Hi everyone. Let's get straight into today's podcast and we're looking at Matthew 9:36 right through to 10:8. So as always, I'll read the passage and then we'll have a go at doing an exegesis of this text. When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the Harvest is Rich, but the laborers are few.
So ask the lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his Harvest. He summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power, to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness. These are the names of The Twelve Apostles.
First Simon, who is called Peter and his brother, Andrew James, the son of Zebedee. And his brother, John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector, James, the son of alphaeus and thaddaeus Simon, the Zealot and Judas, Iscariot the one who was to betray him.
These twelve Jesus sent out instructing them as follows, do not turn your steps to Pagan territory and do not enter any Samaritan Town, go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go Proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand, cure, the sick, raise the dead cleanse, the lepers, cast out Devils. You received without charge. Give without charge. So, what's the context? What's been happening prior to
this? So Jesus has been moving throughout Galilee and he's been doing lots of different healings and has been teaching in their synagogues. Matthew, the author has ended the previous section about Jesus Healing Ministry, which covers chapter 8 and 9. It appears that he's brought that to an end at 9:35. So here we get today to verse 36, which begins a new section and some scholars, believe the focus on this section in chapters. 9 and 10 is the issue of leadership.
Verse 36 when Jesus saw the crowds. So we're talking thousands of people flocking to him from all over the countryside. The crowds were harassed and helpless. Now, in context, it appears that the harassment and the helplessness is because the crowds are so large that it was becoming uncomfortable like they were all pushing and jostling against each other and Jesus
couldn't get to everyone. So they're getting harassed and Helpless and frustrated, but of course, it could also refer to the fact that they don't have spiritual leadership. Jesus is moved with pity and that carries this idea of deep emotional concern. So, Jesus is genuinely concerned about the crowds. He sees that they are like sheep without a shepherd. Now, Matthew says this and that would be a metaphor that his audience for was familiar with. Because they were from that area.
And the Jews were quite familiar with sheeps and Shepherds. So the idea is, this crowd needs care and they need a leader to help. Keep them going. Just like sheep need a Shepherd. The expression is also used in Ezekiel chapter 34 and again Matthews audience would have known their Old Testament. And in that context, it describes the suffering of God's people.
Do to them, having corrupt leaders who did not help the people, walk in God's ways and instead left them vulnerable, People verse 37, Jesus said to his disciples. Now he's speaking only to his followers here, not to the whole crowds, the Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So now Jesus brings in an agricultural metaphor, the idea is that there's lots of people ready to enter and progress in the kingdom of God.
The Harvest is plentiful. There's people ready for the kingdom, but there's not enough workers of the Kingdom, or in other words, has of the Kingdom to help bring them into the kingdom. That's the problem that Jesus diagnosis, we need more laborers. So, Jesus is about to remedy this problem. He needs more laborers for the kingdom. Verse 38. He still talking to his disciples pray that the lord of the Harvest will send out
laborers. So here, Jesus instructs his disciples to keep praying for more converts and particularly to pray for more leaders, who can work to expand the kingdom. So now we get to chapter 10 verse 1. He summoned his 12 disciples because the chapter divisions weren't in the original, we sometimes forget that Matthew would have intended people to keep reading chapter 9 and to keep going into chapter 10. So it's all one unit here.
So what Jesus is about to do with calling, the Twelve Apostles is a continuation of Jesus. Thought about having laborers for the vineyard. So these twelve disciples by. Now, all of them have become Jesus, disciples, Jesus. Just doesn't pull them out of nowhere. They have been following him around and he's going to give them a special Authority. We need to keep in mind that the authority.
