paul himself. It's the same when your pastor isn't able to preach on a given Sunday, so he invites another brother to come and minister the Word. As a congregation you welcome and receive the message this brother brings because he was commended to you by your pastor.

I associate this passage with the one in Hebrews 13:1-2, "Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it." Sure, there are false brethren in the church, and you always have to be careful about trusting strangers. But when you recognize another brother or sister in Christ, it is a unique aspect of Christian love that we are ready to minister to them, even though we don't know anything else about them, simply because we share the bond of knowing Jesus Christ. You might meet someone randomly while waiting at the airport or while on jury duty. You find out they are also a Christian, and pretty soon you're sharing about this and that, and pretty soon you're saying, "I'll pray for you" to each other as you part ways. Total strangers, but you have a bond in Christ. It just sort of happens automatically. (And it's kind of fun to think that maybe God sends people our way who aren't really people, but angels in disguise, just to keep us wondering.)

Some of the missionaries you support are actually strangers to you. That is, they may be people you've never met in person, but you had heard of the faithful work they were doing on the field and wanted to support them. I'll bet you never really thought about that before. Jesus says you'll be rewarded for your faithfulness. And yet Jesus also says in our passage that you don't have to even minister to prophets and righteous men to be rewarded. Your service to the littlest disciple won't be overlooked, even if it's as simple as giving him or her a cup of cold water. If you give to anyone in the name of a disciple, that is, just because they are a disciple of Christ, you shall not lose your reward.

Matthew 10:40 - "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me."

Matthew 10:40

If you look at John 20:21 Jesus says, "As the Father sent me, so also I send you." So our passage here in Matthew makes sense: whoever receives a disciple, receives Jesus who sent him, and whoever receives Jesus receives the Father who sent him. There is a chain that links the Father to Jesus to us. The chain works in reverse order too: from us to Jesus to the Father. For example John 15:18, 23 says, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before you....He who hates me hates my Father also." We are in union with Jesus who is in union with the Father. And the Son is such an effective mediator that the connection he establishes between us and the Father is utterly seamless.

Jesus mentions his unity with the Father rather offhandedly and so it's easy to miss how little we believe in it. We feel comfortable with Jesus, but we figure the Father is a distant deity who probably doesn't share the Son's friendly feeling. The Son is close, the Father is far off. The Son is intimate, the Father is aloof. The Son is safe, the Father is . . . questionable. But here, as in many other passages, Jesus makes clear he and the Father are one. Whoever receives him is receiving the Father. Whoever loves him loves the Father. Whoever knows him knows the Father. He is the revelation of the Father. His love, his humility, his compassion, his open arms are all the Father's too.

In other words, everything you love about Jesus is true about the Father too. We act as if Jesus is sweet nectar that goes down smooth while the Father is an oversized pill that we have to choke down. But if you receive Jesus, you have also received the Father. That wasn't so hard, was it?

"He who receives you receives me and . . . receives him who sent me." It's weird to think that we form the earthly end-link in this trinitarian chain of relationships that leads all the way up into heaven. Evidently, we are so united to the Father and the Son that whoever receives our testimony receives them too. And when you think about it, even when we're not actually ministering the word to people, everyone we have a relationship with is only one step removed from knowing the first and second Persons of the Godhead. That ought to impact the way we live on a daily basis. The New Testament epistles use the word "dignity" when describing how mature followers of Christ ought to conduct themselves. That pretty much sums it up.

Matthew 10:34-39 - "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth..."

Matthew 10:34-39

Again, Jesus returns to the theme that the family relationships we cherish so much can't take precedence over him. Maybe in times of tranquility families that "pray together stay together," but when persecution is at hand and the chips are down, Jesus says he will divide families, not keep them together. He never says that you should focus on the family. He says that you should focus on loving him first and taking up your cross and following after him, so that when family members fall away you won't get carried away with them.

"I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Not the kind of sword that Peter used to lop off the ear of the high priest's servant, but a sword that divides the hearts of family members from each other. It is the natural outcome of loving Jesus more than your spouse or parent or child. Even if a close family member doesn't demand that you stop following Jesus, they might ask if you could stop going to church so often, or try to discourage you from heeding a call to the ministry, or scold you for talking about Jesus in front of non-Christian relatives. Family members expect you to put them first, but when Jesus comes in between the relationship that can be scary for them. They might accuse you of being a fanatic or of having joined a cult.

