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Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to save all men, all nations, and all peoples. Though this was His ultimate goal, His plan was to limit His Gospel at first to the Jews. Later His mission was rendered universal, so as to embrace the whole pagan world as well.
These twelve Jesus sent out;
But first gave them their instructions;
Do not go, He said, into the walks of the Gentiles,
Or enter any city of Samaria;
Go rather to the lost sheep that belong to the house of Israel.
MATTHEW 10:5, 6
The first explicit direction to the Apostles was to avoid the pagans. Today the pagans would be known as the “foreign missions.” Even the Samaritans were to be excluded for the time being, for they were a hybrid people of both Jewish and Assyrian origin. This explicit instruction to the people to confine themselves at first to the House of Israel was underlined by the fact that He chose twelve of them, who roughly corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel. The lingering remembrance of this order made Peter hesitate when the time came to baptize Cornelius, the Roman centurion. For that act, he required an explicit declaration on the part of God Himself.
Despite this first mandate to the Apostles, Our Blessed Lord had several contacts with pagans; He even worked miracles on their behalf. Though these miracles do not give a complete answer to the question as to when Our Lord began to make His mission universal, nevertheless they do give a clue.
The first of the three contacts which Our Lord had with pagans, and therefore with the foreign missions, was with the Roman centurion; the second, with the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman; and the third, with the young man possessed of a devil in the land of the Gerasenes. There were many elements common to all three miracles.
The first two miracles were performed at a distance. Probably the centurion was a member of the Roman garrison stationed at Capharnaum. By birth, therefore, he must have been a heathen. It is very likely that he, like the centurion Cornelius, whom Peter baptized and like the eunuch in the court of the Queen of Ethiopia, had become at least sentimentally attached to the worship of Jahve. This Roman official had been in the country long enough to know that there was a strong wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. This explains the fact that when his servant lay sick, even to the point of death, he did not directly approach Our Blessed Lord, but
sent some of the elders of the Jews to Him,
asking Him to come and heal his servant.
LUKE 7:3
Our Blessed Lord must have shown some reluctance to work this miracle, because Luke says that those who interceded
began to make earnest appeal to Him.
LUKE 7:4
While Our Lord was on His way to the servant, the centurion sent word to Him through messengers not to trouble Himself:
I am not worthy to receive Thee under my roof.
LUKE 7:7
St. Augustine was later to say of this: “Counting himself unworthy that Christ should enter into his doors, he was counted worthy that Christ should enter into his heart.”
The pagan centurion compared Our Blessed Lord’s power to his own authority over his soldiers. He himself was a sergeant with a hundred men under him, who did his bidding; but the Lord was the true Caesar, or King, the supreme commander of the highest hierarchy, with angels to obey His orders. Surely, then, he would not have to enter the house to perform the miracle; the pagan suggested that He should give an order from where He was. The miracle was performed, as the centurion requested, at a distance. Reflecting on the faith of this pagan and anticipating the faith that would come from foreign missions, which He contrasted with the present home mission, Our Blessed Lord said:
Believe Me, I have not found faith like this, even in Israel.
LUKE 7:10
This first pagan who received such praise from Our Divine Lord for his faith was one of “those children of God” scattered abroad in the world who were eventually to be brought into unity through the Redemption.
The second miracle performed by Our Lord on a pagan was the healing of the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman. This reluctance to work a miracle for the centurion had only been implied, but here He refused explicitly, perhaps to draw out the woman’s faith. The miracle took place in the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. St. Chrysostom and other commentators have actually thought that Our Lord left the borders of what was later on to be known as foreign mission territory. The woman is described as coming from Canaan and being of Syro-Phoenician descent. She was, therefore, completely set apart from the Jews. When she asked a boon for her daughter, whom she described as “truly cruelly troubled by an evil spirit,” Our Lord
Gave her no word in answer; but His disciples came to Him
And pleaded with Him; Rid us of her, they said
She is following us with her cries.
MATTHEW 15:23
The Apostles were not asking for a miracle to be worked for the woman’s sake; they only wanted to be left alone, undisturbed, in selfish ease. As she continued to plead and to worship Him, Our Blessed Lord proceeded to test her faith with a seemingly hard remark:
It is not right to take the children’s bread
And throw it to the dogs.
MATTHEW 15:26
The children He was referring to were, of course, the Jews. The term “dogs” signified contempt, and it was not beyond the Jews to apply it often to the Gentiles. As the Roman centurion endured a seeming delay, so this woman suffered a stunning rebuff. She, however, responded with a perfect act of faith:
Ah yes, Lord, the dogs feed on the crumbs that
Fall from their master’s table.