He gives them is for them specifically, because they are going to be the Future Leaders of the church. He does not give this authority to all disciples. This is an invite only thing. What he's about to do. Now in marks version of this in chapter 3, Jesus goes up to the Galilee Hills in order to do this Authority imparting. The ceremony and typically Jesus goes up into the hills when he wants a bit of privacy. So this might have been perhaps
a kind of a private occasion. Obviously Matthew knows about it because he's one of the people that was there So he summoned his 12 disciples and he gave them authority, to cast out demons, and to heal every disease and infirmity. Once again, notice that this is a special gift of healing and casting out demons, which is given only to the apostles, it comes directly from Jesus so that they can share in what he
has been doing. He has to give them a specific power and commissioning that allows them to do this. If Jesus doesn't give them this commissioning here, they wouldn't be able to do all the healings and Authority. They need his power, which is what he's giving them. So, in that sense, Jesus is imparting a supernatural gift
that not everyone has. And in fact, the gift probably was not passed on to the Apostle successes, we know that the apostles did make successors which are the Bishops, but this special Supernatural, gift of healing and casting out Demons probably wasn't passed on Jesus only gave it to the 12 for this time, period of the initial preaching of the Kingdom. Mark adds another detail here on top of casting out demons in
healing. Mark says the Twelve Apostles are called to be with Jesus to be his companions. You see that in Mark chapter 3 verse 33 And we know that Matthews readers intended, these gifts to only refer to the apostles not to all the disciples because the next thing he does is he tells his readers the names of the Apostles so that his readers know exactly who had these gifts verse 2. These are the names of The Twelve Apostles. So what's happened? What's going on with the number
12? He's chosen, 12 deliberately most likely Jesus chose 12 because it represents the original Twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel, as well as the 12 tribal leaders, who assisted Moses in leading Israel as well. And you see that in Numbers Chapter 1 by tube choosing 12, which is a symbol of or a sign of the leaders of Israel. Jesus is is signaling that he is establishing new leaders for a new Israel, which is exactly what the church is.
Now this number 12 is so significant that the early church noticed that when Judas died, they felt that they had to replace him. They felt that they always needed to have 12 Apostles for as long as possible. Anyway, notice that Jesus is fixing the problem about Israel, lacking Shepherds. He is now providing Shepherds.
Remember earlier, he said that they are like sheep without a Shepherd. Well now here come the shepherd's, lots of Scholars have pointed out that this whole passage that we're looking at. On a follows like a chiasm where it starts with the observation that the people need Shepherds. Some stuff happens in the middle and then the Apostles of the end is sent out to be the shepherd. So there's a really interesting literary structure that Matthew has employed here.
So Matthew is now going to list the names of The Twelve Apostles. Jesus probably knew each of these men already. We know that he knew at least seven of them. If you look at the Gospel of John by now Jesus is actually met and talked to at least Seven of the 12 apostles. So these are all disciples already and now he's promoting them to his, in a group of disciples. It was quite common in that culture for rabbis and produced to have an inner group of disciples. But what is unique here?
And a lot could be said about this is that Jesus although he has male and female disciples, he only chooses men to be part of the very Inner Circle. Now, there were other people in the world in the Roman Empire, at this time who were choosing female clothes disciples as part of the Inner Circle that was quite common particularly in Roman.
Organisms priestesses were quite commonly the closest distance of the preacher so Jesus could have it is possible that in this time period he could have chosen clothes women to be part of The Twelve Apostles and yet he doesn't do that and the Catholic Church sees that as a significant indicator that Jesus
deliberately chosen men. And it should tell us something about his desire for the priesthood which is a, it should be male only obviously there's a a lot more that could be said there and there's lots of church documents have been written about it but basically the church does come back to this idea that Jesus has not left that option open for female priests because of his own actions during his ministry.
So here he lists the 12, apostles first Simon, who is called Peter. Now, Simon is always mentioned first in the list of the Apostles to highlight his Primacy as leader. Jesus had actually already named him. I'm and when he first met him people miss this, they think that Jesus called Simon Peter in Matthew 16, but actually the very first time he met him, which is early in the Gospel of John, Jesus names him, Peter and he was his actually been in Matthew earlier as well.
In chapter 4, Peter appears. Now we'll just briefly touch on each of the 12 apostles that Matthew lists here. So, his brother Andrew, that's the brother of Simon. He's also met Jesus earlier James, the son of Zebedee and His brother John. So Jesus met these fishermen earlier in Matthew as well. Verse 3, we have Philip Philip is from bethsaida and he also met Jesus earlier on Bartholomew. He's sometimes called Nathaniel and he also met Jesus early in the Gospel of John.
