With Opened Bible
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthiew 10,5-7)
In proclaiming this Sunday's Gospel, one might have been led to believe that Jesus is not the universal Savior—that is, the one sent by God to save the world. He commanded the Apostles not to venture beyond the borders of Israel, but rather to go to the lost sheep of His own people. Why did He ask them to make such a choice? To understand this, we must turn back to this Sunday's First Reading.
In the Book of Exodus, the Lord God undertook the divine election of Israel. He chose these small people so that they might serve as a model for all others in the faith: "Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." (Exodus 19:5-6) The choice of Israel as the "firstborn" in faith reflects God's plan for universal salvation, which Jesus fulfills. They were to be the models to follow, as the
Prophet Isaiah reminds us: "I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6)
Having established this, we can now answer the question posed above: Why did Jesus ask His disciples to avoid pagan cities and Samaritan towns? Jesus had come, first and foremost, to reconcile Israel with its God, fulfilling God's plan for all nations. He was the one the Prophet had foretold, the one destined to serve as a bridge so that all might have access to the Divine.
However, by proclaiming salvation to the Jews, He was preparing the Apostles to do the same for the nations of the earth: "But you will re-ceive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts of the Apostles 1:8) and at the end of his ministry on earth, he said to them: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19–20) This demonstrates that Jesus' mission is root-ed in the biblical promise of universal salvation, making Him the Savior for all people, out of love for the entire world. (John 3:16)
