Bible Study as Deep Meditation on the Actions of God: An Excerpt from Living in the Underground Church

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Pastor Foley

All human action is a response to the activity of the Triune God: This is the fundamental premise of grace. Stated differently, nothing we do moves God to action; instead, God’s action is always what moves us. We are creatures capable of responding to God’s initiative, nothing more. And yet, given the length, breadth, height, and depth of that initiative, no human being has yet scratched the surface of what human beings are capable of in response to grace so inconceivably great.

This is a truth we Christians believe theologically but ignore practically. Our prayers and worship have the feel of us initiating a rather limited conversation with the Triune God about our needs and interests instead of us attentively receiving and responding to his boundless, ceaseless, infinite activity on our behalf.

The same orientation characterizes our Bible reading: Consciously or unconsciously, our insatiable interest in ourselves bleeds into every pericope. We are inexorably drawn to Scripture verses that tell us what to do and what we will receive when we do it. This tendency is so pronounced that each time we open the Bible we see implied commands and promises crammed in every nook and cranny; we overemphasize and overinflate the commands and promises that really are present; and in our hyper-attention to anything about ourselves we make quite small the acts of the Triune God that move the rest of heaven and earth first to stunned silence and then to rapturous praise.

In my Introduction to Preparing for the Underground Church, I wrote, “The underground church is the indissoluble structure of Christ’s work that is revealed when the public church can no longer sustain itself, either due to devastating attack or collapse from within.”[5] I suspect this is the reason why underground Christians are, in my experience, less enamored and entranced by the power and potential of human activity, whether their own or someone else’s, and thus more inclined to dwell on God’s actions when they read Scripture. Underground Christians have seen the full extent of human possibility, both that of God’s friends and God’s enemies, and they have found such actions wanting. I recall often the words of the first underground North Korean Christian I ever met, who said to me, “We North Korean Christians have neither money nor power. We have only Christ. And we have found that he is sufficient.”

In Scripture, the actions of the Triune God are not only sufficient to save us; they are sufficient to animate the world. Thus, whatever consideration we give the actions of the Triune God when we read the Scripture, it is insufficient. That is, the actions of the Triune God can be meditated upon profitably for as long as our attention can sustain. Then, when we are capable of further attention, we can meditate profitably on God’s actions even more. Even the simplest phrase—“God said,” or “Jesus knew,” or “the Spirit rested upon”—contains a world of meaning deeper than we can ever fully plumb. We should never pass over a single verb of divine action without a great deal of wonder.

And that is exactly the profoundly simple but profoundly rewarding task which we undertake in this step of Bible reading: In the Scripture passage we are reading, we look for every instance where Father, Son, or Holy Spirit is the doer of an action, or a participant in it. Stated differently, we look for every instance where the Triune God is the subject, followed by a verb indicating action (i.e., the Father loves, Jesus saw, the Holy Spirit was given). In a later step of our Bible reading, we will look at the instances in each Scripture passage where God’s character is described using nouns and adjectives (or what are called descriptive verbs in Korean). In this present step, however, our focus is on identifying the actions of the Triune God.

Once we identify these actions, we meditate deeply upon each one. This is not a search for mystical hidden meaning. It is a reflection on the obvious–what is fully and plainly stated in the Scripture passage. It is not a difficult process. Occasionally, however, verses can be challenging because there are times when God’s actions are implicit, or God is not stated directly as the actor. For example, Psalm 85:10-11 says,

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.[6]

In the latter verse, God’s attributes are used to refer to his person, e.g., “Righteousness” looks down from heaven. Here, the psalmist is telling us something about both God’s character and his actions: God is looking down from heaven, and God is righteous. When the psalmist writes, “Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,” we can understand that faithfulness is part of God’s character.

But what does it mean that faithfulness “springs forth” from the earth? The meaning is not immediately obvious. The steps described in previous chapters—about the Nicene Creed and the context of a scripture—can provide helpful insights. The verse may call to mind Christ’s incarnation. In such situations, it is important for us to differentiate between what is clearly and obviously stated in the Scripture passage and what we are inferring based on our overall reading. What is clearly stated should be regarded as trustworthy and authoritative, whereas we should always regard our own inferences as subject to correction and revision.