And now we get to the rest of them. Thomas, Thomas is famous for doubting Jesus after his resurrection. And then next in the list is Matthew, the tax collector. That's probably the author of this gospel. He's probably talking about himself now. He is met Jesus slightly earlier. So in chapter 9, we're introduced to Matthew the tax collector, interesting that Matthew doesn't put himself at the top or the bottom of the
list. He puts himself in the middle of the list, of the Apostles, which is probably an act of humility. Really James the son of alphaeus. Now, this is different from James, the son of Zebedee. There's different theories about who? Exactly this James, the son of alphaeus is it might actually be Matthews. The tax collectors brother, because Levi's, father is also said to be obvious. And then we have Thaddeus, he doesn't have any lines in this
gospel. Sometimes Thaddeus is called dude or Judas. Verse 4, we have Simon the Zealot. Some translations have this as Simon the Canaanite and now it's not Canaanite as in someone from Canaan a Canaan. Ian, the translation they are basically means someone who is zealous for the Jewish law. That's why Simon is called the Zealot. In other translations. A zealot was a real group of Jews that existed at the time. And basically, they wanted
political revolution. As Ellis was, someone who believed in overthrowing, the Romans they were political revolutionaries. It's interesting that Jesus would include him amongst his list of Apostles. He's probably quite a violent man, and that tells us that Jesus is welcoming in terms of his 12, Apostles of all, different backgrounds and Persuasions and then last in the list is Judas, Iscariot the one who was to betray him. Now Iscariot is an interesting term.
It's not his last name. A lot of Scholars. Think that means he's from the village of kiriath. You scary. It's scary. Ultimatums from kiriath, that's possible. He's always listed last by the gospel writers, which indicates that he should be considered to be the least Apostle, because he betrayed Jesus Pope Benedict summarizes the list of Apostles. Well, Pope Benedict. The 16th said precisely in this wide range of backgrounds, temperaments and approaches the
12-person personify. The Church of all ages and is difficult task. Of purifying and you not unifying these men in their Zeal for Christ Jesus. So in a way, the Twelve Apostles and their differences model the church today. Verse 5, these twelve Jesus sent out and the Greek for sent out is apostolos, so that's what
Apostle means. Basically, it's one who's sent with the authority of the sender, which is exactly what the apostles are now, they have Jesus Authority, but before he sends them out, he gives them some instructions. It's actually quite a long speech that he gives them. We're just going to hear the start of it today, so he
instructs them as follows. Now their words he's going to give them are for a very Civic time period for the initial preaching of the Kingdom. The instructions were about to hear do not apply to all believers in all times, it was very much restricted to the apostles for this time. Period. Do not turn your steps to Pagan territory or more. Literally go nowhere among the Gentiles and do not enter any Samaritan town.
A lot of people really struggle with this idea that Jesus tells his Apostles not to preach to the Gentiles. If you know your new testament, well, you'll know that the initial preaching of the kingdom of God is only for Israel, while Jesus is on earth, once Jesus is gone soon. After that, in fact, the kingdom of God is opened up to Gentiles, but at the start, it's only for Jews. So, that's what Jesus says in verse 6. Go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
So Jesus has come to minister to his own people primarily the Jews particularly to those who have become law. Estranged from God. So this is when the preaching of the kingdom of God is just beginning. As part of God's Plan of Salvation, the Jews must be offered the fullness of Salvation first, because they were given the Old Testament and all the promises of that. So they get to be offered at least the kingdom of God before the Gentiles are. Jesus knows that, of course, he
knows that one day. The Gentiles will be offered the kingdom but he's setting things up so that the preaching of the kingdom is done in stages. He doesn't Do it all at once. Later in the book of Acts, they do start to preach to the Gentiles Verse 7 as you go Proclaim or more literally preach as you go, that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Now there's a lot to say about this phrase. The Kingdom of Heaven, it's equivalent to what the other gospel authors.
Call the kingdom of God. It appears that Matthew refers the word Heaven, because he's a faithful Jew and Jews. Tended, not to use the word God. So he's using a substitute word, which is a closely associated with God. So the Kingdom of Heaven means the kingdom of A lot notice, he says, the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand Scholars. Talk about how that means, that the kingdom is just beginning as Jesus has arrived, but it has not yet reached its fullness.
