"Only to the House of Israel"?
How to Understand a Difficult Saying of Jesus
If Jesus is the Savior of the world, then why did he limit his mission and ministry to Israel? Would not appearing in one or more of the world’s largest cities at the time such as Alexandria, Rome, Antioch, or even Seleucia (Iraq), Taxila (India) or Luoyang (China) be better if you wanted to save the world?
The answer is that God’s plan was to reach the world through Israel, which is why they were appointed to be kingdom of priests (Exod 19:5-6) and a light to the nations (Isa 42:6; 49:6). Even as Israel’s fortunes rose and fell through its leaders and the religious faithfulness or faithlessness of its people, God still intended for Israel to be the nation that would bring the nations into the new creation (see Isaiah 66!). That is why Jesus restricted his mission to Israel. It was not a polite opportunity for Israel to accept or reject him, and then once the Jews were ejected from “election Island,” the real mission to the nations could get underway. No, we have to understand the biblical story from Abraham to Moses to David was that God would use this people, their priesthood, their temple, and their anointed king, to proclaim his glory and salvation to the world.
As Paul wrote to the Romans:
Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy (Rom 15:8-9).
But we still have to wrestle with two particular sayings in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus explicitly restricts his mission to Israel. Note these:
Matthean Missionary Discourse
Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road that leads to the Gentiles, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ (Matt 10:5-7)Jesus’s Encounter with the Canaanite Woman
Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.” He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt 15:23-24).
How are we to understand these sayings? Does this convey an ethnic prejudice of Jesus towards non-Jews? Some people have thought so!