For example, when the psalmist writes, “Love and faithfulness meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other,” we should not engage in complex theological inferences. Even though there are action verbs present (i.e., “meet” and “kiss”), we should draw the simplest possible conclusion: The psalmist is speaking here about aspects of God’s character. In God, love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace find full expression and perfect balance. We would then note these insights in the later step on the character of God, rather than in this step on the actions of God.

As is true of all Bible reading, the greatest insights come not from inferring what is hidden but rather in paying attention to the obvious. There is a joke about a man in West Berlin who, during the Cold War, would daily cross into East Berlin by bicycle. Day after day, year after year, the East Berlin border guards would stop and search the man and his bicycle, knowing he must be smuggling something across the border. However, day after day, year after year, they found nothing. When at last the Berlin Wall fell, West Berliners and Easter Berliners were celebrating together. In the crowd, the guards met the man they had searched daily. They said to the man, “Brother, every day we searched you and your bicycle because we knew you were smuggling something across our border. But we never found anything. Now, please tell us what you were smuggling.” “Bicycles,” replied the man.

In the same way, the purpose of Scripture is to reveal, not conceal, the activity of God. Our inability to clearly see God’s activity in Scripture and in our lives is rooted in our failure to look for it. Typically we look right past it as we search for something else (typically commands and blessings), like the border guards overlooking the bicycle day after day, year after year. We ourselves deserve the strong rebuke Jesus gave to Peter: We do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.[7] Even when we focus intently on the commands of God in a particular Scripture passage, if we do so before we have focused intently and at length on the actions of God in that passage, we rightly deserve rebuke. That is because in so doing we obscure the fundamental truth that God is a God of grace, and that all human action is but a response to the activity of the Triune God.

An example will underscore our point and also illustrate how to undertake this step in our method. We focus our attention on Matthew 28:16-20. Many modern Christians refer to this scripture by the name, “the Great Commission.” That is because when we read this scripture, we focus on what Christ commands us to do:

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.[8]

Christ’s command here is explicit, clear, and important. It is the reason I am writing this post from Korea, for example, though I was born in the United States. But emphasizing the command of Christ in this Scripture passage as its focal point is a modern development. For the first 1,800 years of church history, no one referred to this Scripture as “the Great Commission.”

And according to the criteria we have laid out here, that is preferable. Because as we’ve learned, Scripture is not written primarily as a revelation of ethics. Instead, it is written primarily as a revelation of God’s character. Since God is the God of grace, and since all human action is a response to the activity of the God, we do justice to his character (and to the Scriptures) only as we focus on the action of God before we focus on the commands that flow from it. As we will see in this Scripture from Matthew, only in this way can we rightly understand the ethics that flow from God’s gracious action, and only in this way can we be empowered by that river of grace.

When we focus on the action of God in Matthew 28:16-20, we see the fullness of the river from which the Great Commission flows. So great is the grace of that river that the whole Scripture passage, rightly understood and rightly emphasized, might more appropriately be titled “the Great Claim” rather than “The Great Commission.”

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Christ claims.[9]

Note Jesus’ use of the word, “all.” Jesus claims to have been given “all” authority in heaven and on earth. He does not claim to have “more authority than many others” or “a lot of influence.” He does not say, “We may be in the minority now, but in the future I will have all authority and will reward those who bear with matters in the meantime.” He says that all authority presently rests in his hands.

This means that Jesus has as much authority over North Korea as he does over your faithful church.

“How can that be?” we ask. “People starve to death in North Korea! Christians are persecuted! Homeless orphans freeze overnight! What kind of God would choose to allow these atrocities despite having the authority and power to fix them?”

Asking this question shows us that we are on the right track to understanding God’s character. Why? Because it is the question that God’s people ask time and time again in Scripture,[10] with his encouragement: “Lord, why do you let the unjust flourish? Why will you not return to judge the world and make it right?” Each of these questions is an entry point for a deeper understanding of the character and action of God, if we have ears to hear it.