When you follow Jesus you are called out of his world to live for the world to come, and family relationships are a part of this world. I don't know how we got into thinking that God called us to come to him as a package with spouse and children and parents along. It's true that God does his saving and sanctifying work through family relationships, but when we come to him we always come alone, with only our own hearts, our own commitments, and our own individual love for him. I don't see any room for bargaining or pleading with Jesus about how you'll only follow him if somebody you love comes too. That attitude is not worthy of him. While you may not have to abandon family ties for him, you do have to be prepared if it comes to that. It is the nature of the commitment.

If it does come to that Jesus says, "He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake shall find it." God operates according to the principle of recompense. Whatever you lose for his sake in this life, you will be abundantly repaid in the next. So if following Christ costs you nothing, what will God repay you when you get to heaven? If you hold onto everything you have in this life, what do you have to look forward to in the next? Human love, even family love, is weak and fickle compared to the love of Christ. If you give him up to hold onto those human relationships, you are not worthy of him. It means you have never understood who he is and what a treasure he is to have, and you will be rewarded accordingly.

Matthew 10:26-33 - "Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed..."

Matthew 10:26-33

To recap, Jesus sends out the twelve disciples with instructions on how to go about ministering to the cities of Israel. His exhortation, however, morphs into an eschatological warning about the persecution that his followers will have to endure in the end times. He warns that they can't expect to suffer any less than he himself will.

Here in this passage Jesus says that he is going to disclose things to his followers in secret that they will proclaim out loud and get killed over. What grand mysteries are these? you may wonder. Actually, it may simply be confessing his name. "Everyone, therefore, who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven" (v. 32).

Why does Jesus say do not fear, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known? I think it's because when you confess truths that are hidden from the eyes of unbelievers, you feel alone and stupid. They don't see it, so they will accuse you of talking crazy talk. That can be very intimidating. The only comfort that helps you get through it to is remember that someday everyone will know what you're talking about. When the skies will peel back and reveal spiritual realities in undeniable glory, you will be vindicated and everyone will say, "Ohhhh, okay." Whether it ends up being too late for them is another question, but for now just know that Jesus is assuring you that you aren't going to stick your neck out for nothing.

I'm fascinated by the theme of fear in this passage. Jesus says not to fear your persecutors because you should fear God more. Why fear the ones who can only kill the body? Instead fear the one who can kill both body and soul in hell. But then he follows that up with a tender assurance that God cares about the very hairs on your head. He loves you more than the sparrows, therefore do not fear! So it sounds like he's saying don't fear because God cares for you more than any of the creatures of the earth, but do fear him because he is also capable of utterly destroying you. What's the story with that?

It sounds contradictory, and yet I don't feel like it should be a contradiction in our relationship with God. Maybe I can explain it this way. When you know God as your Father, you understand first and foremost that you're loved by him in Jesus Christ. You have nothing to fear in that regard. If God is for you, who is against you? In Christ you are safe from his wrath, so the fact that he is capable of destroying both body and soul in hell isn't really a direct threat to you personally. But even though you don't serve him out of fear of going to hell (quite the opposite, you serve him because you have been set free from condemnation) still, you know who God is. Your personal safety from his wrath doesn't mean you don't have an appreciation for who he is and what he is capable of. He is not your buddy. He is God, your Creator. He is enthroned on high. He knows the end from the beginning. No one resists his will. Myriads of holy angels serve him, and even they do not dare look upon his face. The angels fear him. Shouldn't you?

Yet mainly you fear God because he cares so much about you. That's no contradiction. You fear him because he bought you and owns you and now he intends to make you holy like himself. But trusting in his care gives you a clean fear, not a cowering one. The only thing you really fear is displeasing him. And so in the time of persecution, it is that fear that will enable you to confess the Son's name before men, so that he can confess you before his Father.

Matthew 10:24-25 - "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master."

Matthew 10:24-25

Referring back to our "Kung Fu Panda" example, normally when you hear the saying that a disciple is not above his teacher, you think in terms of knowledge and skill. The Kung Fu pupil cannot become better than his Kung Fu master because his training can only rise to the level of his teacher's skills. That's true with anything. A math tutor who only learned high school calculus can't take his student up to college level calculus; nor can someone who's taken only three years of Spanish prepare someone for fourth year Spanish.

