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Matthew and Jude -
The “Hometown” Missionaries
Matthew 25: 31-46
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
One thing the apostle Matthew and Jude had in common
was a strong vision and passion for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
to their contemporaries—the Hebrew speaking Jewish community.
We have to keep in mind that first century-Judea was
a Roman-occupied region which had previously been occupied by the Greeks;
you would think the official language of Judea was Hebrew and Aramaic
(which is closely related to Hebrew), but it was actually Greek. Hebrew,
of course was still spoken by the majority of he native Jews; however,
most daily communications in public—such as the market place—was conducted
in the Greek dialect of Koine’. This was also the language in which
most of the New Testament writings were written.
Part of the reason for the popularity of the Greek
language was that many Jews had been living in the Diaspora, in foreign
countries, but were returning to the Judean region. So it made sense to
communicate in what was then the international language of Greek (much
like English is used in the modern state of Israel). Of course, the
language spoken in most Jewish homes as well as the temple and the
synagogues was Hebrew. Matthew and Jude both had a heart for the
Hebrew-speaking part of the Jewish community, much of their ministry
happened in Judea and Samaria.
The persecution of Christians today as back then, of
course, is a terrible thing. However, God often uses a bad thing and uses
it toward good. When king Herod Agrippa III started to persecute
Christians in Judea, putting many to death (e.g. the apostle James,
brother of John), the apostles, including Matthew and Jude, were dispersed
all over the then-known world. That’s when the gospel of Jesus Christ was
truly starting to spread to “all nations” as Jesus had commanded in his
“great Commission” (Mt. 28:19).
However, both Matthew and Jude seemed to have sought
out the Hebrew-speaking Jewish communities even abroad. Jude preached the
Gospel in Judea’s surrounding states such as Syria, Mesopotamia and Libya.
[1] Even on Matthew’s more distant travels later he always seemed to have
sought out the Hebrew-speaking Jewish communities. This can be clearly
seen in the way he wrote his Gospel (although it was penned in Greek).
For instance: Matthew has Jesus say: “o ye of
little faith” (Mt. 8:26) following the calming of the storm (for which
the disciples woke him from his nap on the boat); Matthew was clearly
speaking to a Hebrew community who was considering the possibility of
Jesus being the Messiah (having some faith, but perhaps not the full faith
in Christ yet). This is in stark contrast to Mark who has Jesus say: “Do
you still have no faith?” (Mk
4:40). Mark’s concept
makes sense to an audience suffering heavy persecution in Rome where
either you had faith and were willing to die for it, or you didn’t.
Why exactly Matthew and Jude shared this passion for
“home missions” is not entirely clear. Perhaps for Jude, who had a
farming background, this desire came more natural. He was probably very
much connected with the traditional Hebrew way of life. The land he had
tilled was the land that had been promised to Abraham and his children.
It’s very likely that he felt upset over the occupation of his nation by
Rome, the corrosion he witnessed of some of the traditional Hebrew values,
including the gradual vanishing of the Hebrew language from the public
life in Israel.
For Matthew, the love for home missions was a little
more surprising….or was it? Matthew was a tax collector, a so-called
publican, being of Hebrew origin, but being versed in Roman tax law and
politics. He probably was a highly educated man who spoke Greek and
Hebrew/Aramaic fluently, and perhaps even Latin. Publicans were generally
viewed by the Hebrew population as traitors who got rich at the expense of
their own. [2]
But we know that Matthew must have had a conscience,
for that’s what Jesus must have seen when he called him into
discipleship. The fact that Matthew followed Jesus’ call into
discipleship immediately tells us that he had not been happy in his
publican career. Perhaps one of the ways in which Matthew was trying to
pay restitution (much like tax-collector Zacheus paid back seven-fold what
he unduly charged) was by devoting his missionary efforts to the community
he had once deceived and robbed.
Reaching out to our own people with the Gospel of
Christ should be in the forefront of our thoughts and prayers as well.
When we hear “Missions” we usually think of missions abroad and images of
impoverished African, Latin American, or Asian natives might be conjured
up in our minds.
Matthew and Jude remind us of how important our
“Home-town” missions are. The truth is that there is a tremendous need
for the good news to be preached to the poor in our very home town. Are
we doing enough to support our local soup kitchen, our homeless shelter,
our women’s shelter, our Christian youth and children’s outreach
programs? Are we doing enough to make sure that the people we grew up
with have truly heard and experienced the good news of Jesus Christ? What
about our own family members? Our friends? Our colleagues? Our neighbors?
Our community of origin needs Christ as much as the
rest of the world and while it is a good thing to support missions abroad,
it is as equally important to support local missions; there has to be a
healthy balance.
I want to close with a story of St. Matthew that is
relayed to us from church tradition:
One day, when Matthew was praying and fasting on a remote
mountains-side, he had an apparition of a little boy. He mistook him to be
an angelic being, but in reality the boy was an apparition of Christ in
form of a boy. St. Matthew said to the boy: “Now, therefore, what shall I
bring you, beautiful boy? There is not even water near, that I may wash
your feet.”
And the child said: “Why do you say that, O Matthew? Understand and
know that good discourse is better than a calf, and words of meekness
better than every herb of the field, and a sweet saying as the perfume of
love, and cheerfulness of countenance better than feeding, and a pleasant
look is as the appearance of sweetness.” [3]
May we remember to bring the words of life to those among us and around
us who starve for the love, care, and justice of God. Amen.
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[1] Wikipedia – St.
Jude, the Apostle,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_the_Apostle
[2] Wikipedia: St.
Matthew- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_the_Evangelist
[3]
Catholic Enzyclopedia, Acts and Martyrdom
of St. Matthew -
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0822.htm
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