Note that none of the New Testament authors doubt that Christ is fully in charge. In fact, it is because they know that Christ has received all authority from his Father that they are troubled by the choices he is making. “Why do you abandon us?” they ask. “Why do you not avenge us?” It only makes sense to ask the question if we believe that all power truly does rest in Christ’s hands.

For most of church history, the assurance that all things exist presently under the authority of Christ has been the focus of Matthew 28:16-20, not the command of verse 18. It is why, historically, when Christians have been persecuted and imprisoned, they responded with otherworldly joy and goodwill rather than fear: They came to know and believe that Christ presently holds all authority. They concluded that nothing could happen to them that Christ did not personally authorize.

Nonetheless, this is a heavy claim to bear. Many of us may be tempted to walk away, saying, “I love God, I believe Jesus rose from the dead, and I believe the world was created by God’s hand, but this I cannot believe.”

But we cannot walk away from it. It is an explicit, clear, important statement of the activity of God. It is in many ways the bedrock of the Christian faith. We can believe that God created the world, that Jesus is the son of God, that Jesus’ blood washed away our sins, and that Jesus rose from the dead. However, if we do not believe that Jesus possesses all authority on heaven and earth, we cannot call ourselves Christian.

Why?

If we do not believe that Jesus possesses all authority, then we are worshipping a different God than the faithful church that came before us—and a different God from the God of the Bible.

The Scriptures and the witness of the faithful church concur with us on this point. Jesus tells us that he “hold[s] the keys to death and Hades.”[11] Peter tells us that God allows us to suffer for a little while, and then lifts us up.[12] Paul reminds us that God perfectly molded us (and the world around us) in the way that he wished, and that this should move us to worship, not complaint.[13] Early Christians “turned the world upside down” merely by witnessing faithfully to a power greater than Caesar.[14]

Note that the emphasis in each of these Scriptures is on the actions of God, not the ethics of men. Jesus did not merely inspire a revolution of grace. He initiated it and continues to undertake every aspect of it personally. He does not call us to aid him or imitate him in his revolution but rather to respond to his initiative by welcoming it, witnessing to it, baptizing others into it, and teaching others to obey him just as we have chosen to do. In this way we come to see that the most important part of Matthew 28:19 is not the phrase “go unto all nations” but the conjunction “therefore,” which reminds us that our actions are only ever a response to his. Not only is all authority his, but all the actions of consequence in this revolution of grace are his as well. If remaining faithfully by his side does not seem a large enough role in the kingdom for us, it is worth noting that it was more than the apostles themselves were able to muster.

Like the apostles after Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we have received the Holy Spirit from him, so we can indeed remain faithfully by his side until the end of the age. He does not give us his Spirit in order to empower us to carry on his work in his stead—all power belongs to him, and he is with us always—but in order that we might remain his ever faithful witnesses, focused always on his actions, no longer entranced or fascinated by our own.

 

[5] E. Foley, “Introduction.” In R. Wurmbrand, Preparing for the Underground Church. Seoul: Voice of the Martyrs, 2017, p. 55.

[6] Psalm 85:10-11, NIV.

[7] Cf. Mt 16:23.

[8] Matthew 28:19, NIV.

[9] Matthew 28:18, NIV.

[10] Cf. Rev. 6:10, Hab. 1:2, Ps. 13:1.

[11] Revelation 1:18, NIV.

[12] Cf. 1 Pet. 5:10.

[13] Cf. Rom. 9:19-21.

[14] Cf. Acts 17:6-7.

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What Is the Hundredfold Harvest in the Parable of the Sower?

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Editor

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Matthew 13:18-23

For many people, this parable isn’t “the Parable of the Sower”; it’s “the Parable of the Soil.” We often focus on Christ’s explanation of the four types of soil (in Matthew 13:18-23) and apply this to our own hearts. We ask ourselves, “Which kind of soil am I?”

Am I the soil who allows the evil one to snatch the gospel from me? Am I the soil that initially receives the gospel with joy, but then falls away when met with opposition? Or am I the soil who allows worry to choke our faith before it reaches full bloom?

