Matthew 10 - Proclaim the good news to the lost sheep of Israel
This chapter is directed to the twelve apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ whom followed Him for a while now & seen the miracles, heard the teachings, spent quality time with Him to know His ways. So now Jesus Christ sent them out to the lost sheep of Israel which is their Jewish brothers & sisters that has yet to know the Lord. The background of this era was under the Roman empire and after the war of the Jews. War always leave a trails of brokenness & this is the time that the good news of the kingdom of heaven should be proclaimed. There was a lot of rebuilding to be done but people has yet to be strengthened as they were living in poverty, sickness & poor quality of life due to lack of food security. So our Lord Jesus Christ commissioned the twelve, two by two, presumably in six missionary teams towards the nearby area from their home to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with skin disease and cast out demons.
As they enter those who accept them willingly & peacefully, they then have their food & drinks there with the family while sharing the good news to them. Jesus Christ also prepared their hearts that there will be some people that will not welcome them so if that happens then just share off the dust which is a gesture mimicking a Jewish practice of shaking off dust when leaving pagan territory, to signify separation from unclean ground. It’s state of seriousness was worse in comparison with the land of Sodom & Gomorrah.
The series of warnings & instructions that including the persecutions, divisions, hatred was to prepare them to make choices in following our Lord Jesus Christ. It will be costly but He already gave a solution to that fear, the persecution, hatred & division in their own family, death of the body are only temporary for they cannot kill the soul & if making choices out of fear, then fear The One that can destroy both soul and body. However Jesus Christ did not mean for them to worship God out of fear but in Spirit & truth, faithfully knowing that we are more valuable than sparrows.
The whole message of chapter 10 centers around “worthy”, which in this context means those who accept Jesus Christ & choose to follow Him even when there are persecutions or high costs of losing relationships, materials, time. There are also rewards for those who accept them & welcomes them. This is all to encourage the apostles to take heart and to complete the mission trip to proclaim the good news to the lost sheep of Israel. May this be an encouragement to us all and prepare our hearts as we ready ourselves for the coming days to proclaim the good news to our neighbours & whomever that God has assigned according to His will.