Mt 10:34—11:1
Familial division: In this last section of Jesus’ missionary discourse, three themes are presented: division, the cross, and rewards.
Familial division: In this last section of Jesus’ missionary discourse, three themes are presented: division, the cross, and rewards.
First, Matthew re-emphasizes the idea that Jesus is a cause of division. Authentically accepting discipleship and its mission entails family separation.
Second, Matthew is interested in promoting faithfulness to discipleship, even if it does cause division. No one can be more important than Jesus. To place Jesus first in one’s life is to accept the cross—both explicitly in terms of Roman capital punishment and implicitly in terms of the division caused by authentic discipleship.
Third, reward is not understood by Matthew to mean a specified gift in return for following Jesus. Matthew does not dare specify anything concerning reward, because he cannot, that is, he does not know what God will do, and because to do so would undermine his whole understanding of righteousness—one is righteous, behaves as God wills, because it is the correct thing to do; it is the behavior which God wills.