When pastors preach this sermon, they often insist that we need to pull out our spiritual weeds and prepare our metaphorical soil for Christ’s word. When Jesus preaches this sermon, however, his focus isn’t on the soil; it’s on the sower.

“Hear then the parable of the sower,” Jesus says (Matthew 13:18). Although Jesus explains the meaning of the soil to his disciples, he chooses to emphasize the sower (and not the soil) in his title. Why?

As it turns out, if you take your eyes off the soil and focus on the sower, you’ll find an interesting question staring back at you: Why is this sower tossing precious seed into barren places?

If you ask any farmer, they’ll tell you that seed is precious—it isn’t unlimited—and so you have to be strategic about where (and how) you sow it. Seeds, after all, can’t grow just anywhere. This is why farmers have fields and why these fields have to be plowed, rotated, and regularly maintained.

This sower, however, tosses precious seed onto the road (where it is eaten by birds), into rocky places without much earth (where it withers away), and among thorns (where it is strangled). Isn’t this strange?

What would you think if you walked outside and saw a farmer throwing seeds onto the road? Onto a pile of rocks? Into a tangled mess of thorns? What would you think if you knew that this was the first place he chose to sow these seeds?

You would probably wonder what he was doing. The action is so strange that it must have some explanation: No grown person would choose to plant seeds in the street!

To answer this question, however, we must ask another: Why does Jesus tell this parable? Too often, we read scriptures out of context. If we do not read the events that happen before and after a scripture, we run the risk of shaping the scripture around our own lives (instead of shaping our lives around the scripture!).

Also, when we read scripture out of context, we get the impression that it is a series of timeless truths, rather than the invasion of God into the ordinary times of human life.

Jesus is telling this story in response to something—but what? We have to travel back a few chapters to find out. That’s because this scripture passage isn’t its own story—it’s a continuation of the story that we have been reading for the last month.

This story begins with Jesus’ heart being moved within him at the sight of the crowds that are following him (Matthew 9:36). He thinks of these crowds as “sheep with no shepherd”—but why?

Because their religious leaders are no longer able to recognize the God which they claim to serve.

Before this scripture, three times the religious leaders accuse Christ’s power of coming from the devil.

“It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons,” they cry (Matthew 12:24). Claiming that God’s power comes from the devil, however, is the unforgivable sin (Matthew 12:31-33).

In other words, the very people who should have been shepherding God’s people had sinned and their sin could not possibly be forgiven. They were leading people away from God and this deeply troubled Jesus.

So, Jesus gathers together his 12 closest followers and instructs them to go out and minister to his flock.

“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons,” he instructs the disciples (Matthew 10:8). He then warns the disciples that when they do this, they will face opposition. When they travel into villages, people will reject them—even though they are proclaiming the truth, healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons.

Jesus even guarantees the disciples that they will face opposition from their own families (Matthew 10:34-38). As they attempt to act as shepherds to those who have gone astray, they are guaranteed persecution.

What this isn’t just the way that Jesus’ disciples will suffer—it’s the way that Jesus, himself, will suffer!

In Matthew 12, Jesus takes the withered hand of a man at the synagogue and makes it new. The religious leaders are outraged.

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” The religious leaders say (Matthew 12:10). The scripture tells us that they confront Jesus for the sole purpose of publically accusing him of wrongdoing. So, when the tables turn and they are publically corrected by him, the leaders begin to plot for ways to destroy him.

Later on in this passage (in a different place), Jesus heals a man who is blind, mute, and suffering from demon possession. Instead of rejoicing, these religious leaders malign him once again.

“This fellow does not cast out demons expect by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons,” they say (Matthew 12:24). Jesus responds by explaining how this cannot possibly be true, but the religious leaders pay no attention.

“Teacher, we want to see a sign from you,” they say.

This request comes from the very religious leaders who (1) watched Jesus heal a man who was blind, mute, and demon-possessed and (2) are responsible to God for directing the people to him. How painful this must have been! This is why Jesus told his disciples that the religious leaders would reject them: because they first rejected him.

