Matthew 10:1-4 – The call to discipleship

All this while, we see Jesus doing everything. Up until now, His disciples were like passengers being driven all over the places. Jesus was the one handling all the tough situations and making all the difficult decisions. They saw how Jesus dealt with different situations with divine precision. Many a times, what Jesus did must have left them as astounded as the crowd that gathered around Him with their needs. They saw how demons obeyed, and that regardless of the magnitude of the people’s condition, He healed them all. Demons were cast out and people were totally delivered and restored.

 

The disciples whom He had recruited, followed Him everywhere. They were His apprentices and were observing how he did the ministry. Jesus must have felt that at some point those disciples must take over the driving. It appears that the time has arrived. So in verse 1, we are told that He summoned the 12 disciples to Himself, gave them authority over every unclean spirit, and commissioned them to do what he had been doing. They were told to go out and cast out demons, and to heal every kind of disease and sickness. Here the 12 are specially identified and named. The Lord even gave Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him, a place among the Twelve. Did Jesus know that he would betray Him? We can surmise that He did. It tells us how gracious Jesus is, and He gave Judas Iscariot the opportunity to come good, but unfortunately, he didn’t seize the opportunity given to him.    

 

Here we learn that in the disciple process, we need to select the appropriate candidates, then we teach the candidates the ropes, and show them how to do ministry. We are reminded of what Paul said to Timothy concerning discipleship – we are to entrust what we have learned to faithful men, who will impart to other faithful men also. As we do that, we will ensure that the line and process of discipleship will not be broken and the Kingdom of God continues to expand. So let us train others who will carry on the work of the ministry.