Lent Week 2: Monday | Matthew 10 (1-15)
Blessings, Duffy.
First, a confession for our readers. I have not been following Jonathan's Lent 2026 Horologion very well. Maybe next year at Lent, I will be far enough along to tackle that much prayerful structure. As it stands right now, it is all I can do to keep the rough contours of a basic horarium!
Now let's turn to N.T. Wright's commentary on Matthew 10:1-15. It's a powerful refutation of militant political messianism in its Zionist and Christian Zionist forms. Wright strongly suggests that the Twelve Apostles, like the monthly spokes of an annual time wheel, were commissioned to start rolling out a non-violent worldwide political revolution, not an independent nation-state for the Jews.
Does Wright make too little of Matthew 10:5-7?
"These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: 'Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near.'" (BSB)
Jesus is even more clear in Matthew 15:24.
"Then Jesus said to the woman, 'I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.'" (NLT)
Here is my question set for Gemini.
Q1. Can Matthew 10:6 and Matthew 15:24 support two opposing interpretations, one Jewish interpretation that Jesus is not the Messiah because he failed to liberate Israel, and one Gentile interpretation that the Jews had their chance and blew it?
Q2. Can you say more about how these two verses have been used by some Christians to justify antisemitic criticism of Zionism and of Israel's right to modern military self-defense?
Q3. On the other hand, is it true that there are post-supersessionist Messianic Jews and Christian Zionists who believe that national Israel is still beloved in a special way by God and that national Israel has a God-given right and responsibility to defend itself in the land without desecrating the Holy Name of YHWH through illegal military actions?
Q4. Do these necessarily have to be mutually exclusive truths, or can it be true that God's particular promises to the nation of Israel are irrevocable and territorial, on the one hand, and true that God universally calls all people, including Jews, to non-violent world citizenship, on the other?
If you get a chance to read them, Duffy, Gemini's answer to all of these questions is excellent, but the response to the last question is especially spectacular.
Peace and grace.
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