Even more painful than being rejected by religious leaders, however, is the rejection that Jesus faced at the hands of his own relatives. Mark 3 tells us that when Jesus’ brothers and mother heard about what he was doing, “they went out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21). Jesus’ own family thought that he was crazy.

Everything that Jesus said would happen to his disciples happened to him.

But, what, then, is the question that Jesus is responding to? The same set of questions that his followers find themselves confronted with today: How can Jesus be God if the few people who follow him are tax collectors and sinners?

“How can you be God if the religious leaders reject you?” People challenge him. “Your own family thinks that you’re crazy! Why should anyone listen to you?”

So Jesus tells a story about a sower who sows in strange places. A sower who sows in a place where he knows there will be no harvest.

This isn’t a story about a sower who tosses seed onto the road in the hopes that at least one seed will take root and grow. Jesus is very clear: The seed is gobbled up by the birds. The seed is withered by the sun. The seed is choked by the weeds. Therefore, the sower is deliberately putting seeds in places where he knows it won’t grow—but why?

Because the sower is mirroring an aspect of God’s character that has been true of God’s character throughout the Bible: He does not only send his word to those who receive it. In Romans 1, Paul tells us that God has shared his word with everyone—even those who reject it. He also tells us why.

[God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made, so [every human being is] without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

God presents his word for two reasons: (1) to redeem those who are willing to receive it, and (2) to judge those who reject it. He does not reserve his word only for those he knows will accept it—and neither should we. God sends his word even to those whom he knows will (by their own choice) reject him. It isn’t God’s will for these individuals to perish, but he is well-aware of the choice which they will make before they make it.

Always, God’s word brings out the darkness in people’s hearts. This isn’t to say that this darkness is created by God’s word—the darkness always exists within the person. John 3:20 says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come to the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” The light of God’s word reveals the darkness that was hiding in us all along—it reveals the deeds which we do our best to hide.

In Acts, we see that, typically, the disciples are rejected by the first group of people to whom they preach—the Jews. Paul was even stoned and left for dead by a group of Jews. Shortly after this, however, he pulled himself up from the ground, dusted himself off, and walked back into the city. He began proclaiming the gospel again to an entirely new group (the Gentiles)—who were much more receptive to the message.

This is the character of God—He sends his word out everywhere and to everyone. We must go and do likewise. The sower does not begin with the fertile field. He first plants seed where he knows it won’t grow. Even after this, he chooses to plant in another place where the seed will ultimately die. The fertile field isn’t his first attempt—it’s his fourth!

Let us now go and preach in our hometowns—even though they reject us!

Let us continue to preach—even when religious leaders threaten us!

Let us share the gospel with our family—even if they think we are crazy!

For Jesus, despite being rejected by his hometown ( Why?

In Jesus’ parable, the seed which falls on the fertile ground is said to produce a hundredfold harvest. This phrase should remind us of Jesus’ promise in Matthew 19:29: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”

When Jesus says “harvest”, he is not referring to material prosperity—he is referring to the church. If you sow the seeds of the gospel, you will find that every so often your seed will fall upon rich soil: Someone will hear God’s word and believe. This person, this harvest, will be your new brother or sisters in Christ.

Even when everyone else rejects you, the church will always be there for you—you will always have your brothers and sisters in Christ. Even if these brothers and sisters don’t share your culture, ethnicity, political views, denomination, or interests, they are your family in Christ, your hundredfold harvest.

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How the Context of a Scripture Offers a Panoramic View Of God’s Character: An Excerpt from Living in the Underground Church

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Pastor Foley

Most of us would agree that to understand a passage of scripture we must understand its context. In fact, this is why many people do not read the Bible very much or very deeply on their own: They think they cannot understand it fully or correctly unless the context is first explained to them by a professional like a pastor, or by Bible study notes or commentaries and books written by theologians.

Pastors and theologians reinforce this idea by filling their sermons and books with information about scripture that is only available outside of scripture: cultural insights, historical information, theological commentary, and word studies. The unspoken message is clear: Context is necessary for proper scripture reading, and context is the domain of professionals.