But here Jesus is not talking about his disciples ascending to a level of success. Rather he is talking about descending to new levels of humiliation and rejection. Jesus is called Beelzebul and his followers must expect to bear the same reproach. The disciples can never be above their teacher. If Jesus is abused and rejected, his disciples can expect to receive the same kind of treatment.

Where does this reproach come from? Well, remember that earlier Jesus warned that the persecution would be spearheaded by the religious authorities. They will scourge you in their synagogues, he says, before they bring you before their kings. That's because Jesus' message of forgiveness and grace flies in the face of the classic religious message, which is one of holiness and law-keeping and obedience. If you're out there telling people they can have all their sins wiped away just by having faith, and you're attracting all kinds of unclean, unsavory types and bringing them into the public places of worship, then you will be called a blasphemer who has no regard for the holiness of God. The entire story of the New Testament church is about this conflict.

Maybe nowadays no one would call you a blasphemer, but if you were to get serious about bringing the truly needy into the church, you might get accused of defiling the church's purity, or endangering the children, or bringing in the bad element and offending all the good Christian families and upstanding members. Just as in the days of Jesus and the apostles, the most prominent religious leaders know that attracting winners, not losers, is the key to having a "successful" ministry. Clearly, they are accomplishing more for God than you and your little band of rejects. And they may even want to remind you of what a loser you are. What a failure. How God isn't blessing you but has abandoned you, otherwise you'd be successful like us. You're deluded. You think you're serving God, but you're serving Satan.

And it's an honor to hear it. Welcome to discipleship. You shouldn't expect to be treated any differently, since your Lord was treated the same way. A disciple isn't above his teacher, nor a slave his master. It's enough that a disciple become as his teacher, and a slave his master. If they have called the head of the house "Beelzebul," how much more the members of his household?

Matthew 10:21-23 - "And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child..."

Matthew 10:21-23

I know that in the church we view our family relationships as practically sacred, but time and again in the Bible I don't see that. This passage is just one example.

Jesus predicts there will come a time when his followers will be so hated that their closest family members will betray them to persecuting authorities. Brother will deliver up brother, parents will deliver up their children and children their parents. He doesn't mention spouses betraying each other but it's implied. The point is that the persecution will be so great, even the most cherished family ties will not be able to withstand the pressure. And Jesus implies that this heartbreaking scenario will be a test of true discipleship. If you can still hang onto your faith through this complete disintegration of family love and loyalty, then you will be saved. Then you will know that you love Jesus first.

This warning flies in the face of our current evangelical culture for a number of reasons. We look well upon people who were raised in good Christian families. We think it's so important for us to get married so we can work on having the perfect Christian marriage. Then when parenthood comes along, we make it our whole life's purpose to raise our children to be Christian. We do all this in spite of the glaring fact that, in contrast with the focused emotional energy we put into these goals, the Bible spends very little time talking about any of these things. Yet because we've become so invested in surrounding ourselves with good Christian family to validate ourselves as good Christian people, we've gotten to a point where it's difficult to accept the warning Jesus gives us here, which is that those family relationships, however good and Christian they may seem, are only human relationships. They are fragile, as all human relationships are. They are unknown, as the human heart always is. And no matter how much your parents or spouse or children may love you, their love is still human love. It is not divine.

There is an odd passage in 1 Corinthians 7:28-29 that says, "But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life and I am trying to spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none." Most scholars believe that Paul says these things in the context of persecution, the same context that Jesus is speaking to in our passage. If you marry you have not sinned (he assures us!), but just know that you've made life more difficult for yourself by tying yourself to this worldly institution. "But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided" (v. 33-34a). In a time of persecution she may turn against you, and you may have to live as though you had no wife at all.

It is a sad and unpleasant thought, but it also helps to clarify your priorities. The reality of living in this world is that we really can't take anything with us. And no matter how sweet human love may be, you can't allow it to take the place of Jesus' love in your life.

Matthew 10:17-20 - "But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the courts..."

Matthew 10:17-20

Jesus started out by giving instructions to his disciples for this short-term mission he's sending them on, but now he begins to launch into an epic sermon on the persecution believers will suffer to the end of the church age. He says they will first deliver you up to their synagogues, the religious court, then they will deliver you up to governors and kings, the secular court. And actually this is what happened to Jesus. He was arrested and brought before the high priest first, then he was delivered up to Pilate. The same happened to Paul. He was seized by the Jews and brought before the high priest, then he was brought before the governor and the king "as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles."

