Skip to main content

‘Why Foreign Missions?’ 5. Jesus’ Ministry Includes the Gentiles in Matthew’s Gospel


The link between Israel’s mission and the Church’s mission to the nations was explored in regard to allusions to certain Old Testament texts in the previous section.[1]  It might also be observed in Matthew’s Gospel by focusing on Jesus’ identity and ministry to the Gentiles.  Much of this evidence is reported in David Bosch’s excellent study of Matthew’s understanding of mission, listed here:[2]

1. Four ‘non-Israelite’ women in Jesus’ genealogy: Tamar (Mt. 1.3); Rahab (v. 5); Ruth (v. 5); the wife of Uriah (v. 6))
          2. The visit of the magi (Mt. 2.1-12)
          3. The centurion in Capernaum (Mt. 8.5-13)
          4. The Canaanite woman (15.21-28)
          5. The Gospel will be preached to all nations (Mt. 24.14; 26.13)
          6. Roman centurion and those with him see Jesus as ‘Son of God’ (Mt. 27.54)
          7. Jesus will save God’s ‘people’ from their sin (Mt. 1.21)
8. God’s kingdom will be taken away from the Jewish leaders and given to a people who produce the fruits of the kingdom (Mt. 21.43)
9. Jesus dwelling in Galilee involves a dwelling amongst Gentiles, for Galilee is called Galilee of the Gentiles (Mt. 4.15)–and this is also where the disciples are commissioned at the end of the Gospel to go to all nations (Mt. 28.18-20)
10. The summary of Jesus’ ministry includes news of him reaching Syria (Mt. 4.23-25)[3]
11. Jesus’ disciples are called the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Mt. 5.13-14)
12. Mt. 12.18-21 quotes Isaiah 42.1ff, with its reference to the servant’s universal mission
          13. Mt. 13.38 speaks of a ministry of sowing in the field of the world
14. Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple’s forecourt from the tables for selling sacrifices and exchanging money might be understood as a clearing of the Temple so that the Gentiles will have a place (Mt. 21
          15. Jesus’ willingness to enter Gentiles’ homes (Mt. 8.7)

Four more points beyond those from Bosch are relevant:

          16. Jesus’ casting out demons from two people in Gadara (Mt. 8.28-34);[4]
17. Jesus’ speech to his disciples about ministering only in the towns of Israel includes a reference to ministry before governors and kings as a ‘testimony’ to them and to the Gentiles;[5]
18. The parable of the sheep and the goats–the nations being judged (Mt. 25.31-46);
19. The healing and second feeding of a multitude, which may be a ministry among Gentiles (Mt. 15.29-39).

Cohering with the fact of Jesus’ ministry to Gentiles, Jesus’ activity also involved both fellowship with the unclean and making the unclean clean.  Thus Jesus’ activity among the Gentiles prior to the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel makes sense of both allusions to certain Old Testament texts and what is said of Jesus’ ministry.

The impetus for mission beyond Israel was foretold in the Old Testament (previously discussed), found its beginning in Jesus’ own activity (as noted here), and carried on into the mission of the early Church.


[1] I have explored other missional, intertextual relationships between Matthew and the Old Testament in two publications: ‘Some Geographical and Intertextual Dimensions of Matthew’s Mission Theology,’ in Bible and Mission: A Conversation Between Biblical Studies and Mission, co-edited with I. Howard Marshall, Peter Penner, Robin Routledge (Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Verlag, 2008); 'Narrative Dynamics in Isaiah's and Matthew's Mission Theology,' Transformation 21.4 (Oct., 2004): 238-255.
[2]David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991), 60-62.
[3]Bosch adds the summary of Jesus’ ministry in Mt. 9.35-38 and suggests that the plentiful harvest points beyond Israel as well.
[4]The name of the territory is uncertain as there are alternatives in the manuscripts.  However, as the presence of pig herders suggests, the event took place in Gentile territory.
[5]This parallels Mt. 24.14: the good news of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a testimony to all the nations (note Is. 55.3; Zeph. 3.8).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘For freedom Christ has set us free’: The Gospel of Paul versus the Custodial Oversight of the Law and Human Philosophies

  Introduction The culmination of Paul’s argument in Galatians, and particularly from 3.1-4.31, is: ‘ For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery’ (Galatians 5.1). This essay seeks to understand Paul’s opposition to a continuing custodial role for the Law and a use of human philosophies to deal with sinful passions and desires.   His arguments against these are found in Galatians and Colossians.   By focussing on the problem of the Law and of philosophy, we can better understand Paul’s theology.   He believed that the Gospel was the only way to deal with sin not simply in terms of our actions but more basically in terms of our sinful desires and passions of the flesh. The task ahead is to understand several large-scale matters in Paul’s theology, those having to do with a right understanding of the human plight and a right understanding of God’s solution.   So much Protestant theology has articulated...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alasdair MacIntyre and Tradition Enquiry

Alasdair MacIntyre's subject is philosophical ethics, and he is best known for his critique of ethics understood as the application of general, universal principles.  He has reintroduced the importance of virtue ethics, along with the role of narrative and community in defining the virtues.  His focus on these things—narrative, community, virtue—combine to form an approach to enquiry which he calls ‘tradition enquiry.’ [1] MacIntyre characterises ethical thinking in the West in our day as ethics that has lost an understanding of the virtues, even if virtues like ‘justice’ are often under discussion.  Greek philosophical ethics, and ethics through to the Enlightenment, focussed ethics on virtue and began with questions of character: 'Who should we be?', rather than questions of action, 'What shall we do?'  Contemporary ethics has focused on the latter question alone, with the magisterial traditions of deontological ('What rules govern our actions?') and tel...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Virtues of a Failing Culture

  An insanity has fallen upon the West, like a witch’s spell.   We have lived with it long enough to know it, understand it, but not long enough to resist it, to undo it.   The very stewards of the truth that would remove it have left their posts.   They have succumbed to its whispers, become its servants.   It has infected the very air and crept along the ground like a mist until it is within us and all about us.   We utter its precepts like schoolchildren taught their lines. Its power lies in its claims of virtuosity, distorted goodness.   If presented as the vices that they are, they would be rejected.   These virtues are proclaimed from the pulpits and painted on banners or made into flags.   They are established in our schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries.   They are the hallucinogen making our own cultural suicide bearable, even desirable.   They are virtues, but disordered, or they are the excess or deficiency of...
Post a Comment
Read more