NOTES for Mat 10:1-7

The beginning of apostolic preaching is connected with only one, but most important, message: the Kingdom has drawn near. The preaching of the Savior Himself begins with this same proclamation. And this is no surprise: the apostles had to bring the people that very same message that their Teacher was bringing.

The message was precisely the message about the Kingdom that had drawn near. This, in fact, was that very "good news," that very Gospel, which everyone had to hear. For now, however, Jesus sends His disciples only to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel," to the people of God, who must hear it first, not because of any special privileges, but because God has special plans connected precisely with them. It is no surprise that the Savior gives special attention to the "lost sheep": the Kingdom is open to everyone, including those whose life up to now has not been the best spiritually. Life in the Kingdom is a clean slate from which anyone can begin. What, then, is this life?

The answer to the question is found in the powers Jesus gives the disciples who go out to preach. In essence, He gives them the power to do the very same thing He Himself does. Authority over dark spirits, healing from every disease and from the weakness or "infirmity" so characteristic of fallen humanity and expressed very differently depending on the circumstances: these are manifestations of the Kingdom, of its breath, of its life. For the Kingdom is first of all precisely life, life in all its fullness, in the fullness God intended for His creation from the beginning.

From the beginning, God intended the world to be His Kingdom; on the first day of creation it was exactly that: it was permeated by the light of God's presence, and there was no place at all for darkness in this world. All divisions, all darkness, came later, after the fall. Now, with the coming of the Messiah, the world is once again becoming what God intended it to be, and everyone is given the opportunity to share in this new life and to try himself in it, to try to become part of the new reality God is creating, where, as on the first day, there will be no place for darkness, sickness, or death. Such is the good news that Jesus brings to people together with His disciples.

The distinguishing mark of Christ's disciples is that they are open to God and to the world. They carry the news of God's Kingdom, and at the same time they go to people; they hope only in God, yet they receive help from people; they address rulers and kings, yet they speak the words of the Spirit. Both are not simple: being open to God can be difficult and frightening; being open to people is always difficult and sometimes dangerous. The disciples will have to combine in themselves qualities that are hard to combine: to be lambs, wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Nevertheless, this is the task of the disciples, each of whom is in some sense an apostle, that is, a representative, an ambassador of Christ in the world. For a messenger must in some way resemble his lord. So the disciples imitate the mission of the God-man Christ: belonging to God, they are turned toward the world and toward people, losing their connection neither with Heaven nor with earth.

One incident comes to mind: a group of people came to a women's prison to congratulate the women held there on the feast of Easter, to share joy, to speak about God and about themselves, and simply to give them a chance to talk. One of the sisters brought a sweater there that she wanted to give away. But to understand who needed it most, she turned to the prison administration so that they themselves could decide who should receive the sweater. They could only say that humanitarian aid was already coming to them and that they tried not to leave anyone out. Then they added, "How can anyone tell who needs it most?"

So it is with us: can we really understand, can we keep track of who most needs our tenderness, warmth, kind word, or simply a smile? Which of the people passing by or sitting next to us on the subway needs our prayer? Who is hurting?

Yes, of course, there are times when the Lord as it were "points out" such a person to us, drawing our attention to the expression on his face, the sadness in his eyes... But above all, the Lord calls us to share unconditionally what we have: His peace, giving it in prayer, deeds, and a smile. And His peace will not diminish: "If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you" (Mt 10:13). For if it finds its place in the one "worthy" of it, then it will return to you "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over" (Lk 6:38).

The apostles, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, come also into our house and say, "Peace to this house!" But for God's peace to remain in our house - in our heart, in the family, in the community - it is very important to prove worthy of this good news. But how can we do this if, according to the apostle Paul, the sin living in us does not let us fulfill God's commandments?

The apostle gives us a clear answer to this: the law of sin is overcome only by the law of the Spirit, by new life in Christ; only with His gracious help can we change and worthily receive the blessing of the Lord Jesus.

