THE STORY OF JESUS: Matthew 10:9-15
“Let your peace rest on it… let your peace return to you.” (Matthew 10:13)
The Middle East had a strong hospitality culture, the disciples can travel light.
But someone is inhospitable, don’t call down curses (Luke 9:51-56).
Freely share your peace with everyone, and wait and see what happens.
If they refuse you, they will return your peace (with their rejection).
No cursing, no condemning, no blaming, no retaliating… just move on.
To shake the dust off one’s feet is an unfamiliar practice to us.
We do have a similar expression, ‘to wash our hands of responsibility’ (see Matthew 27:24).
This is not a way of cursing them, but a way of letting them freely decide for themselves.
You demand nothing from them, you take nothing from them (even their dust).
One day they will realize their mistake, one day that will lament their rejection of peace.
The unbearable day of judgment will not be God’s revenge day, but their regret day.
C.S.Lewis observed, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.'”
Ultimately God gives us what we want; if we want His peace we will receive it.
If we refuse it, He will not force it, but will let us experience its absence.
What I take from this passage is: be generous with God’s peace, but don’t force it on anyone.
Or as Paul says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I am Your peace agent. It is not my job to pressure or force anyone. May Your peace be so strong in me that people will be drawn to it, to You!
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
Offer hospitality.
Share God’s gifts and blessings.
And when you do His work among the people, there will be those that accept the good news and those that do not. Just continue your life to live for Jesus. That is your task. That is my task. To plant. To water. But He will give the increase. It is He who works the hearts of the people by His Spirit.
Make no judgements about our receptions. Just do the work entrusted by the Lord. He will do the rest.
1 Far and near the fields are teeming
With the waves of ripened grain;
Far and near their gold is gleaming
O’er the sunny slope and plain.
Refrain
Lord of harvest, send forth reapers!
Hear us, Lord; to Thee we cry.
Send them now the sheaves to gather,
Ere the harvest-time pass by.
2 Send them forth with morn’s first beaming;
Send them in the noontide’s glare;
When the sun’s last rays are gleaming,
Thou shalt come with joy untold. Refrain
3 O thou whom thy Lord is sending,
Gather now the sheaves of gold;
Heav’nward then at evening wending,
Thou shalt come with joy untold. Refrain