We continue with the interpretation of the seventh verse of the tenth chapter.
St. John of Kronstadt, the great saint of the previous century, wrote: “Even today, preachers must first and foremost speak to people about the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what can most deeply move those who suffer under the heavy yoke of sin. One should describe that Kingdom in all its details, as one would describe an earthly state seen by eyewitnesses. Yet in such a description one must cast upon the Kingdom of Heaven a certain luminous shadow that is necessary for those realities which are not fully known and which are veiled by a certain darkness.”
St. Theophan the Recluse, who lived immediately before the beginning of the twentieth century—a period of great suffering for Orthodox Christians—also wrote about the importance of preaching the Kingdom of Heaven. This saint speaks in a particularly interesting way about the origin of those so-called scientific theories that deny God and eternity. St. Theophan writes the following: “When sending the holy apostles to preach, the Lord commanded them to call all and to say: The Kingdom has drawn near (Mt. 10:7), that is, the Kingdom has approached—go into it. And what, then, must we preach? We must cry out to everyone: ‘You are sons of the Kingdom. Do not flee from the Kingdom into distress and bondage.’ For many flee. Some are captivated by the freedom of the mind: ‘We do not want,’ they say, ‘the chains of faith and the burden of authority, even if divine. We shall decipher and resolve everything by ourselves.’ And indeed, they have resolved it. They have created fables filled with more childishness than Greek mythology. And—this is what they glory in… Others are drawn by the broad path of the passions: ‘We do not want,’ they say, ‘any commandments or the demands of conscience. All of that is abstraction. What we need is sensory naturalness.’ And they followed it. But what happened? They have become like irrational beasts. Was not the theory of man’s descent from animals born precisely from that moral fall? Such are the lengths to which they go! And all the while they flee from the Lord—they flee…”
The next verse, the eighth:
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give.
St. John Chrysostom, in his interpretation of this verse, also explains the reason why the Lord Jesus granted the apostles the grace to heal, to cast out demons, and to raise the dead. He says the following: “Then, in order that their preaching might more easily dispose people toward faith, Jesus says: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give. Notice how the Lord is concerned for their conduct: no less than for the miracles themselves, showing them that without upright morals the miracles mean nothing. By saying freely you have received, freely give, He humbles their pride and warns them against avarice. And so that they might not think that the miracles they perform are the result of their own virtue, and thus become arrogant, He says: freely you have received, freely give. You are giving nothing of your own to those who receive you; you have obtained these gifts not as a reward and not for your labour—this is My grace. Therefore give to others in the same manner, for there is no price worthy of these gifts.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers, for his part, speaks of the magnitude of the power the apostles received—pointing out that it is not merely similar to that given to Old Testament saints who were likewise able to heal or raise the dead, but that it is something even greater. Here are the words of St. Hilary: “All the power of the Lord’s authority passes onto the apostles, and the human being who was fashioned in Adam according to the image and likeness of God now attains the perfect image and likeness in Christ and receives powers no less than those of the Lord Himself; whoever had previously been earthly has now become heavenly. They will preach that the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near—that is, that the image and likeness are now bestowed together with the truth, so that all the saints, who have been called dwellers of heaven, will now reign with the Lord. They will care for the weak, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; and through their union with the power of the Lord, they will eradicate all the misfortunes that the prompting of Satan introduced into Adam’s body.”
St. John of Kronstadt offers a lofty apologetic response that can be of great use to us when speaking with someone who doubts the Divinity of Christ—provided we discern that the person is truly interested in hearing about the faith: “Can an ordinary man speak in such a manner? If you were to say to me: ‘Heal the sick,’ I would answer you: ‘Give me the means—medicines, for example, or advice that I could convey to the sick to their benefit, etc. By myself I have no power; I cannot. How can I restore order to the body of a sick person when I do not know how that disorder arose in his limbs, nor how to bring about order from disorder? How will this wondrous mechanism obey me? How shall I, who am inexperienced, avoid damaging it?’ This is how I would answer you. But here nothing of the kind is found. It is spoken—and no one says a word in reply, for they know that it shall be so. And if you were to say to me: ‘Raise the dead,’ I would consider you deranged and would not deem it necessary to speak with you for long. I would only tell you that God is able to raise us from the dead, but human beings cannot share in that exceptional divine gift. If you were to say to me: ‘Cast out demons,’ I would answer you: Are you more powerful than the demons? For in order to cast them out, you must be stronger than they. They are bodiless spirits, and although they are spirits of darkness, they were once angels—strong and mighty; they are undoubtedly stronger than you, who are bodily. If you vanquish them, this means that either God is with you or that you Yourself are God. Yet I know that these words are spoken by God, and I see nothing astonishing in them. It is proper to God that He manifest Himself in such a way.”
