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S. Pentecost 3.26 Matt. 10:5-25

‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…’

This is the real “Great Commission”—actually, just the beginning of the mission brief of the Apostles of Jesus Christ—even though Modern Christendom ignores it, preferring to call Matt. 28:19-20 the “Great Commission” which it isn’t. Jesus didn’t change his mind about going only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as in Matt 10 and decide, later that: “Hey, no! Let’s get all the Gentiles we can into church and the one who collects the most wins…something?

No! Jesus doesn’t change his mind. Matt 28 is simply a promise that Baptism and the Gospel will work to make Israelites even out of Gentiles who were plentiful in Israel’s synagogues of the 1st century Roman Empire. All the Apostles saw evangelism as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. That everyone—including the “scholars” of the LCMS!—read it as a command to get as many unchurched into church simply proves they know neither Greek nor scriptures very well. Also that: ‘none of us is as dumb as all of us!’ 😉

But the clincher to this “inconvenient truth” I’ve been pointing out for nearly 40 years is the real “Great Commission” appointed by the lectionary as our Gospel reading for Pentecost 3. What part of “go nowhere among the Gentiles” is unclear? What part of “enter no town of the Samaritans” is fuzzy? The “NO!”? What part of “NO!” don’t you understand? And what part of ‘go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ is opaque?

The mic drop moment is discovering that there is not a single example in the entire Acts of the Apostles where they do anything but go to the synagogues (the Church of Israel) to baptize and preach…

Now, the apostles will proclaim the Gospel when a defense is demanded of them by the authorities, governors, councils, courts and emperors Jesus says will come after, hate, persecute, and kill us. We have no worries about what we’ll say to them, because the Holy Spirit will make us smart-mouthed at the right time, to really get their goat! Having gotten a few goats (and not hated it 😉 I know he always will!

What? Does Jesus not want the Gentiles and Samaritans and barbarians to be saved? Of course he does! And there are dozens of passage like Ps. 19, Col 1:23, and Romans 10 et. al. that make it clear as St. Paul sums up in Colossians: “the Gospel you heard is preached to every creature under heaven”!

But this universal proclamation as Ps. 19 and Romans 1 makes clear—while going out in ways we can’t account for to the whole world (like the Magi and the star of the Messiah)—still will get rejected by the masses and only appeals to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

In Luke 16, Jesus gives an example (not flagged as a parable and no parable of Jesus has proper names as this one does) how a rich man died and goes to hell, while the beggar he scorned, named Lazarus, died and goes to heaven. In hell the rich man complains to Father Abraham—whom he sees in heaven above with Lazarus; you can see hell from heaven and vice versa and how Cool! is that?—anyway he says it’s hot he needs a drink, so send Lazarus down, pronto, to get him one!

And Father Abraham says, “Sorry, but no, son. Lazarus suffered in his lifetime while you received your good things, and he’s not your slave anymore. We fixed a chasm from our side so he can’t be bossed by you anymore.” And the rich man, not giving up his hazing, replies: “Well, I’ve got 5 brothers on their way here, so send Lazarus to warn them.” And Abraham says “Nope. They know where the church is; they have Moses and the Prophets—if they don’t hear them [in church!] neither will they believe even if someone rose from the dead and knocked on their door and asks: ‘if you died tonight, would you go to heaven?’

Another mic drop! It’s pointless to go chasing the unchurched. They stay home not because they don’t know about Jesus or sin, grace, heaven, and hell, but because they hate and reject Jesus and all he stands for!

Everyone knows who Jesus is and what our sinful state is. Jesus says, “Don’t throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them and you”—so ixnay on the oh-unchurched-ay.

The reason Jesus limits the scope of the Apostolic Mission to the church—Israel only—is the same reason when my mom’s plane comes into RDU that I don’t stand in the main lobby shouting “Mom’s plane has come in! Mom’s plane has come in!” Because she’s only my mom and no one else cares about seeing her… 😉

In the same way, unless you’re a poor miserable sinner, despairing over your looming death and damnation the Gospel of Jesus Christ will just be nonsensical at best, or infuriating at worse and likely a “YES!” to both.

As Jesus says, we apostles (shepherds sent by Jesus to his flock Israel) are like sheep in the midst of wolves. We will be dragged before governors and kings for Christ’s sake, but we may not worry, because the Holy Spirit will make us properly smart-mouthed at that time—and how true and fun that is for us!

But I also know the leopard doesn’t change its spots and the bad tree doesn’t bear good fruit. As Jesus told the Apostles: “I’ll give you a mouth and wisdom none of your adversaries can resist” but they don’t stop being adversaries! In fact, your showing their stupidity only makes them hate you more… 😉

The Gospel’s like the sorting hat in Harry Potter: it just shows who’s who…

Even plenty of the congregations of Israel (to say nothing of friends and family!) will hate the unconditional Gospel of Jesus you preach and give you the bum’s rush. But that dust-shaking off Sodom and Gomorrah speech you get to give is rather satisfying. And there’s always a next town, an OSLC Raleigh that (mostly 😉 welcomes you and the Gospel of Jesus…

And, as Elijah discovered: the percentage of Israel that welcomes the Gospel tends to be around 1%, and—if that holds true throughout history, it would mean there’s maybe a bit over 3 million Xns in all the United States today.

So; you’ll have trouble enough just ministering to the congregations of the LCMS!

But the joy on the face of one lost sheep—hearing that Jesus has done it all and they have their place in heaven always already with him, so they can dress up like him and play at being Jesus as we did with Batman and Superman when we were kids, and sing his praises now and forever without a care in the world—is a very great joy!

It’ll make you rejoice, like Jacob at the Jabbok, ‘to be deeply defeated by ever greater things’. And Peace, surpassing understanding, guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.