Matthew 10:7-15
As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”
And now comes the rest of the pep talk. Notice how weighted it is to encouraging – actually, insisting on – what I would call “grateful generosity” and “faithful dependence.”
First, grateful generosity. I think it’s incredibly significant where Jesus begins: he tells them to cure, cast out, cleanse, and raise to life. In short, he instruct them to imitate his commitment to standing against any and all forces that would rob the children of God of the abundant life God desires for them. Moreover, he tells them to do this for free, expecting no payment or return. Why? (And here is the punch line.) “You received without payment, so give without payment.”
Is this not true in our lives? How many of those things that are most important to us – those things we would never trade or sell (and suddenly that rules out all of our possessions) were not in some measure given to us?
If we can not only believe this intellectually, but actually reflect and internalize this reality into our daily lives – that all we have of value has been given to us freely – then we can only be grateful, but from that sense of gratitude we will discover a profound desire to be generous, to give as freely as we have been given.
Okay, onto faithful dependence. I suspect that Jesus anticipated the reaction his disciples – then and now – have when they hear that they are to do good without expecting any remuneration or return: we’d better start saving! But that’s not Jesus’ plan at all. As long as the disciples – then or now – attempt to quantify the abundant life of the kingdom, they will always be counting. And so if Jesus asks them to give freely, and they assume there is only a certain amount of healing or life or love to give, then they will want to take more of whatever they have. And since money (in this case referenced as silver and gold) and goods (tunics and staffs) are what they have, they will want to stock up.
Because Jesus knows they have not yet really lived into a sense of grateful generosity (which is characterized by a profound sense of abundance), he insists they go out dependent. Dependent on the generosity of others and on the provision of God. Mark, however, that this is not the weak dependence of begrudging subsistence but rather is the faithful dependence of those who trust God and therefore trust those around them.
Again, the simple question: if we can not only believe this intellectually but actually begin to live it in our daily practices, what kind of difference would this make? To us, to those around us, to the world? I suspect it would look a lot like the kingdom of heaven had come near.
Prayer: Dear God, bless us with the kind of joyous generosity that arises from gratitude and the kind of confident dependence that arises from faith and trust in you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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