Proper 7: Gospel, Matthew 10:5a, 21-33

I apologize for the dangling participle at the title’s end, but that is such a common question in our day and age that I hoped it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s grammatical sensitivities. We’ve all asked that question. I do it all the time when I find my wife on the phone. It drives her crazy when I do it. “Why do you ask while I’m talking? I will tell you when I’m done.” Love you, honey. So it is a common enough question, but I think it’s important enough as a discussion point around our gospel reading, so here goes.

Have you ever heard or read: The Bible is written for us, but not always to us? It’s a quip that you might run into if you were sitting in a class on how to interpret the Bible or it might be something that a good preacher might bring up even from the pulpit. The Bible is always for us, that is for our benefit, or our learning and our growth in godly wisdom, but the text of the Bible is not always aimed at you and me. Think of it this way. Who was Satan addressing in the first temptation? To whom did the prophet Nathan bring rebuke after a dalliance with naked woman on a rooftop? And when the angel announced the birth of the Savior to a young Jewish maiden, we know he spoke not to Esther nor Ruth nor to Lot’s wife. Of course he spoke to Mary, the mother of our Lord.

Why is this important? Because it has a whole lot to do with how we read the Bible and perhaps even more importantly how we apply it to our lives. Is God (Jesus) speaking to me directly? Is he giving me instructions? Or … or is he telling me a story? True enough it might be and historically verifiable, but a story nonetheless? When Paul tells ladies to cover their heads in a church service does he mean that for the ladies of our congregation? Some would argue he might. But whatever your conclusion on that issue, what brings about good and valid discussion on all these questions is, “who is God talking to.”

In our gospel text this week, as in most gospel texts, we have Jesus teaching. Who are the students? A few disciples. His personal friends or the twelve? Here’s my point and the devotion really leaves you once again to go and do your homework. I like giving you those adventures once in a while. And it's valuable because it really does move you to figure out who Jesus (God), or any other speaker in Scripture is speaking to. Our reading this week begins with Matthew 10:5a. That little “a” is important because it gives you an answer right up front. “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them …” Instructing who? “These twelve.” The twelve. The foundation stones of the whole Christian building. And everything else in the gospel reading this week is to them. Instruction about persecution and the future and what being a disciple of the Master entails. It is to them. And it doesn’t automatically translate to being written to us. It may be. We may find that upon good research and study that there are universal principles for all of Jesus’ followers and that does happen over and over again in the Bible. But that’s part of our task.

Don’t be jealous. Don’t think the Bible is any less for you. The entirety of Holy Scripture is God’s gift to us. And it will actually be all the richer the more accurately we learn to read its truths. God go with you this week as you listen perhaps a bit more carefully to his marvelous voice.