Reading Scripture: Great Expectations (Part One)

As we continue through the Gospel of Matthew, we come across a very interesting statement by Jesus in 10:5: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel – God’s lost sheep.”

God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus, but now here is Jesus telling his disciples to ignore the rest of the world and focus only on their own people. What are we missing?

Looking back at the last 10 chapters we have read in Matthew, we can see a major theme developing: This book was first written for Jews who were expecting a messiah. That is why there is so much imagery and attention paid to Jewish customs and laws. And if we look closer still, we can see that the gospel is filled with echoes of the Israelite Old Testament story… all with the purpose of showing that Christ is the Messiah and that God keeps his promises to his people.

In the Creation story Adam fails and gives in to temptation, leading to sin and death entering the world. But in Matthew 3 we see Christ resisting the temptation of Satan. In the Exodus story we see God leading his people out of Egypt and across the Jordan River. In the Gospel of Matthew we see Christ coming out of Egypt and being baptized in the Jordan River. The Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. Christ spends 40 days in the wilderness.

So what we see here is that where Adam failed, Christ (the “new Adam”) would not. Just as Israel was called and led, so was Christ. But where Israel failed, Christ would not. Before God could show how much he loved the world, he first had to show Israel that he keeps his promise. How can God be trusted in anything he says if he cannot first keep his promise to his people?

But what is that promise? Maybe it runs deeper than just dieing for our sins.

More to come…