Weekly Bible Reflection
Matthew's Communities of Justice

Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 9 v 35 – 10 v 8 : Getting back on Course

Begin by using the Bible Study method as outlined

Sharing together

“Pastor, you must pray for his healing. I can’t accept he’s going to die;
you must ask God for a miracle. I believe in a God of miracles.”

Reflection on the text

In this passage, the author of Matthew makes an important connection between Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom of God on the one hand and healing and liberation from oppression on the other. Crowds are coming to him and are described as being harassed and helpless (9v36). The translation is rather weak at this point because the word for ‘harassed’ actually means ‘whipped’ and the word for ‘helpless’ means ‘cast down’. There’s a world of difference in meaning when read this way, and it plunges us into the miserable world of that sizeable proportion of humanity who are poor and oppressed. There are strong political, social and economic overtones in Matthew’s words. How does one address issues of injustice on such a large scale?

Matthew tells us that Jesus had compassion on them – that is, he was deeply moved at a gut level by the crowds. He was overwhelmed by the sheer number of oppressed and suffering poor and the state they were in and frustrated by the scarcity of people to help them. We can readily identify with these feelings in the face of the tragedies of today’s ‘third’ world.

Clearly, Jesus was aware that the mission task was too vast for him or his disciples alone. But he doesn’t hang around waiting for more recruits before acting. He commissions his disciples to go to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (10v6), to their fellow countrymen and women who are oppressed and poor. He gives them authority (Greek = exousia) to cast out unclean spirits and cure diseases and sicknesses (10v 1). Later in the gospel the mission enlarges to embrace the Gentiles (28v19) but for now the focus is on the immediate demand of the situation ‘at home’. This ministry of healing and setting people free provides the context for the proclamation of the Good News. Words alone would have been meaningless.

Application: some questions for group discussion:

• What should we say when, after all the prayer, a miracle doesn’t seem to have happened to an individual or community?

• How do you reconcile people saying that God intervened in a miraculous way in one situation, ‘because of all the prayer and faith that has been shown’, with a similar situation where nothing happens? Does this say something about God, or about how we see God’s ways of working in people’s lives?

• Who are the ‘whipped’ and ‘cast down’ in your neighbourhood? What ‘acts of compassion’ is God calling forth from your Christian community towards them?

• How would you explain the enormous tragedies inflicted by the sheer power of nature (such as cyclones, floods, earthquakes and famines) on so many of the world’s poor and oppressed peoples?

• How might you respond to such events beyond the giving of money for aid relief?

Praying Together

Pray for each other, recalling your own journeys through times of sickness and health and personal involvement in struggles for justice.

Remember before God all those who by way of their profession are involved in every aspect of the ‘health’ services and those involved in scientific research and medical ethics as they juggle with complex issues. Pray for health service staff known to you and for those who are practising Christians

Remember those involved in chaplaincy services or who work as hospital visitors and for the support and care they offer to patients and staff.

Pray for Church communities that offer a ministry of healing prayer for people.

Pray for those who bring aid to the poor of the world and victims of natural disasters and war and for all who fight for justice. Pray for international aid agencies by name.

More background information

1. The contrast between this passage, focusing as it does on mission to the house of Israel, and Matthew 28 verse 19, which focuses on mission to all nations, may reflect tensions, even conflict, in Matthew’s household communities over who the gospel should be shared with.

Taking it further: The Church’s Ministry of Healing

The Church has a long history of involvement in the ministry of healing. Both physical healing and spiritual healing have at different times been a fundamental part of what the Church has offered to people. Much of what we experience today as part of Health Service provision was born out of a ministry of care offered to people.

Many people today suggest that modern medicine concentrates on care for a person’s physical well-being, leaving the Church to offer spiritual support through chaplains and other visitors. Has that separation been a helpful one, enabling the Church to provide an important element of care, or has it prevented a more holistic approach to healing? Is the interest in alternative medicines and treatments a result of this feeling that their whole person is not being considered by the present separation of the physical and spiritual?