By putting the religious court first, Jesus seems to be hinting that if you're following him, you'll find yourself on the opposite side of some powerful religious establishment. You see that in his ministry. He tends to get wary when the Pharisees come around. He instructs his disciples to follow their leaders' teaching but not their example. And while he utilizes the temple and synagogues as a places to gather and teach, he doesn't speak of them with particular reverence. In his mind leadership positions and places of worship are institutions of men. "Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues." When it comes to persecuting Jesus' followers, the religious leaders will be the first in line, not the atheists or secularists. It is they who will deliver you up to the secular authorities.

When human beings set up their courts, particularly a religious court, they are seeking to imitate the judgment of God. The true court of judgment is in heaven above, but the earthly courts can have that same feeling of doom. And when a trial is conducted in a religious context it can be extremely intimidating. There is comfort in knowing that Jesus has already faced such a court both before the high priest and before Pilate. When he says not to become anxious about what to speak because his Spirit will give us the words, he is not just drawing from his divine wisdom but from his human experience.

It is incredible to think that he, the Creator and Lord of the universe, once stood before a human court to be pronounced guilty by wicked men. And yet when it comes our turn to be condemned in a similar fashion, though we are more deserving of judgment and he was not, Jesus' only thought will be to comfort us in our distress. Whatever we might suffer in this life, Jesus has already gone before us so that he could walk beside us when no other friend would.

Matthew 10:16 - "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves..."

Matthew 10:16

Jesus sends out his disciples with no worldly possessions into the hostile cities of Israel to preach a message of repentance and sacrifice, of abandoning self-righteousness and embracing meekness. They will touch unclean lepers. They will heal those believed to be cursed of God for their sin--the blind and lame and demon possessed. They will be accused of blasphemy and sorcery. Through all this they must depend upon the kind hospitality of a handful of true believers who will receive and protect them in their homes. If they are persecuted and rejected they must do nothing to their enemies, only shake the dust off their feet and walk away.

I think one of the main reasons we Christians fail to act like Christians, to love and give and forgive as we ought, is that we haven't grasped that Jesus calls his disciples to be vulnerable in the midst of hostility. Somehow we think that we would love if only it were safe to, that we would give if we weren't taken advantage of, and we would forgive if only the other side would promise never to sin again. We feel we can be better Christians if our spouses weren't so selfish, or if our non-Christian parents would stop pointing out our faults. It seems justified to argue with, or even attack, gays and atheists and liberals and feminists because they've been hostile to us. Loving your enemies and giving freely are a nice sounding platitudes, but sometimes they just aren't practical. Jesus must be naive or something.

But it's not so. Jesus knows that he sends his people out as sheep in the midst of wolves. A wolf in the midst of sheep is bad enough, but sheep in the midst of a pack of wolves is about as perilous as it gets. That's the kind of situation into which he calls us to act like Christians. The dangers we face may be less overt than what the first century disciples faced, but they are connected by the same spiritual thread. There is a spiritual hostility that rises up against the Spirit of Jesus that makes you want to either retreat or lash out, instead of confront from a position of meekness and weakness. You'd rather flee from the wolves or shoot at them than be sent by the Lord into the midst of them.

If Jesus weren't aware of the dangers, he would never have said "therefore, be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." There is a shrewdness he wants us to adopt that doesn't employ evil tactics but looks for opportunities to escape danger. Jesus would sometimes slip away from the mob just as they were about to stone him. The apostle Paul got out of a scourging by informing the authorities that he was a Roman citizen. He also escaped the judgment of the Sanhedrin by announcing his belief in the resurrection, causing a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

There is something about putting yourself in harm's way for the sake of the gospel that enables God to fight for you, to open up for you a way of escape, if that's his will. You don't need to compromise your innocence by resorting to violence or threats. Your life belongs to Christ anyhow, so there's no point in fighting for it. You don't need to do anything but be watchful when the walls start closing in, and see if the Spirit shows you where you might find a passage that leads out to safety.

Matthew 10:9-15 - "Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts..."

Matthew 10:9-15

The disciples have freely received, now they are to freely give. Jesus sends them into the cities of Israel as the first "faith missionaries." That is, they are not to have their means of survival planned ahead of time or be concerned about how to support themselves, but only minister and trust that God will provide for them in their journey. They aren't even supposed to accumulate provisions along the way that might ensure security for even a few days. No extra cash, no bag to store stuff in, no extra clothes, sandals or staff.

