The Work

At a glance

The chapter heading text (KJV)

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles… but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel… Freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses… for the workman is worthy of his meat.”

Matthew 10:5–15 KJV

Summary

The longest chapter in Part III walks through Jesus' specific instructions for the mission: a limited field of labour (Israel before the Gentiles, at this stage), a message identical to Jesus' own preaching of the kingdom, and a striking lack of provision — no money, no spare clothing, no advance planning for lodging beyond receiving whatever hospitality is offered. Bonhoeffer reads the restriction to Israel not as narrow nationalism but as a specific, temporary stage of salvation history, obedient to the actual sequence in which God chose to unfold his purposes.

The instruction to travel without provisions receives the most attention. Bonhoeffer connects it directly to the carefree life described in chapter 17: messengers who must depend entirely on the hospitality of those they are sent to cannot mistake their own resourcefulness for the reason anything succeeds, and the vulnerability this creates is itself part of the message being proclaimed, not simply a practical inconvenience to be endured.

‘Freely ye have received, freely give’ becomes, for Bonhoeffer, the theological centre of the whole chapter: the gospel and the power to heal and cast out demons were never earned by the disciples, and a gift that costly cannot be sold, rationed, or made contingent on payment without betraying its own nature. This is why the labourer is nonetheless worthy of support — receiving hospitality is not the same as selling the message, and Bonhoeffer is careful not to let ‘freely give’ collapse into an argument against any material support for gospel workers at all.

He closes by considering the instructions for what to do where the message is refused — shaking the dust from one's feet and moving on — as protecting the messenger from despair over results that were never within their control to guarantee. The messenger's responsibility is faithful delivery of what was freely given, not engineering its reception; success and failure, in the deepest sense, belong to the Lord of the harvest named in chapter 21, not to the labourer sent into it.

Key points

• Jesus' instructions cover a specific field of mission (Israel, at this stage), an identical message to his own, and a deliberate lack of material provision.
• Travelling without money or spare provisions is tied to the carefree life of chapter 17: dependence on hospitality prevents messengers from crediting their own resourcefulness.
• ‘Freely ye have received, freely give’ is the chapter's theological centre — the gospel and its accompanying power were gifts, not earned achievements, and cannot be sold or rationed.
• Bonhoeffer is careful to distinguish ‘freely give’ from a ban on any material support for those who proclaim the gospel — the labourer is still worthy of sustenance.
• Shaking the dust off one's feet where the message is refused protects the messenger from despair over results that belong to the Lord of the harvest, not to them.

Related Scripture

• Luke 10:1–12
• 1 Corinthians 9:14
• 2 Corinthians 11:7
• Acts 20:35

For reflection and discussion

1. Where do you rely on your own resourcefulness or preparation in a way that might obscure how much of what you have to offer was actually a gift?
2. Bonhoeffer distinguishes dependence on others' hospitality from selling the gospel. Where is that line important in your own service or giving?
3. Is there a place where you are carrying the weight of a result — someone's response, a ministry's success — that Bonhoeffer would say actually belongs to the Lord of the harvest, not to you?