NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TEN

Part V (Con’t)

Verse 38: Those who will not accept the cross that is given to them when they follow me are not worthy to claim they are mine.

Now Jesus goes from talking about people who are willing to confess Him as their Lord and Savior to speaking about putting action to their faith by following Him. This taking up the cross to follow Jesus has been interpreted in many different ways over the centuries. Some have literally taken a cross and walked around the globe as a sign of their dedication to the One who gave His all on the cross. Others see it as the willingness to bear all the heartache, sorrows, and burdens of living for Christ as they journey through this life. However, most classical scholars sees our Lord using the cross here as a metaphor of a person’s willingness to go to any lengths, including death, for the cause of the Gospel.

The unknown writer of an Early Church commentary on Matthew writes: “The man who bears his own cross is one who, if necessary, is ready to face any danger for the sake of God, up to and including death, rather than abandon Christ. He is ready to be tortured any day, because of his way of life. Even if he does not suffer anything as great as death, he will still receive mercy. For it is not the intention that is rewarded, but the deed. Intentions come from our free choice, but a deed is accomplished only through the grace of God. ‘He who finds his life will lose it.’¹ It is better to die for God’s sake and live eternally than to live for the sake of human interests and suffer eternal death. He died for us, although He was incapable of dying unless He wished to. How much more should we be willing to die for Him, we who are mortal even if we do not wish to be? If our Lord died for His servants without even a reward, it is almost unthinkable that a servant could die for the Lord and yet be rewarded.”²

But none of this should be a surprise. After all, didn’t God tell the devil this would take place: “I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies.”³ A Jewish translator believes that the word “seed” is better used here than “children”⁴ because the devil is not known to produce children. However, in the spiritual sense, the term: “children of the devil” became a common phrase.⁵ And it didn’t take long for that to happen.⁶ It was also a price Levi had to pay when selected by God to be the priestly tribe of Israel.⁷ Even Job’s trust and faith in God caused trouble within his own family,⁸ as did Jeremiah.⁹ So our Lord is not talking here about Christians forcing Christianity down other people’s throats by way of threat and violence as is the method of some Muslim fanatics today, but it was a matter of choice. Either live your life God’s way or man’s way.

If you were to call candidates for the ministry before an examining board and ask them the following questions: “Would you be willing to leave home and go anywhere in the world to preach this Gospel?” “Would you be willing to trust God to supply you with what you need to live and sustain your ministry in return for your labors?” “Would you be willing to be laughed at, made fun of, ridiculed, and persecuted for My sake?” you would be asking similar questions to what our Lord has been asking up to this point. But then, if you were to ask them: “Would you be willing to live without the clothes you prefer, or live in comfortable house, or drive a nice car, or eat the kind of meals you are used to in order to reach the lost for Christ?” you would be asking the question that Jesus asked His followers here. In the words that follow, I believe we can see that to be the case.

Verse 39: Those who try to maintain their life and its ambitions will end up losing them. But those who give up their life and ambitions to serve Me will find life’s true meaning.

This declaration by our Lord has been the source of debate, consternation, and confusion among Bible scholars, ever since it was written. It almost makes Jesus look like a rebel rouser instead of the Prince of Peace. But the context is vitally important in understanding what Jesus was saying. Some scholars believe that Jesus was referring to the Jews expectation that when the Messiah came He would drive out foreign armies and restore peace in the land. But that does not conform with our Lord’s focus on the family being in turmoil over belief in Him. Even those who refuse to comply with the worldly standards and behavior at their work place have experienced such rejection and turmoil. As a matter of fact, down through history the soul of Christianity has been fought over and defended in many wars and conflicts.

One Bible commentator stated this: “Peace on earth was promised at the birth of Jesus.¹⁰ And peace on earth was earned by the Redeemer.¹¹ But here is where the Lord refers to the second, terrible effect of Gospel-preaching, in the case of those that persistently refuse to accept the redemption through the blood of Jesus.¹² Christ foresaw this hostile opposition to His message; He knew, also, that the spiritual conflict which would be brought on by carnal enmity would find its expression in actual physical persecution. His disciples should not then imagine, as they were likely to do, that there would now be a reign of earthly quietness and peace, with all the blessings which the word implies. Division, contention, war, sudden, fierce calamities would follow the introduction of the Gospel. There is no more bitter hatred and strife than that due to religious differences. It estranges the closest of friends, it disrupts families, it causes lasting enmity between members of the same household. These features will accompany the propagation of the new religion. To stand firm on the side of Christ demands the utmost fearlessness.”¹³

