{"id":26401,"date":"2026-06-17T07:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=26401"},"modified":"2026-06-16T10:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:35:25","slug":"matthew-10-5a-21-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/matthew-10-5a-21-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 10: 5a, 21\u201333"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

THE CHALLENGE |\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Fourth Sunday after Pentecost | 21 June 2026 | Matthew 10: 5a, 21\u201333 |\u00a0<\/span><\/b>David H. Brooks<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

5<\/sup>These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

21<\/sup>\u201cBrother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,\u00a022<\/sup>and you will be hated by all for my name\u2019s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.\u00a023<\/sup>When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.<\/em><\/p>\n

24<\/sup>\u201cA disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.\u00a025<\/sup>It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.<\/em><\/p>\n

26<\/sup>\u201cSo have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.\u00a027<\/sup>What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.\u00a028<\/sup>And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.\u00a029<\/sup>Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.\u00a030<\/sup>But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.\u00a031<\/sup>Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.\u00a032<\/sup>So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,\u00a033<\/sup>but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Matthew 10: 5a, 21\u201333; English Standard Version
\nCopyright \u00a9\u00a02001 by Crossway Bibles<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE CHALLENGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

A family visiting New York City caught a downtown subway to the Financial District. They happened to be in the first car and their two sons stared at themselves in a mirror that separated the passengers from the engineer’s cabin. After a few moments, the older boy told his brother that he could see the tracks up ahead in the tunnel. The glass was a two-way mirror.<\/p>\n

His younger brother, still making faces in the mirror, could see nothing but himself. „What do you mean?“ he asked. „I don’t see anything.“<\/p>\n

His mother spoke up. „Honey, look beyond yourself and you’ll see it.“<\/p>\n

He did, and he did, just as we do when we look beyond ourselves: We catch a glimpse of the track ahead and the world around us.<\/p>\n

Matthew\u2019s gospel contains long blocks of \u201cteaching\u201d that scholars call the discourses.<\/em> People tend to be most familiar with the first discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount, but there are four others, each meant to teach followers of Jesus about the Kingdom of God, living together as the church, how to be ready for the end times, and this one, (chapter 10) explaining what discipleship means.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 words are a cold, soaking splash as we bask in the warmth of life with God. We hear his instruction and realize that Bonhoeffer was almost too gentle in his phrase the \u201ccost of discipleship.\u201d The full chapter has much more detail, but what we hear today is a strong enough dose: death inflicted among family members, hatred and persecution from neighbors, always being ready to flee, being accused of wickedness and evil.<\/p>\n

Would any of us be surprised if the disciples had stood up and said \u201cI quit\u201d?<\/p>\n

This moment in Matthew hits hard because it highlights two challenges a Christian must face when he or she begins to face honestly what life with Jesus really means.<\/p>\n

The first challenge is recognizing that associating with Jesus is hazardous: hazardous to your health, hazardous to your reputation and relationships, hazardous to your hope and dreams. In that famous book about discipleship\u2019s cost, Bonhoeffer wrote a haunting line: [w]hen Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.<\/em> In the same paragraph, Bonhoeffer pointed out that the call to follow\u2014which is a call to carry the cross\u2014might mean a death like the apostles of old, or it might mean a death like Luther\u2019s, who left monastic life to reenter the ordinary world. That call, that cross, that death might be epic or daring, perhaps visible to the whole world; it might be quiet, small, visible to none but the Father who (as Matthew reports) sees in secret. Here, we find the real point and power of Luther\u2019s admonition that baptism is daily dying and rising; each day the cross confronts us. We think the problem is out there; <\/em>that our circumstances and the people that populate our circumstances (including Jesus) are the real difficulty. Yet the problem is in here<\/em>, in the crack that runs through our hearts, and that problem will not be finally solved until I, you, we are mercifully still, able to afflict others no more, and the promise we each received at baptism is joyously fulfilled.<\/p>\n

The promise of baptism points us to the second challenge. Christ has called us to life with him; in baptism we find the call is stronger still\u2014we are called to life in<\/em> him. There is an intimacy here that we modern people find both difficult to grasp and vaguely threatening\u2014we insist on autonomy, or freedom, or self-actualization or whatever buzz word we might choose, but baptism into Christ will permit none of that. Baptism is echoing the words of John by the Jordan: He must increase, I decrease.<\/em> It is as Paul declares\u2014we have been exchanged; we have been brought across a chasm or through a wall, made a part of something we could never accomplish ourselves. We belong to Christ! We are His Body! He is at work in us! Notice the obedience of the first disciples: they go at Jesus\u2019 instruction, to fulfil his purpose, to live under God\u2019s care\u2014and their doing what He asks means that they become more fully themselves.<\/p>\n

We cannot forget that we are not here to achieve or satisfy our goals and purposes, for we will only be confronted again by the cross that means death to all those things that we would proudly call our own\u2014for as long as our eyes are filled with a vision of ourselves, we will not be able to look beyond ourselves and see the path that Christ, the deathless one, has called us to walk with him. Yet he has called us, made of us a community as he made the Twelve a community long ago, and here we find his gifts, his power, and his love that our hearts might heal, our sight made true and our lives serve as witnesses to him.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9David H. Brooks
\nPr.Dave.Brooks@zoho.com<\/a>
\nGrace Lutheran Church
\nDurham, NC USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE CHALLENGE |\u00a0Fourth Sunday after Pentecost | 21 June 2026 | Matthew 10: 5a, 21\u201333 |\u00a0David H. Brooks 5These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, . . . 21\u201cBrother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,\u00a022and you will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,417,727,157,853,108,266,110,412,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-26401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-3-so-n-trinitatis","category-archiv","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-david-h-brooks","category-engl","category-kapitel-10-chapter-10-matthaeus","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26404,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26401\/revisions\/26404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=26401"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=26401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}