Monday
Monday
Matthew, Part 2—Jesus the Internationalist
Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 8:11
We saw yesterday that Matthew portrays a Jewish Jesus. Indeed, he proclaims him as the long-expected Messiah. The evidence for this Jewishness is indisputable. Jesus was steeped in the Old Testament. He saw himself as the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy.
More than that, Matthew records two occasions, which are not paralleled in the other Gospels, in which Jesus appears to be guilty of nationalism or ethnic prejudice. Firstly, referring to his own ministry, Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (15:24). Secondly, referring to the ministry of his disciples, he said to them, “Do not go among the Gentiles…. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel” (10:5–6).
But this was only a historical limitation. Jesus was giving Israel a last chance. But he added immediately that later his disciples would be “witnesses … to the Gentiles” (v. 18). And the same Matthew who recorded those sayings about Israel’s “lost sheep” also recorded at the beginning of his Gospel the visit of the gentile Magi, and at its end the great commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (28:19). So, although Matthew’s picture of Jesus is the most Jewish of the four pictures, it would be impossible to represent Jesus as guilty in any way of ethnic pride or prejudice. On the contrary, Jesus made it clear that the renewed Israel would be an international nation:
I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 8:11
For further reading: Matthew 28:16–20