As I was writing this, for example, I heard from a sister in our ministry how she has established a weekly gathering of mothers from her neighborhood to read the Bible according to the method described in this book. “Except we don’t do the context question,” she added. She did not need to explain why. To her it was simply obvious: She and the other mothers are not pastors or Bible scholars; therefore, they do not know enough to provide the necessary context for the passages of scripture they read each week in their study.

But there is another kind of Bible context that is readily available to everyone. It is the most important kind of context of all. This kind of context requires no professional training or theological background to discover. In fact, professionals are often more likely to overlook or neglect this kind of context because it seems so basic.

The kind of context commended here is simply a deep attentiveness to all the information about a passage that is available from inside scripture itself.

By “deep attentiveness,” I am not referring to anything mysterious or supernatural. I am referring to the practice of consciously asking and answering each of the following questions as simply and straightforwardly as possible each time you read a passage of scripture:

  • Who is speaking?
  • Who is being addressed?
  • Where are they located as they are speaking, and why are they there?
  • Why are they speaking, according to the scripture (e.g., What is the presenting issue)?
  • How does this passage of scripture connect to the scripture directly before it?
  • How does this passage of scripture connect to the scripture directly after it?
  • How does this passage of scripture connect to other scriptures in the Bible? Are there any other scriptures that:
    • use the same or similar wording?
    • involve the same people, place, or time?
    • make reference to this scripture, or to which this scripture makes reference?

Every question given here except the last one can be answered by someone opening a Bible for the first time. The last question gradually becomes answerable to more we read, even when we read with no outside help or coaching.

Yet it is surprising how seldom these questions are asked. One reason why is that many of us take up the Bible to read because we are seeking a direct word from God to address our present situation. Perhaps the most extreme form of this is people who open the Bible to a random page, point, read the verse, and receive it as God’s direction.

But we must remember that the primary purpose of scripture is not to give us guidance but to reveal God’s character. To say it a little differently, God did not create the Bible as a way of passing notes to us supernaturally to tell us what to do. As the writer of Hebrews put it:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.[5]

This is why Christ tells the disciples that he is the way, not that he shows the way.[6] When we read the Bible to find God’s direct word to us in our present situation, we are actually ignoring or overlooking God’s self-revelation, which is the whole meaning and purpose of scripture. There is no way to ignore or overlook God’s self-revelation and yet receive his guidance in our present situation.

That is because God’s self-revelation is his guidance: As he reveals his character to us in scripture, we come to know him. As we come to know him, we are then able to identify his presence and work in our lives and in the world around us, and we then know how to act so as to submit to and advance that. Understanding context in the scripture is the prelude to understanding our life as context for God’s work. The context for God’s work changes across countries and centuries and cultures, but his character remains the same. His activity in any context is thus identifiable, provided we learn to recognize it in as many different contexts as possible. Scripture is where we learn to do this.

So, when it comes to the Bible, life in the underground church is a three-step process, not a two-step one. Here is the erroneous, incomplete two-step process:

We read a scripture –> That scripture reveals God’s presence and direction in our present situation

Here is the correct, complete three-step process:

We read a scripture –> That scripture reveals God’s character –> Because God’s character is unchanging, we are increasingly able to recognize God’s presence and direction in our present situation

When we read the Bible according to this three-step process, we can see why context is so crucial: We cannot fully understand God’s character or actions in any scripture passage without it. In fact, the role of context is not to provide us with historical or cultural background information about the passage of scripture we are reading. It is to provide us with as panoramic a view as possible of God’s character in the passage of scripture we are reading.

Consider a simple example: Jesus’ sending of the twelve disciples in Matthew 10:1-4:

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.[7]

Using the list of context questions noted above, we can see that some are quite easy to answer:

  • Who is speaking? Jesus.
  • Who is being addressed? The twelve disciples.

But very quickly, even simple questions become more challenging:

  • Where are they stranding as they are speaking?

