Matthew 10

The missionary discourse is addressed to the historical situation of the twelve but clearly written with one eye on the situation of Matthew's own community in the 80s CE. The warnings about being handed over to councils, flogged in synagogues, dragged before governors, betrayed by family members map onto the experience of a Jewish-Christian community in conflict with the synagogue establishment and periodically in trouble with Roman authorities. The instructions for mission — no gold, no bag, no second tunic — reflect a pattern of itinerant prophetic ministry that was characteristic of the early movement and that Paul's letters also presuppose.

The passage on fear in 10:26-31 is one of the gospel's most sustained arguments for a specific disposition. The logic is that fear is calibrated to the wrong object: the one who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul is worth less fear than the one who can destroy both in Gehenna. The argument from the sparrows — not one of them falls without the Father's knowledge, and you are worth more than many sparrows — is the argument of the Sermon on the Mount extended into the context of persecution. The hairs of the head are numbered: the specificity is deliberate, signaling that the Father's knowledge of the disciples extends to the kind of detail that escapes their own attention. The closing sayings on allegiance — I have come not to bring peace but a sword — have been among the most discussed verses in the gospel. The sword is not military; the sword is the division that allegiance to Jesus cuts through households and families, as the following verses about father against son and mother against daughter make clear.