MATTHEW 15:27
This woman was saying to Our Lord: “I accept this title and the dignity that goes with it: for even the dogs are fed by the Master; they may not be given the full feast which has been spread for the children of Israel, but the dogs will get a portion; and it will still come from the Master’s table.” She pleaded that she belonged to the Master’s household, even though her place in it was lower. According to the very name which the Lord had given her, she was not an alien. And by accepting this name, she could claim all that it included.
She had conquered by faith, and the Master said to her:
Woman, for this great faith of thine,
Let thy will be granted.
MATTHEW 15:28
Like Joseph of old, who showed severity to his brethren for but a brief time, the Savior did not maintain His apparent disdain for long; and He granted the healing of the daughter, again at a distance.
The third early contact of Our Blessed Lord with the pagans occurred when He entered the country of the Gerasenes. A man possessed of an unclean spirit came out of the tombs to meet Him. The actual scene was Decapolis, a predominantly Gentile region. Josephus strongly implied that Gerasa was a Greek city. The very fact that the people there were swineherds would seem to indicate further that they were not Jews. It is conceivable that they were Jews defying the Mosaic Law.
Considerable symbolism may be attached to the fact that in this pagan land, Our Blessed Lord came face to face with discords and forces far worse than those which disturb the winds and waves and the bodies of men. Here there was something wilder, and more fearful, than the natural elements, which could bring confusion, anarchy, and ruin to the inner man. There had been a wholesome faith in the centurion and in the Syro-Phoenician woman. But there was nothing in this young man but the dominion of the devil. The other two pagans had spoken from their own hearts in tribute to Our Savior. Here, however, it was an alien’s spirit, a fallen spirit, that made the young man affirm the Divinity:
Why dost thou meddle with me,
Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I pray Thee, do not torment me.
LUKE 8:28
When the Savior released the young man from the evil spirit and permitted it to enter into the swine instead, the townspeople ordered Our Lord to depart from their coast. The spirit of capitalism, in its most evil form, made them feel that the restoring of a soul to the friendship of God, was nothing compared to the loss of a few pigs. While the respectable Gerasenes bade Him depart, the Samaritans, who were sinners, wanted Our Lord to stay with them.
These three incidents involving foreign missions were exceptions to the Divine plan that salvation must first come to the Jews, and that He must limit His teaching, for the time being, only to the lost sheep of Israel.
These sporadic contacts with pagans did not suffice to establish a principle of worldwide evangelization. On the other hand, it cannot be supposed that Our Blessed Lord turned to the Gentiles simply because His own people refused Him, as if the rest of humanity were only an afterthought in His life. He always knew that there would come a point when He would lose both the leaders and the masses of His own people. In fact, this came to pass after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. After that, Our Blessed Lord could count on neither an aristocratic nor a popular following among the Jews. Even so, He continued for the time being to concentrate on teaching His own people, to the exclusion of the foreign missions.
Our Savior did not use any of His three contacts with the pagans to tell His Apostles to take the Gospel beyond the confines of Israel. Nevertheless, there was clear and intrinsic connection between the Gentiles and the reason of His coming. Noteworthy is the fact that in those moments where there was a very strong hint and suggestion of His death and Redemption, there was also some involvement of the Gentiles. Quite apart from the three miraculous contacts, there were three other moments when pagans were closely associated with Him. Each of these moments had some reference to His Passion and to His death and glorification.
The first of these was at His birth. The shepherds represented the home mission; the Magi stood for the foreign missions. Jew and Gentile were both next to the crib; but the coming of the Gentiles coincided with the first attempt upon His life. Hardly was the Divine Ship launched than King Herod sought to sink it, by ordering the massacre of all male children under the age of two. And it was the Gentiles whom Herod questioned concerning the prophecy about the star from Bethlehem. Already, the shadow of death had fallen across the Infant Jesus.
The second moment of the close association with Gentiles in His life was when the Greeks came seeking, through the intercession of Philip and Andrew, to see Him. On this occasion, Our Blessed Lord did not refer to a prophecy from the Jewish script (for that would have been unavailing to the Gentile); He appealed instead to a law of the natural order, the law of the seed.
A grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die,
Or else it remains nothing more than a grain of wheat;
But if it dies, then it yields rich fruit.
