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21 Brothers will hand over brothers to death, and fathers their own children. Children will rise up against their parents and put them to death. 22 You will be hated by all on account of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one city, flee to another. Amen I say to you, you will not run out of cities in Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24 A disciple is not above the teacher, nor is a servant above his lord. 25 It is enough that the student should become like his teacher, and the servant like the master. If they called the head of the family Beelzebul, what will they call the rest of the family? 26 Do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and no secret that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in secret, speak in the light, and shout from the rooftops what you have heard whispered in your ear. 28 Do not fear those who can kill the body but not the soul. Rather, fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a single copper coin? Does one of them fall to the earth without your Father knowing of it? 30 Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So do not be afraid, for you are worth more than many sparrows.

Comments

Jesus continues his warning to expect opposition and persecution. If he has been accused of being a demon (cf. Mt 9.34), can his disciple expect not to be treated the same? Whatever happens, his followers are to trust in God, who sees everything, even the fall of a sparrow. Jesus’ followers might, in the extreme, lose their earthly lives, but their souls are in the care of God, from whom nothing is secret or hidden.

In 66 AD, the people of Judea rebelled against Roman rule, sparking the First Jewish-Roman War. The Romans ultimately crushed the revolt, with the Roman general Titus sacking Jerusalem and destroying the Temple in 70 AD. Hundreds of thousands were killed, and tens of thousands more were sold into slavery. This was an almost apocalyptically difficult period for Palestinian Christians, who were seen as Jews by the Romans and as disloyal fence-sitters by militant Jews. To escape the violence, many Christians fled across the Jordan to the city of Pella (“When they persecute you in one city…”). Jesus’ warning to his followers to expect persecution has, like all of his teachings, a relevancy and validity to believers in every age and culture, but to the author of Mt, it would have referred especially to that dark time in the 60’s.