Sending the apostles out to preach, Jesus entrusts them with doing the same thing He Himself did throughout His earthly ministry: bearing witness to the Kingdom that has drawn near. And He gives them a universal principle not only for witnessing to the Kingdom, but also for life in it: freely you received, freely give.

This is not about a witness being unable or forbidden to receive anything from his hearers. He needs food and shelter, at least for the time he spends in a given city or village as he bears his witness. It is about something else: witness to the Kingdom cannot be a matter of personal gain. And the point is not simply whether someone takes payment for talking about Christ, about the Kingdom, or about one's own spiritual experience. The point is the very attitude toward what one is bearing witness to and bringing to others. A fallen person, consciously or unconsciously, considers everything within reach to belong to himself. Something ownerless is possible in the fallen world only if it brings no practical benefit to anyone or is beyond human reach. The instinct of ownership tolerates no vacuum, and every available gap is filled very quickly. A fallen person is inclined to treat the Kingdom as something "his own" in the earthly sense, that is, as something he can dispose of at his own discretion, even if in theory he understands and agrees that such an attitude is inappropriate and impossible here. A fallen person always wants, often without realizing it, to separate off a piece of the Kingdom and carry it away.

But there can be no such "Kingdom for oneself"; the very nature of the Kingdom does not allow it. Everyone who shares in it can receive it wholly, in all its fullness, but only on one condition: it must be available just as wholly and fully to each neighbor who shares the life of the Kingdom with him as it is to him himself. Such readiness to share with everyone everything one has received by being joined to the Kingdom is an indispensable condition of life in the Kingdom and witness to it. And no wonder: none of us has deserved or earned even a grain of the life that we receive in the Kingdom, all of it, as much as there is there. We truly have no right to the Kingdom. We receive it freely, not as property, but for open-ended and unpaid use, together with those who want to share it with us. Just as open-ended and just as free.

Where and when does the Kingdom of Heaven begin, the Kingdom the Apostles went out to preach? It begins wherever the Gospel proclaimed by the apostles comes, where the Lord Himself is present in the gracious gifts of the Church. It begins where a person dies to the law of sin and is born to life in Christ. The other question is when it begins... When not only the preaching about the Kingdom reaches us, but the Kingdom itself comes in our hearts and changes our life?

From the comparison of the crowds of people with sheep without a shepherd, human logic draws this conclusion: a good overseer should be placed over them, and let him restore order. But Christ, the good shepherd, chooses for Himself twelve helpers from among those being shepherded. It is important to Him that people be not unwilling slaves, but coworkers.

The number twelve symbolizes the fullness of the humanity called by Christ, but it is also the number of the tribes of Israel. The Church, the renewed people of God, is created according to the pattern of the original Israel. This is emphasized even by the fact that at first the apostles are not recommended to go to the Gentiles; they are to become established in their calling among the Israelites.

The calling of the apostles was not a reward for any merits; they differed little from those around them. But in exactly the same way Abraham was called by God not according to merit, but because of his openness to God and his ability to follow Him. Such are the apostles too: not supermen at all, but seemingly ordinary people whose weaknesses and imperfections the Gospel does not hide. But the Lord, having called them to follow Him, gave them the opportunity to overcome their own limitations.

Here, incidentally, is the answer to a frequently asked question: why did Christ choose Judas as one of the apostles? Did He really not see what kind of person Judas was, that he was capable of betrayal? Then where is God's omniscience?

Of course, He saw all this, just as He saw many potential falls of the other called ones, falls that remained unrealized and therefore unknown to us. In exactly the same way He sees our hearts today, whatever they may be filled with. Yet He continues to love all of us, giving each person a chance to turn away from habitual filth and become clean. The same chance was given to the apostle who did not use it.

The words about those who reject the apostles' preaching sound severe. But is this a threat, or a warning about danger? After all, Sodom and Gomorrah have already been punished, and perhaps for that reason no new punishment threatens them. But those who even now do not intend to leave their sinful inclinations are turning away from salvation by their own choice.