JOHN 12:24
As the Wise Men from among the Gentiles discovered Wisdom at the crib, so the wise men from Gentile ranks now learned the law of sacrifice: that through death, a new life would spring forth. The closer Our Lord came to His Cross (and here He was only a week away from it), the closer the pagans were to Him. They now began to appear for the first time in His entourage. On the occasion of this visit of the heirs of Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato, Our Blessed Lord began to speak of His glory:
The hour had come now
For the Son of Man to achieve His glory.
JOHN 12:23
The third moment when the Gentiles were closely associated with Him was during His Crucifixion. He was tried in a Roman court, and the wife of a Roman governor interceded for Him, because she had been troubled in a dream. Simon of Cyrene, who was interested in watching this man going to His death, was forced to help Him to carry the cross. It is known that at least a hundred Roman soldiers were present at the scene of His Crucifixion, for a centurion commanded at least that number. Never before were there so many Gentiles and pagans around Our Lord, as at the moment of His death. Looking forward to that moment, after His miracles had failed to convince men of His Divinity, He had given the Cross as the final argument. Now that the Son of Man was being lifted up, He began to draw all men to Himself. He made it clear that it was “all men” that He would draw, and not merely the people of Judea and Galilee. At the very moment when He spoke of giving His own life, He added:
I have other sheep too,
Which do not belong to this fold;
I must bring them in too;
They will listen to My voice.
JOHN 10:16
The death of Christ was the realization of the Kingdom of God for the entire world. Up to the point of Calvary, men had been taught by preaching. After Calvary, they would be taught by His Resurrection and Ascension. The principle of universality became effective. It was the death of Christ that broke down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile to reveal the universal mission of the Messias, which had been dimly hinted at in the Old Testament. It took Golgotha to universalize the mission of Christ. The foreign missions were the fruit of the Passion and the death of Our Blessed Lord. What greater proof is there than this, that it was not until after His Resurrection and the moment of His Ascension that the missionary mandate was given:
You, therefore, must go out
Making disciples of all nations.
MATTHEW 28:19
Now the pagans would come into their own, not only those who had lived before His coming, but those who would live until His final glory. And there will come a day when:
The men of Nineve will rise up
With this generation at the day of judgment.
MATTHEW 12:41
The Gentiles who lived in the days of Solomon, and in particular the Queen of Sheba, would point an accusing finger at Israel for not having been as responsive as the Gentiles to the death of Christ.
The coast of Tyre and Sidon that produced a woman of faith would receive a more tolerant judgment than Capharnaum, which had once cradled the Body of the Divine Fisherman:
And I say this,
That it shall go less hard with Tyre and Sidon
At the day of judgment than with you.
And thou, Capharnaum,
Dost thou hope to be lifted up high as heaven?
Thou shalt fall as low as hell.
MATTHEW 11:22
Even Sodom, which had been synonymous with everything that was evil, would have more merciful judgment than Israel, to whom the revelation was first restricted:
Sodom, itself, if the miracles done in thee
Had been done there, might have stood to this day.
And I say this,
That it shall go less hard with the country of Sodom
At the day of judgment than with thee.
MATTHEW 11:23
As for the future, all the Gentiles would profit by His death and Resurrection:
When the Son of Man come in His Glory,
And all the angels with Him,
He will sit down upon the throne of His Glory,
And all nations will be gathered in His Presence.
MATTHEW 25:31, 32
Had Our Lord been only a preacher or a teacher, there would never have been any foreign missions. The Faith would never have been propagated all over the world. The Gospel, which the missionaries bring, is not an epic that belongs to a particular people, but a Redemption as wide as humanity itself. From the moment of Calvary, the missionary belonged to Christ and not to the prince of this world. Another King entered into rightful possession of the Gentiles. The principal distinction between the Old and the New Testament was in regard to scope. The former had been restricted almost exclusively to a single nation, but the blood of the New Covenant shed on Calvary broke down that wall of partition between the Jews and other nations.
The sacrifice of Christ was universal in three ways: time, place, and power. As regards time, its efficacy was not limited to one generation or dispensation:
Before the beginning of the world,
God has foreknown Him,
But it was only in these last days
That He was revealed for your sakes.
I PETER 1:20
There was universality too in space, for the effectiveness of Christ’s death was not confined to any single nation:
Thou wast slain in sacrifice;
Out of every tribe, every language, every people, every nation
Thou hast ransomed us with thy blood and given us to God.
APOCALYPSE 5:9
Finally, there was universality in power, for there is no sin whatever that His Redemption cannot blot out:
The blood of His Son Jesus Christ
Which washes us clean from all sin.
JOHN 1:7
It was on the Cross that Christ made His mission world-wide. The closer missionaries live to their cross, the more quickly will they fulfill His mission to all nations.
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