The missions field presents enough difficulties without having to leap into it by total faith. Even the apostle Paul relied on the trade of tentmaking to support himself through his missionary career. But you can understand why Jesus had the disciples take this approach. For one thing, they were following in Jesus' own example, the one who had no place to lay his head. But for another, imagine if they had accepted gold, silver or copper coins, or gifts of extra clothing for doing these miraculous works of healing. Even if these were given as gifts and not payments, how would the disciples appear to be any different from a traveling circus that goes about amazing and entertaining people in exchange for money? To freely give tells the crowds that they themselves have freely received, and points people's attention to the Giver of all things.

How, then, are they to survive? Jesus tells them they may accept offers of hospitality, but even this allowance serves a dual purpose. The hospitality they find in any given city will obviously be the means through which God provides them with food and shelter, but it also becomes the gauge that tells them whether worthy souls dwell there. If the disciples are welcomed, they should stay and minister; if they're not welcomed, they should move on. They will know they are welcomed if their greeting of peace (think: benediction) is received. The remark of one commentator stuck with me here: "The peace which they wish to the household goes out and is effective; but it is not automatic, and a wrong attitude in the receiver will result in its return, like an uncashed cheque."

Jesus concludes, "And whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city." Such harsh words. Shake off the dust of their feet? Worse judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah? Just because people rejected a single opportunity to hear the gospel? Yet you have to remember that these are the cities of Israel. Since ancient times they were supposed to be preparing for this day when the Messiah would come. Their entire history has been a long journey of bearing the hope of God's promise up to this climactic point. And being the covenant people of God is a double-edged sword. While it is a privilege to be chosen and set apart, to be enlightened with knowledge and entrusted with the sacred traditions, if the Messiah should come and find that you've despised your privilege, betrayed trust and loved darkness more than light, it would have been better if you'd never been entrusted with those things to begin with. It would have been better if you'd been like Sodom and Gomorrah and rejected the way of God in ignorance. The most severe judgment is reserved for the apostate, not for the heathen.

Matthew 10:5-8 - "These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying . . . "

Matthew 10:5-8

On the heels of saying, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few," Jesus as the Lord of the harvest sends out his twelve disciples. We're used to this harvest passage being quoted as we send out missionaries into the far corners of the earth, but here Jesus forbids the disciples from going to either the Gentiles or the Samaritans. They are only to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Why? By the time Matthew wrote this Gospel, the church would have already consisted of Jew and Gentile Christians. Why risk offending the Gentile hearers of this Gospel by reporting how Jesus excluded Gentiles and Samaritans in his very first commissioning of the disciples?

I'm not sure the Gentile Christians of Matthew's day would have been offended. They would have understood that Jesus came into the world to fulfill the promise made to Israel long ago through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, about a land where they might find everlasting rest and about being a people more numerous than the stars of the heavens. The entire history behind that promise is recorded in the story of the Old Testament: the birth of the nation of Israel, their covenant with God, how they broke that covenant repeatedly, their exile into a foreign nation, their return to a destitute land, and how God yet desired to keep the ancient promise, this time through a new covenant.

The gospel that today blesses the entire world came to us first through the promise made to the Jewish people. It should come as no surprise, then, that Jesus makes it a priority to proclaim the message of salvation to Israel. Since ancient times they had been waiting for the Messiah's arrival while the rest of the world walked in darkness. But now that the Messiah has arrived, will he find faith left among his own people?

"And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons." Jesus transfers to his disciples the authority to do everything he's been doing up until now, and I'm sure the disciples got a kick out of having such extraordinary power in their own hands. But the reason Jesus gives for sending them on this mission is meant to keep them in a humble state of mind: "Freely you received, freely give."

Usually I just gloss over this part of the passage. Yeah, yeah, freely receive, freely give, it's better to give than to receive, sure. It sounds like a moral truism you find at the end of one of Aesop's Fables. But I don't think Jesus is speaking in general terms to the disciples, as if he were saying, "Look at all that I've given you, now you go and give back to the world out there." I think he's talking about something more specific, that the reason he wants the disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons is that they themselves have experienced the healing of their sickness, resurrection unto life, cleansing from leprosy, and freedom from bondage to Satan. Maybe not physically but spiritually. The sickness was in their hearts, they were dead in their sins, their spiritual leprosy had estranged them from God, and they were enslaved to the devil's will. All the healings they had witnesses up until this point were like parables of their own need for Jesus to make them whole. As Jesus' disciples they should have grasped this, and so he sends them out not to inflate their egos or give them a chance to wow the crowds, but with the understanding that they are just freely giving what they themselves have freely received.