St. Gregory the Dialogist explains why, in the time of the apostles and of the Christians immediately after them, there were so many miracles, whereas later—and today—there are far fewer. Here are the words of St. Gregory the Dialogist: “In times of worldly prosperity, when the human race multiplies, when the body dwells long in this life, when wealth abounds—who would believe if he heard that another life exists? Who would choose the invisible rather than the visible? Yet when the sick are healed, when the dead are raised, when lepers are cleansed, when demons are cast out of the possessed, when so many miracles are performed—who would not believe in what he hears about the invisible? For visible miracles shine forth precisely in order to draw the hearts of the spectators to faith, so that through what is wondrously accomplished outwardly, they may acknowledge as even more wondrous what is inward. Therefore, now, when the number of the faithful has increased, when there are many virtuous people in the holy Church, they no longer possess the miracles of virtue, for an outward miracle appears in vain if there is nothing being built within.”
Verses nine and ten:
Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your belts, nor bag for the journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staff; for the labourer is worthy of his food.
St. John Chrysostom explains why the Lord forbids the apostles to take anything with them during their first preaching mission. He speaks as follows: “Jesus did not say: Do not take anything with you; however, even if on another occasion you might be able to take something, avoid that destructive weakness. Through this the Lord accomplished much. First, He removed from His disciples any suspicion; second, He freed them from all anxiety so that they might devote themselves solely to preaching; third, He revealed His own power. For this reason the Lord later asks them: Did you lack anything when I sent you without clothing and sandals? And He did not immediately say to them: Do not take anything; rather, He first said: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and only then commanded: Take nothing; freely you have received, freely give (Mt. 10:8). He commanded them what was useful, fitting, and possible. But someone might say: the other requirements are reasonable; yet why did the Lord not allow them to have gold, two tunics, a staff, and sandals even on the journey? Because He wished to teach them a strict way of life, for He did not permit them even to be concerned about the next day… Indeed, nothing so greatly aids the peace of the soul as freedom from cares—especially when, having been freed from such cares, one need not endure lack in anything, having for a helper God Himself, Who in His own Person substitutes for all.”
The ancient Father of the Church, St. Hilary of Poitiers, continues his interpretation and explains that money and property are not evil in themselves, as someone might wrongly assume, and that this is not why the Lord forbids the apostles to take them. Hilary writes: “Treasures, in themselves, are not evil, in my opinion. What, then, does the prohibition against carrying gold and silver in one’s belt signify? The belt represents equipment for service, and people gird themselves in order to accomplish their task successfully. Therefore, the Lord calls us to ensure that nothing driven by self-interest be present in our ministry, so that the possession of gold, silver, or copper does not become necessary for the fulfillment of our apostolic work. Nor bag for the journey. This means that we should lay aside concern for worldly possessions, for every earthly treasure perishes, and our heart will be where our treasure is. Nor two tunics. It is enough that we have once been clothed with Christ, and it is not necessary—due to the corruption of our mind—to clothe ourselves again with another garment, that of heresy or of the (Old Testament) Law. Nor sandals. Are weak human feet able to walk constantly unshod? Yet Christ calls us to place our bare feet upon the holy ground free from the thorns of sin, as was said to Moses, so that we may have no other footwear for our journey except that which we have received from Christ. Nor staff—that is, no right to possess external authority. We should not unworthily bear a staff other than that which springs from the root of Jesse (for any other staff is not Christ’s).” The saint concludes that if we keep all this in mind, then none of these things—no form of property—will become a temptation for us or hinder us from fulfilling Christ’s commandment. Thus he adds the following words: “Clothed in all these sayings, we must journey through this age endowed with grace, with money, with clothing, with footwear, with authority. Acting in accordance with these instructions, we shall be worthy of our reward—that is, by keeping them, we shall receive the Kingdom of Heaven as our recompense.” Therefore, it is not a sin to possess money, nor is it a sin if a Christian is placed in a position that entails authority. The sin arises if we fail to use these things for the salvation of our soul and the souls of our neighbours—if we misuse all that the Lord has given us in this life.
St. John of Kronstadt, at this point, removes the stumbling block that often appears when speaking about ministry in the Church. Some people believe that everything concerning service in the Church and the preaching of the faith must necessarily be done without any form of material support. St. John writes: “Our work—the service of human salvation—is exceedingly great and honorable. We ought to be completely devoted to our ministry and not to concern ourselves with money, food, or clothing; rather, those whom we serve should recompense us from their own possessions because of our invaluable labour for their sake. And they should never reproach us for this, for if we have sown spiritual things among them, is it a great matter if we reap their material things? (1 Cor. 9:11). We build the eternal salvation of their immortal souls, and in return we receive fleeting and perishable things: money, food, and clothing for the body (Mt. 10:10).” When we bear this in mind, it is neither strange nor sinful that priests receive monetary support for their ministry, for the sacred rites they perform, or that offerings are sent for missionary work. In the Gospel we see that both the Lord and the apostles had a money bag, supplied by the people and by the myrrh-bearing women who ministered to them out of their substance; it was from this very purse that the unfortunate Judas stole.
St. Barsanuphius the Great, for the conclusion of the patristic commentary on these two verses, offers a spiritual interpretation of these words of Jesus: “The Lord commanded that we be concerned for only one garment—that is, the garment of virtue. May God deem us worthy of such a garment unto the ages. Amen.
Adapted for the contemporary reader based on Patristic commentary by Stanoje Stanković