So the kingdom of God is at hand, meaning it's starting, but it's not fully here yet. And they compare it to like a sun coming over the horizon. That's what it means to say. The kingdom is at hand. This is the kingdom of God, that the Jews have been waiting for, for years and Has has come to bring the kingdom of God. It's a central message of the entire Gospel of Matthew and one that will spend a bit of time unpacking as we go through the gospel.
This is actually the same message that both John, the Baptist and Jesus himself had proclaimed earlier. The Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. And now the apostles are to Proclaim that same message. Notice they're being called to preach the kingdom of God. Jesus does not say go and preach the sinner's prayer and tell everyone that they will be saved if they say the sinner's prayer. That's not what he says. He wants them to preach the full implications of the kingdom of God.
The instructions continued verse 8, cure the sick, raise the dead cleanse, the lepers, cast out Devils. So Matthew makes it clear that the apostles given the power to do everything that Jesus himself? They doing up to that point. Curing the sick, raising the dead cleansing the lepers lepers casting out devils. Notice that the apostles are even given the ability to raise the dead. That's fascinating. Although we don't see them do that.
During Jesus Ministry. They do, do it later in the book of Acts. If you look at Acts chapter 9, you'll see the apostles raising the dead there, so by Jews is giving them this commission. They have the power to do it. He finishes this section by saying, you received without charge give without charge. So, the Apostle's have received, these Supernatural Gifts of healing from Jesus for free and now he expects them to use those same gifts it to spread the
kingdom without being paid. Jesus gave it to them for free and the other Apostles need to hand out or pass on these gifts, by using them for free. It's not really their own work anyway, so they shouldn't be paid for it. It's God's work. From here, Jesus goes on to give further instructions. It's quite an extended discourse actually. And that indicates that the apostles are going to be away for some time, he's giving them Specific Instructions, because they could be away for quite a
few weeks, or even some months. If you're listening to this on a Sunday, perhaps in year a then you probably won't get to hear the next part of Jesus. Instructions of the Apostles, but it is part of the weekday cycle, particularly around week 11 and 12 of ordinary time, the gospel does go through the full sermon that Jesus preached his here. Now, let's have a look at some catechism references. Just a few short ones about Matthew, chapter 9 and 10, paragraph, 26 11, the prayer of faith.
Consists not only in saying, Lord Lord. But in disposing, the heart to do, the will of the father, Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer. This concern for cooperating, with the divine plan, So this seems to relate specifically to Jesus instruction here to pray that more people will be raised up more laborers for the vineyard. That's certainly something we should pray for paragraph 5 4 3. This is about the kingdom of God. Everyone is called to enter the
kingdom. First announced to the children of Israel. This Messianic kingdom is intended to accept, man of all Nations. So, of course, the kingdom of God would one day be open to Gentiles. Paragraph 1509. This is about Healing. The Sick heal the sick. The church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carried out by taking care of the sick, as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, The
Physician of Souls and bodies. Paragraph 2 1 2 1. This is about irreligion and it in context here. It's going to refer to Jesus commandment. Not for the apostles, not to ask for money for their gifts. Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things to Simon the Magician who wanted to buy the spiritual power. He saw it. Work in the apostles, Saint Peter responded. Your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money.
Peter, thus held to the words of Jesus, you received without pay give without pay. It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or Master for. They have their Source in God. One can only receive them only from him without payment. So that's a really clear application of Jesus instructions here. People should never ask for money when parting the spiritual gifts of God paragraph. 2443 in this is in love for the poor God, blesses.
Those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. Give to him, who begs from you, but do not refuse him. Who would borrow from you. You received without pay give without pay. Now, notice, that's a very different application of those. Same words you received without pay give without pay the idea here. According to Catholic teaching, is we have been freely forgiven? So God has given us lots of free. Gifts.
So we should actually give away some of our gifts to the poor in a similar way. So that's where we'll end the podcast for today. Thank you for listening. If you've learned something new and you think there's others in your life, who would benefit from hearing a Catholic academic analysis of the scriptures? Then please share this with them. Thanks, we'll see you tomorrow. So that's where we'll end the podcast for today.
Thank you for listening. If you've learned something new and you think there's others in your life, who would benefit from hearing a Catholic academic analysis of the scriptures? Then please share this with them. Thanks, we'll see you tomorrow.