Matthew 10:21

“And brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.”

Jesus then moves His attention from the judges to the ones who will cause His disciples, and those who hear and respond to them, to be judged, or indeed might judge them themselves by popular opinion on the basis of Deuteronomy 13:1. Considering that He Himself was almost put to death by His own neighbours in Nazareth (Luke 4:28, something be it noted that we only know of because of Luke), it was very likely that in hot-headed, fanatical Galilee He would expect similar things to happen to others. And while these words might appear to us as extreme, they are in fact simply indicating that these people will call on the Scriptures, as interpreted by them, to support them in what they do (Deuteronomy 13:1; Deuteronomy 18:20), and will act accordingly, for these verses in Deuteronomy specifically included instructions as to what they should do to close relations whom they saw as apostasising, and they tie in with what Jesus is saying here (Matthew 13:6). Thus Jesus is simply saying that they will treat His disciples and their own kin in accordance with their view of them as false prophets and conveyers of false teaching, and that by proclaiming Jesus the disciples must recognise that they will be in danger of being treated as apostates. (The putting to death might have been largely figurative for ‘treating them as dead', but it must be seen as very likely that some did ‘disappear' at the hands of lynch mobs or particularly zealous fanatics. Deaths were much easier to arrange in those days, especially if no one complained. And rightly worded accusations to the civil authorities as reactionaries and conspirators might well have occasionally resulted in the death penalty).

It is true that His language may be intended to be extravagant in order to get over the point (as in Matthew 5:21 onwards), for to a certain extent they would be restrained by Roman law, but it was certainly not beyond a possibility, and it echoed such behaviour in the Old Testament (Micah 7:6; Isaiah 66:5; compare Psalms 50:20). The main point behind it, however, is as a vivid warning to the disciples that all those who followed Him must expect to be treated like false prophets.

It is also true that there might well be something deliberately prophetic about it, as Jesus saw ahead into the future, and recognised that the restraint of Rome would not always be present, but He certainly had good cause to recognise that it could happen even now in the present to these brave men whom He was sending out into the virtual unknown with a message that would arouse strong feelings.

Note how these words parallel their being brought before Jewish courts and beaten in synagogues. All will be for similar reasons, the hatred of many Jews for Jesus and His words.