Matthew 10–15

The Twelve Apostles

10Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and every sickness. ²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee; ³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴Simon the Patriot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

The Mission of the Twelve

⁵These twelve men were sent out by Jesus with the following instructions: “Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. ⁶Instead, you are to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. ^7*Go and preach, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is near!’ ^8*Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. ^9*Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; ^10*do not carry a beggar’s bag for the journey or an extra shirt or shoes or a stick. Workers should be given what they need.

^11*“When you come to a town or village, go in and look for someone who is willing to welcome you, and stay with him until you leave that place. ^12*When you go into a house, say, ‘Peace be with you.’ ^13*If the people in that house welcome you, let your greeting of peace remain; but if they do not welcome you, then take back your greeting. ^14*And if some home or town will not welcome you or listen to you, then leave that place and shake the dust off your feet. ^15*I assure you that on the Judgement Day God will show more mercy to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than to the people of that town!

Coming Persecutions

^16*“Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves. ^17*Watch out, for there will be those who will arrest you and take you to court, and they will whip you in the synagogues. ^18*For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to tell the Good News to them and to the Gentiles. ^19*When they bring you to trial, do not worry about what you are going to say or how you will say it; when the time comes, you will be given what you will say. ^20*For the words you will speak will not be yours; they will come from the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

^21*“Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ^22*Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. ²³When they persecute you in one town, run away to another one. I assure you that you will not finish your work in all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

^24*“No pupil is greater than his teacher; no slave is greater than his master. ^25*So a pupil should be satisfied to become like his teacher, and a slave like his master. If the head of the family is called Beelzebul, the members of the family will be called even worse names!

Whom to Fear

^26*“So do not be afraid of people. Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. ²⁷What I am telling you in the dark you must repeat in broad daylight, and what you have heard in private you must announce from the housetops. ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. ²⁹For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. ³⁰As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. ³¹So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!

Confessing and Rejecting Christ

³²“For those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same before my Father in heaven. ^33*But if anyone rejects me publicly, I will reject him before my Father in heaven.

Not Peace, but a Sword

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ^35*I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; ^36*your worst enemies will be the members of your own family.

³⁷“Those who love their father or mother more than me are not fit to be my disciples; those who love their son or daughter more than me are not fit to be my disciples. ^38*Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples. ^39*Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it.

Rewards

^40*“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes God’s messenger because he is God’s messenger, will share in his reward. And whoever welcomes a good man because he is good, will share in his reward. ⁴²You can be sure that whoever gives even a drink of cold water to one of the least of these my followers because he is my follower, will certainly receive a reward.”

The Messengers from John the Baptist

11When Jesus finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he left that place and went off to teach and preach in the towns near there.

²When John the Baptist heard in prison about the things that Christ was doing, he sent some of his disciples to him. ³“Tell us,” they asked Jesus, “are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?”

⁴Jesus answered, “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: ^5*the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean,ⁱ the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. ⁶How happy are those who have no doubts about me!”

⁷While John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus spoke about him to the crowds: “When you went out to John in the desert, what did you expect to see? A blade of grass bending in the wind? ⁸What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in fancy clothes? People who dress like that live in palaces! ⁹Tell me, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes indeed, but you saw much more than a prophet. ^10*For John is the one of whom the scripture says: ‘God said, I will send my messenger ahead of you to open the way for you.’ ¹¹I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than anyone who has ever lived. But the one who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John. ^12*From the time John preached his message until this very day the Kingdom of heaven has suffered violent attacks,^j and violent men try to seize it. ^13*Until the time of John all the prophets and the Law of Moses spoke about the Kingdom; ^14*and if you are willing to believe their message, John is Elijah, whose coming was predicted. ¹⁵Listen, then, if you have ears!

¹⁶“Now, to what can I compare the people of this day? They are like children sitting in the market place. One group shouts to the other, ¹⁷‘We played wedding music for you, but you wouldn’t dance! We sang funeral songs, but you wouldn’t cry!’ ¹⁸When John came, he fasted and drank no wine, and everyone said, ‘He has a demon in him!’ ¹⁹When the Son of Man came, he ate and drank, and everyone said, ‘Look at this man! He is a glutton and a drinker, a friend of tax collectors and other outcasts!’ God’s wisdom, however, is shown to be true by its results.”

The Unbelieving Towns

²⁰The people in the towns where Jesus had performed most of his miracles did not turn from their sins, so he reproached those towns. ^21*“How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you too, Bethsaida! If the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would long ago have put on sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on themselves, to show that they had turned from their sins! ²²I assure you that on the Judgement Day God will show more mercy to the people of Tyre and Sidon than to you! ^23*And as for you, Capernaum! Did you want to lift yourself up to heaven? You will be thrown down to hell! If the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would still be in existence today! ^24*You can be sure that on the Judgement Day God will show more mercy to Sodom than to you!”

Come to Me and Rest

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. ²⁶Yes, Father, this was how you wanted it to happen.

^27*“My Father has given me all things. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸“Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. ^29*Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. ³⁰For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.”

The Question about the Sabbath

12^*Not long afterwards Jesus was walking through some cornfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began to pick ears of corn and eat the grain. ²When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do this on the Sabbath!”

^3*Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he and his men were hungry? ^4*He went into the house of God, and he and his men ate the bread offered to God, even though it was against the Law for them to eat it—only the priests were allowed to eat that bread. ^5*Or have you not read in the Law of Moses that every Sabbath the priests in the Temple actually break the Sabbath law, yet they are not guilty? ⁶I tell you that there is something here greater than the Temple. ^7*The scripture says, ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ If you really knew what this means, you would not condemn people who are not…