Saturday in the First Week of Advent, December 5, 2020

Matthew 9:35B-10:1, 5a, 6-8

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  [And the names of the twelve Apostles are these: The first, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican, and James the son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.]  Then he summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.  Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, “[Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of the Samaritans enter ye not.]  Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Much excising has been done to the Gospel here in order to produce the verses for this reading.  The excised texts are reproduced in their proper places and are indicated by brackets.  The first text simply lists the Apostles.  The second, however, should be examined more closely because of what it reveals about the Lord’s earthly mission.  The Lord says, “Go ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of the Samaritans enter ye not, [but] go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  While the Lord did venture occasionally into Gentile lands and Samaria, he did not enter the cities of these places nor did he preach there except for two days among the Samaritans, whose country he was crossing on his way to Jerusalem (John 4, 40).  He made it clear that his mission was “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15, 24).   Since the Lord died for all people, we might wonder why he would restrict his preaching to the Jews.

One reason for this was because from the moment his public life began with his baptism, his time was running out.  His preaching of a kingdom to which access was gained not through the chief priests and the Pharisees but instead through faith in him necessarily roused the deadly ire of the authorities.  He had time only for the cities, towns, and villages of Israel.  A second reason is that for the Lord to gain any followers among the Jews in first century Israel he must eschew followers who were not Jews.  Adherents and followers from the Gentiles would be a sign to the Jews that he was not one of them, but an outsider to whom they could not listen.  A third reason is that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4, 22).  That is, through the Chosen People.  Only after they rejected Christ did significant preaching come to the Gentiles.  The Jews were a sign to the world of God’s love and care, for he raised an insignificant group of related tribes into a kingdom and promised that the Savior of the world would come from them despite their regular fits of unfaithfulness to him.  They were the sign par excellence that God loved humanity unconditionally.  

“[But] Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  This sentence could be interpreted as saying that the whole house of Israel is “lost sheep” or that he was sent to those from the house of Israel who were “lost sheep”.  Since Matthew tells us that “at the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd”, we should assume that it was the former.  This verse brings to mind how Jesus wept over Jerusalem soon before he gave up his life there: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone them that are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered together your children, as the hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not have it?” (Matthew 23, 37).  That is, the crowds indeed look “abandoned” like “sheep without a shepherd”, but this is because they have abandoned God and his law to pursue their own interests, paying lip service to their religion.  They have, in fact, rejected their Shepherd.  The Lord will not let them go without a fight, though: “He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.’ ”  He does not command this prayer of the crowds, but specifically of his disciples.  Our hearts ought to break at the Lord’s desperation to save his wandering people who ignore him or look upon him with only mild interest as the latest diversion.

He instructs the disciples carefully in what they are to do in pursuit of the crowds: “Make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.”  Do all these things to gain their attention and favor that they may begin to desire the eternal life they signify, and do it all without cost, unlike the physicians, magicians, sorcerers, and itinerant preachers, for “without cost you have received [these powers], without cost you are to give.”

Let us pray that we ourselves will be the answer to the prayer for laborers for the Lord’s harvest.