St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 9:35-10:8
The Rev. Deacon Art Bass

Sent to be Apostles

In today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel something happens in the text that is very subtle, so much so that in hearing the gospel read, unless you knew about it or were looking for it, it would be a thing easily overlooked. It is a mere word change by the gospel author, but it holds great significance for the meaning and for the importance of today’s passage.

Matthew begins today’s gospel referring to those chosen by Jesus as being the “disciples.” But later in this same passage, for the first time in his gospel, Matthew identifies the Twelve as being the “apostles.” From disciples to apostles - - it is not just a matter of word preference. The distinction is an important one.

I think we all know what it means to be a disciple. The word is still part of our vocabulary today, and we use it in much the same context as in scripture. A disciple is one who studies, and follows, and imitates the examples and teachings of a master. In short, he is a follower.

When Jesus began his ministry, Matthew tells us that one of the first things he did was to call four disciples: the two brothers, Simon and Andrew, and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. Just last week we heard the story of the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, whom many believe later became the writer of today’s gospel or at least the source behind the gospel.

These people were disciples. They left everything to follow Jesus. They lived with him and they learned from him. They heard Jesus whenever he preached to the crowd, and they received private instructions from him as well. They attended him and were with him during his healings and other miraculous works. They were there at everything Jesus did, and they were supportive, but the doer was always Jesus. They, the twelve, were his disciples.

But then in today’s gospel passage, something moved Jesus to make a change. He looked upon the crowd, and he saw a people in need - - in need of hope, in need of good news, in need of the message that the Kingdom of God was coming, and indeed, had already begun.

This message was vital and the need for its delivery was immediate, but the traditional Jewish leaders in Jerusalem knew nothing of this, and did not want to know. They had completely failed in meeting the religious needs of the nation.

So when Jesus looked out upon the people, he looked at them with compassion for they appeared “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” But at the same time, Jesus saw opportunity, a plentiful harvest that required more laborers.

It was time, Jesus thought, to send others to help spread the word, the good news of the Kingdom - - to get the message to as many as possible as soon as possible. Jesus decided he would send his disciples among the people to help carry out the same ministry he had initiated. This is how the disciples came to be apostles.

The word “apostle” comes to us from a Greek verb which means “to send.” Very simply, an apostle is one who is sent.

In today’s gospel, Matthew names for us the twelve apostles, the ones who were sent. But are the names on that list the only apostles?

We know Jesus had more than twelve disciples. Numerous men and women followed Jesus from place to place during his ministry, many from its earliest beginnings in Galilee. We know the names of some outside the twelve, such as Mary Magdalene, but most are nameless to us now.

We also know that in the very truest sense, everyone in the Church, all Christians of every generation, including of course us here today, are also disciples. We are followers of Christ.

But when it comes to apostles, all three synoptic gospels insist on naming just twelve individuals.

Clearly, there was an understanding in the early church that Jesus had chosen twelve people to be the core and the leadership among his followers. This is why the eleven who remained after the death of Judas thought it important to select someone to take his place, and thus chose and designated Matthias to be an apostle. Certainly there was something special about the twelve apostles. Perhaps we should refer to them as the “Holy Apostles.”

But if an apostle is one who is sent, what is the effect of the concluding verse at the very end of Matthew’s gospel: “Go therefore 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 everything that I have commanded you.”

That is what we now call the great commission, and while a careful bible scholar might point out that Jesus, according to Matthew, was only addressing specifically the chosen eleven, still everyone agrees, it was really a call to ministry for all Christians of every age. We all have been sent on a mission of ministry by Christ.

Certainly St. Paul understood this. The tradition of the twelve not withstanding, Paul had no hesitancy in his epistles to refer to himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”

And what do you make of these words: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” With these or similar words, it is my great privilege as your deacon to send us all out into the world to do the work God has given us to do at the conclusion of every Sunday eucharist.

God’s grace is a powerful agent for change, and all of the sacraments, especially the two great Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, involve change. They involve transformation.

In the Eucharist, it is not just bread and wine which are offered to God to be transformed into holy things. In the words of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer: “[H]ere we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee.”

Ordinary people, who have chosen to follow Christ, to be his disciples, who on this day come before God’s altar to be nourished and strengthened with holy food and to offer themselves to be transformed into something new and wonderful, to become Christ’s Body, the Church. Having been empowered by the eucharist, having Christ in us and with us, we are made ready to go out into the world and do his work in his name.