"I have not come to bring peace, but a sword," Jesus says (10:34).
Those who first heard Jesus speak these words of division and judgment must have been shocked if they had some idea that he was the Messiah. The Messiah promised to Israel surely did not come to earth to bring judgment and war. Isn't the promise that the Messiah will come as Prince of Peace? Then who is this pretender to the promise? Why does he blaspheme the promise? Israel is set to reject this messianic-pretender. Matthew 11 will begin to expose the Jewish repudiation of Jesus.
Jesus says he has come to set family members against one another. Micah 7:5-7 might be an Old Testament background for this saying of Jesus. Jesus seems to be telling his disciples that they are not to love the "old world." There is a "new world" bursting to life. These words of Jesus about division in families need to be set alongside those passages in Matthew where Jesus speaks more positively about family values: 5:27-32; 19:3-12.
In verses 40-42 Jesus shifts his gaze. He has been speaking to his disciples since 10:5. Now he turns his attention to the crowd. He speaks to the matter of reception. How will his disciples be received?
"He who receives you, receives me," Jesus says. Jesus is present in, with, and under the ministry of those who minister in his name. This begins to sound a bit like the judgment passage in Matthew 25:31-46. The Son of Man in the day of judgment will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep, the "righteous ones," will sit at his right hand because they saw him hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, and in prison and ministered to him.
(The "righteous" are surprised by their own righteousness! The righteous are always shocked by their own righteousness. That's a hallmark of the righteousness of the Christian. It is a righteousness hidden even from the eyes of the righteous person.) The Son of Man says to the righteous: "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). Mark Allan Powell comments on this connection:
The primary concern in Matthew 25:31-46 is not with acts of mercy performed by church members for needy people of the world but with acts of mercy performed for church members by people among the nations to which they are sent. But the passage develops the latter theme as a corollary to the former, which is established earlier in Matthew. Matthew's Gospel leaves no doubt that followers of Jesus are to meet needs of people outside the community of faith.... Matthew 25:31-46 comes at the very end of Jesus' final great discourse and offers a turnabout that completes the picture. Now the readers are told that the world (the nations) will also be held accountable for its treatment of Jesus' followers... followers of Jesus ought to do unto others as they would have done to them (7:12)...the corollary to this--that others ought to treat the followers of Jesus as they themselves would wish to be treated--is also true....1
To minister to the least is to minister to Jesus.
We hear that in both 10:40-42 and 25:31-46. To receive the little ones is to receive Jesus. Whoever gives the little ones a cup of water shall have a reward. Most scholars believe that "little ones" is a reference to Jesus' disciples. This term is used a bit differently in Matthew 18. Matthew 18 is a chapter which discusses the fact that Christian life together is to be an ordered community. Jesus says that the greatest one in the kingdom of heaven is like a child (18:4). "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me" (18:5). These words of Jesus are very similar to vv. 40-42 of this week's text. Receiving the disciples, receiving the little ones, receiving a little child is like receiving Jesus himself: "as you did it to one of the least of these...you did it to me." Matthew 18:10 and 14 make further references to the little ones.
The terms seem to be a bit fluid. On the one hand, the disciples seem to be the "little ones." On the other hand, it seems that Jesus chooses "little ones" to be his disciples. His community is a community of love and acceptance even for the little ones. When people outside of the community of faith welcome these little ones, these tiniest of Christians, they have their reward.
Homiletical Directions
Chapter 10 of Matthew is a chapter filled with the instructions of Jesus to his disciples. The verses appointed for this week are didactic in nature. It will probably be best, therefore, to look at the didactic points one might make in a sermon based on these verses. Our comments will focus primarily on the little ones. We propose to begin this sermon with the teaching about the little ones in Matthew 18:1-14. These verses do not occur in the Matthean lectionary year. Our focus in these verses is on the child and the little ones: vv. 4, 6, 10, 14. Verses 10-14 bring to mind Luke's parable of the lost sheep. The concern of God is always a concern with the lost, the least, the little ones. The Christian community is a community of the little ones. God's love for the little ones is the sole basis for life in this community. Saint Paul put it well to the Corinthians: "Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God" (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
A second point to make in a kind of two-point didactic sermon is the reality that the world will be judged on the basis of how it treats the little ones. The little ones are those called as we discussed above. In Matthew's Gospel this may be a reference more particularly to the disciples. To receive the little ones is to receive Jesus.
This same point is made in story form in the judgment parable from Matthew 25:31-46. The nations are judged by the way they treat the little ones. In their attitude to the little ones the nations give expression to their reaction or reception of Jesus himself: "As you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40).
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1. Mark Allan Powell, God With Us: A Pastoral Theology of Matthew's Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), pp. 146-148.