Matthew 10:2-4 - "Now the names of the twelve apostles are these..."

Matthew 10:2-4

I spent more time trying to figure out who the twelve disciples were and all their different alternate names than I did drawing any spiritual meaning out of this text. So let's talk about how we can get all these names straight. Matthew lists the twelve disciples as: Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot.

Now let's open it up for questions. Wasn't there supposed to be another Judas? Yes, the other Judas is mentioned in Luke and John. Judas or Jude is thought to be another name for Thaddaeus. Think of him as Judas/Thaddaeus. And what about Nathanael? Don't I recall a Nathanael in there somewhere? Yes, Nathanael is mentioned in John's Gospel and is thought to be another name for Bartholomew. Think of him as Bartholomew/Nathanael.

If you can get those two problem areas straight there should be no difficulty in memorizing the twelve disciples. (Unless of course you already have it memorized through a Sunday school song that you learned as a kid, but I didn't grow up in Sunday school so I have to come up with some other device.) My device is to memorize the names either as pairs or as repeats. The first eight names belong in four pairs and are easy to remember because every list in the Gospels presents them together.

Peter (Simon) and Andrew

James and John

Philip and Bartholomew (Nathanael)

Matthew and Thomas

Peter and Andrew and James and John are brothers of course, but I don't know why Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas are always paired up. I just know that your ear just gets used to the rhythm of hearing their names spoken together.

The last four names are repeats, that is, they repeat another name in the list. You just need to remember which names show up twice:

James (son of Alphaeus)

Simon (the Zealot)

Judas (also Thaddaeus)

Judas (Iscariot)

For me it's easier to remember that there are two Judases and that the good Judas has the alternate name of Thaddaeus, than to remember that there is a guy named Thaddaeus and then try to figure out where he fits into the whole scheme of things. Simon the Zealot, of course, is a repeat of Peter's other name, which isn't hard to remember since Jesus often addresses Peter as "Simon Peter."

So in sum there are four pairs of names and four repeats. Now, can you list the twelve disciples without looking?

Matthew 10:1 - "And having summoned his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits..."

Matthew 10:1

When I'm watching a movie about a master and his disciples, there's a certain narrative I expect to see that goes something like this. Potential disciple approaches master and requests training. Master reluctantly agrees. Disciple goes through a rigorous training program where he must prove his worth. Through many doubts and moments of despair, disciple emerges fully trained to the master's satisfaction. Lastly, disciple must show he is at least equal to the master's ability, either through some competition or confrontation with an adversary. The movie "Kung Fu Panda" did a great job of parodying this standard storyline.

We've covered nine full chapters of Matthew and the storyline has gone nothing like the movies. Jesus calls his disciples, they don't approach him or try to convince him of their worthiness. Then as Jesus goes around doing his astounding miracles and attracting all sorts of acclaim, the disciples are almost invisible in the story. We haven't heard anything about their "training." We haven't heard about certain ones who are emerging as more potential than the rest, volunteering bright comments to show how enlightened they're becoming. The only major part the disciples have played so far was when they freaked out during the storm as Jesus slept in the stern of the boat. Not a very convincing snapshot of their potential.

Now we come to chapter ten and suddenly Jesus is handing them the authority to do the same miraculous deeds he's been doing up to this point, casting out demons and healing every kind of disease and sickness. Where did that come from? What did these guys do to show they are worthy of such a gift? Couldn't Matthew or the Holy Spirit or somebody at least make a better effort to convince us that these guys deserve to hold such incredible power in their wimpy little hands?

It doesn't make for a good Hollywood script because the plot line must be written so that the viewing audience is convinced that the Great Gift of the Master is being placed in the hands of a Worthy Recipient. The guy with the piercing intellect or the knowing look in his eye. The one disciple who didn't panic as Jesus slept during the storm. But no, there are no standouts. They all panicked, they've all been lackluster.

And maybe that's exactly the point. Jesus calls unspectacular, unimpressive, lackluster disciples, who will probably allow this transfer of powers to go completely to their heads and think it implies that they are much more awesome than they really are. Jesus knows that too, and yet he still lets them go and minister in his name. So it is with us. Jesus gives us everything first, then it's only much later on that we realize how little we deserved it, and even now how little we deserve to be serving in his name.