In Today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus Is Saying That He Is God

What does today’s missioning discourse mean for our families – the Domestic Church?

So we’re coming down to the end of chapter 10 of Matthew, and this is a missionary discourse. Remember the chapter began because he called his twelve together and was sending them out on mission, and every instruction that is being given is given for the missionary – and you know who the missionaries are, and what are you a missionary to. You are missionaries to the domestic church, and your families are the domestic church.

The instructions that are being given here are really big and important instructions, and this is the first missioning that we will see. He’ll have a missioning for the 72 at some stage after, then he’ll of the Great Commission at the end where he sends them into the whole world. In this chapter 10 of Matthew, what we have is a real gem for understanding what the character and quality of the missionary is; that means it is an understanding of what you and I are called to if we are missioning the domestic church – then here are some characteristics that we better get right.

Jesus starts off by saying that anyone who prefers his father or mother to me is not worthy of me. The text is a little weak in that the word that is actually used is love – ‘anyone who does not love me more than your father or mother is not worthy of me.’ Now, I want you to imagine that your teenage child or grandchild comes home from school one day. You asked them ‘what happened in school?’ They said, ‘well, we had a really important lesson. The teacher was telling us that if we don’t love him – the teacher, more than we love our parents, then we are not worthy of him teaching us.’ What would you do? What would you do? ‘If you don’t love me more than you love your parents, you’re not worthy of me teaching you.’ What would you do? You’d be in school next morning – if not that same evening – and you would ask the principal what kind of madness they are doing in the school!

We don’t hear the shock value of the statement because we’ve heard it so many times. I want you to hear the shock that a first century Jew would have heard when they heard the statement, because a first century Jew immediately would imagine the Ten Commandments, and immediately would see the first tablet with the three commandments about God, and the second tablet with the other seven commandments about the human affairs; and at the top of the 7 Commandments is that fourth commandment about honoring your ordinary your father and mother; and Jesus is saying that you must not honor your father or your mother more than you honor me, or more than you love me!

Are you hearing the shock this is a scandalous statement (to the Jews). He’s only a human being, and he is saying to people that I am more important than your father and your mother that God said that you must honor, and therefore Jesus is saying that he is God.