Here, Matthew provides no exact answer. If we read the verses before and after this scripture passage (which are two of the context questions also noted on the list), we can see in Matthew 9:35-36 and Matthew 11:1 a few details about Jesus’ location:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.[8]

…

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.[9]

The last of our context questions (to which we will return later in this chapter) asks if there are other scriptures that are connected to this scripture. Mark 3:13-19 and Luke 6:12-16 also record Jesus’ sending of the twelve. Mark 3:13 does give a specific location: “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.”[10] Luke 6:12-13 adds even more details, specifying a time of day:

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

Part of understanding the context of a scripture, however, is noting what the writer does not say. In this case, Matthew omits the mention of a place. We should not presume that this is because Matthew overlooks the detail or disagrees with Mark or Luke about it. Instead, we should recognize that Matthew may be emphasizing something different here about the character of God than is emphasized in Mark and Luke. We can understand this emphasis in answering the next context questions:

  • Why are they speaking, according to the scripture (e.g., What is the presenting issue)?
  • How does this passage of scripture connect to the scripture directly before it?
  • How does this passage of scripture connect to the scripture directly after it?

If we read only Matthew 10:1-4, the presenting issue for Jesus sending out his disciples is not clear. But if we read beginning in Matthew 9, a picture begins to emerge. Immediately before the scripture this week, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue. The religious leaders had seen him strengthen the legs of a paralyzed man, raise a girl from the dead, give sight to two blind men, and, most recently, heal a demon-oppressed man. Yet they whispered amongst themselves, “He does this through the devil” (Matthew 9:34).

The religious leaders, who God had charged with leading people to him, could not recognize God—even when he stood right in front of them in human form. They even said he was in league with Satan.

Yet wherever Jesus went, God’s people followed him around.

When Jesus saw these people, he was “moved with compassion” because they were “weary and scattered.”[11] It is precisely because of his character—specifically, his compassion and concern for the weariness and scattering of his beloved sheep—that he decides to send out his twelve most fully trained under-shepherds.

Matthew helps us to see that the “sending of the twelve” was not a timeless, formal occasion, such as might be portrayed by an artist’s skillful brush. It was an event spurred by the deep, biting pain that Christ felt upon seeing his lost sheep. Truly, this was more like a harrowing moment in the wilderness than a graduation ceremony on a mountaintop. Jesus gave out rapid-fire instructions: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8). Do, in other words, whatever is necessary to care for these sheep.

One final context question will bring this aspect of the character of God fully to the forefront of our understanding of this passage:

  • How does this passage of scripture connect to other scriptures in the Bible? Are there any other scriptures that:
    • use the same or similar wording?
    • involve the same people, place, or time?
    • make reference to this scripture, or to which this scripture makes reference?

The phrase in this passage that will gradually come to catch our attention as we read more and more scripture is “sheep without a shepherd.” It is a phrase that goes all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, in Numbers 27:15-17:

Moses said to the Lord, “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”[12]

What Jesus sees when he looks out over God’s people is exactly what Moses fears: sheep without a shepherd.

As we reflect on the wider context of the Gospel of Matthew as a whole, we may remember that Matthew, in Matthew 2:6, has already prepared us to recognize that Jesus has been sent by God to be the very shepherd that his people lack, the one for which Moses had prayed:

And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.[13]

And as we think about the wider context of the Bible as a whole, we may come to see that Matthew is quoting Micah 5:2, in which we learn that the shepherd who will come is the Eternal One, God himself:

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.[14]

These deeper resonances in scripture may not reveal themselves to us upon our first reading. But it is the nature and the good pleasure of the Holy Spirit to bring them increasingly to our remembrance over time, the more we saturate our mind with scripture, and the more we focus on the character of God each time we open a passage of scripture and seek to understand his character in context.

 

[5] Hebrews 1:1-2a, NIV.

[6] Cf. John 14:5-6.

[7] Matthew 10:1-4, NIV.

[8] John 9:35-36, NIV.

[9] Matthew 11:1, NIV.

[10] Mark 3:13, NIV.

[11] Matthew 9:36, NKJV.

[12] Numbers 27:15-17, NIV.

[13] Matthew 2:6, NIV.

[14] Micah 5:2, NIV.

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