Chrysostom expresses his understanding of this text as follows: “See how great is the impairment to those who have an exaggerated love for their own life. And how great is the blessing to those who are ready to give up their lives for a well-ordered love! So He bids His disciples to be willing to give up parents, children, natural relationships, kinships, the world and even their own lives. How burdensome are these injunctions! But then He immediately sets forth the greater blessings of rightly ordered love. Thus these instructions, Jesus says, are so far from harming, they are in fact of the greatest benefit. It is their opposites that injure. He then counsels them, as He so often does, in accord with the very desires they already possess. Why should you be willing to give up your life? Only because you can come to love it to excess. So for the very reason that you love it extraordinarily, in order for it to be to your advantage to the highest degree, you must learn to dislike loving it so inordinately. You will then, in the truest sense of the word, come to love your life for the right reason. Jesus does not consider this as applying only in the case of love for parents or children. He teaches the same with regard to your own life, which is the dearest of all to you.”¹⁴

So it all depends on which side you stand. On the one hand the presence and word of Christ brings peace to people’s hearts, homes and communities. But at the same time, it can also spark opposition and persecution among the same. So our Lord is warning His disciples that just like a scalpel, the sword of the Word of God can hurt or heal. It all depends on who is holding the scalpel, one who is a surgeon or one who is suicidal. And with the Word of God, a Spirit-filled pastor will use it to heal while a spirit possessed pretender will use it to hurt.

When turning to household conflicts, the first thing we must notice is that Jesus does not say that parents should hate their children. He is certainly aware of the love and affection that parents and children share. But when given the choice of either accepting the objections their children may have of becoming a Christian or yielding to the call of the Holy Spirit to follow Christ, if their love for Him does not supersede that of pleasing their children, then they automatically disqualify themselves as authentic ambassadors of the Kingdom of heaven. It is called “tough love.”

Too many Christian parents acquiesce to their children’s desires to have or participate in worldly pleasures for fear of losing them, without knowing that they have already lost them to sin and Satan. If you children denounce you because you are a Christian and following the teachings of Christ, God will not hold you any more responsible for their actions that God held Adam and Eve accountable for what Cain did to Abel. But a parents should never criticize their children just because they decide not to submit to Christ in the same way they do. Just continue to be an example and the Holy Spirit will do the work of conviction.

Verse 40: Whoever accepts you also accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me.

Now our Lord turns from rejection that may be encountered by His followers to acceptance that will also come their way. So often we determine success or failure in a Christian effort based on whether or not we were accepted. When we are true to the Word and walking in the Spirit and will of God, it is not us that they are receiving or rejecting, it’s the One who sent us and goes with us.

We find an interesting parallel between what Jesus says and what God tells the Israelites in Exodus: “I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to Him, listen to what He says and do not rebel against Him; because He will not forgive any wrongdoing of yours, since my name resides in Him. But if you listen to what He says and do everything I tell you, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.”¹⁵ This relationship was already understood by Jewish wisemen who said: “Just as you are members of the covenant, so must your representatives be members of the covenant”.¹⁶ In fact, Rabbis agree: “…a man’s representative is the same as himself”.¹⁷ And one Rabbi added: “A man’s representative is the same as himself, he ranks as being one and the same.”¹⁸

In other words, Jesus was telling His disciples that although they were being the ones sent, He saw them more than just someone going in His place, but as He Himself going with them because He would be in them. So whatever happens to them, will in fact happen to Him, and will also impact His Father in heaven. While this may have thrilled the disciples to know that the Lord was with them and in them, not all Jews were as open minded.

In one polemic Jewish writing we read: “Jesus is made to say to His apostles, ‘He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives Him that sent me.’ By this expression the Christians are reduced to the necessity of believing that Jesus and His apostles are identical; and as they are taught that three make one, they ought, by equal reasoning, deduce the inference from the present passage, that the trinity, with the twelve apostles, make altogether one unity”.¹⁹

In a way, this critic was right, this is what the apostles believed, and this bond of unity is what has kept the church alive all these centuries. But the burden of understanding and accepting this is not on the ambassadors of God’s kingdom, but on those who either receive them or reject their message. It is like a police officer who wears a badge and uniform. The person who spurns their orders to pull over for speeding or going the wrong way down an interstate highway is not showing disrespect for them as a person but are resisting what they, the badge and uniform represent. So it is not the policeman who punishes them but the authority behind the law they refused to obey. It was the apostle Paul who said so eloquently: “I am not the one living now—it is Christ living in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God.”²⁰