Exo 19:2-6; Ps. 99(100):2-3,5; Rom 5:6-11; Matt 9:36-10:8
The first reading presents us with the formal beginning of what we may call Yahwistic Reverence for the people of Israel. When the people of Israel were in Egypt, they were totally emersed in the Egyptian life. They were eating Egyptian food, drinking Egyptian water, and of course revering Egyptian god. This is because, apart from that they had not yet the idea of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, under slavery, they had no option but to worship the god of the land in which they were. This aspect of worshipping the god of their land of slavery was not only for the Israelites but a cultural practice at that time. Egypt was the world power, dictating what would be and controlling every other race. Hence, the Israelites, had nothing that was unifying them as a people if not their common paternal heritage under Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hence, apart from the fact that they were called ‘the Hebrews”, they had no Israelite king, nor Israelite religion nor even their culture. Hence, when Yahweh sent Moses to deliver them, he was sending him to establish an identity for the people of Israel, an identity that would not happen unless separated from the Egyptians. With the liberation of the people of Israel which was concluded with Moses’s song to Yahweh in Exod 15, the people are now ready to establish themselves as a nation. But following the culture of ancient Near East of this time, there was never a nation without its own god. In fact, one of the things that distinguished a nation from another was their gods. The people’s god(s) was the first king of the people who went to war with them, granted them victory and success, directed the human king on the path to follow and how to rule the people etc. Hence, with Yahweh’s instruction to the people of Israel in the first reading of today, we see the official beginning of the people of Israel as a nation after their ‘un-unified’ life in Egypt. God based his command for the people’s reverence on what they saw happened to the Egyptians. Reading God’s saying, “you yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians…” one may ask “Is Yahweh threatening the people of Israel?” “Is he using the destruction of another nation
as a base for commanding reverence?” The answer is Yes and No. Yes because, for a nation to accept a particular god as a nation god, that god has to be presented as mightier than every other god. And the might of a particular god was seen through the victory or loss of his people in a battle with another nation. If Egypt, which was the mightiest nation at this time, having the strongest army and organization was defeated by the people of Israel who were virtually no people, with no army nor any institution, it then means that the God of Israel is more powerful than the Egyptian god. Hence, God shows himself as worthy of total reverence and obedience through what the people saw he did. On the other hand, God is not threatening the people of Israel, nor is he using fear to draw them to worship and obey him.
Rather, he presents his tender care for the people of Israel when he says, “you have seen…how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself”. Israel recognized that their victory was not because they were stronger, but it was a divine action. The highest gift a divinity could give to the people he considered his own was to grant them victory against their enemies and grant them freedom from all oppressions. This, God exactly did for the people. But is God then saying “Because I have done this, you have no option but to worship me and me alone?” No. Rather God said to them “if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own for all the earth is mine…” That is to say, God still gave Israel option to choose whether to be of God or not. The people
of Israel were to become God’s own heritage, not because they made god for themselves, but because God chose them for himself. But in order to be God’s people, they have a task of obedience and faithfulness. Obedience without faithfulness is simply a deception of oneself, while faithfulness without obedience is simply a mockery. Of course, Israel promised to do all that God has said. But the question is “Did they?’ If they did, the words of St. Paul in the second reading would not have been necessary. But because Israel did not choose God, but was chosen by God, God remains faithful even in the ocean of the unfaithfulness of the people he has chosen to be a kingdom of priests and a consecrated nation. Just as God sent Moses to save the people from Egyptian slavery even before the people came to know him, so also, did God send his only Son to come and die for the people he has made for himself, even when they were still soaked in sin that depicts their untiring unfaithfulness and disobedience to their God. Christ came to save us, not because we merited it by our actions but because God needed it for his faithfulness and love. He reconciled us to God even when we had not understood how far we had gone afar from God who saves us. God did not abandon his people and chose another people who might be more faithful. He did not destroy the old people of unfaithfulness and disobedience in order to create another people for himself just as his people keep on creating gods and gods for themselves, despising and over-playing God’s love and mercy. No…he rather keeps on reaching out to his people.
As Israel were like sheep without shepherd in Egypt, so did Christ see his people wallowing like sheep without shepherd as presented in the gospel reading. Before the great redemption of the people of Israel, God used Moses to perform great wonders in the midst of Egyptians, not only to loosen the heart of Pharaoh, but most importantly, to tell the Israelites that they could trust him for their redemption. In the same way, Jesus sent his disciples to perform great works in order, not just to loosen the power of evil one on his people, but they gain their trust and belief in him and in his power to set them free. The disciples were asked not to go to any pagan territory nor to enter any Samaritan town. Was Jesus blocking other nations from benefitting from his redemptive work? Was Jesus bracketing others from the love and mercy of God, and limiting it only to the house of Israel? The instruction of Jesus to the disciples may suggest this interpretation. But Jesus came both for the Jews and the gentiles. Already in Chapter eight of the same Matthew’s gospel, we saw Jesus healing the servant of the Centurion who was a gentile. Jesus even praised the centurion’s faith and spoke of him as worthy to have a sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the eschatological dinner. So, how can we understand Jesus’s words here?All other nations came to know about God through his chosen people, the people of Israel, the people of the covenant. Jesus shows therefore the importance of his first-born people. The fact that Israel was a stubborn child of God did not make God to trade them for other nations or to sell their covenantal birth-right to another nation. God is not like humans. He does not reject his own, even when his own abandons him.
Christ sent his twelve disciples out to go and manifest the power of God over darkness and to bring God’s salvation to his people. That is exactly the task of a disciple. Moses was sent to prepare a people for God; Christ was sent to save God’s people form darkness, Christ sent his disciples, not to curse nor not preach worldly riches and success, but to set his people free from forces of darkness. Have you asked yourself, “what do you do as disciple?” “If you have accepted God to be your God, have you accepted his mission for you to be his disciples?” As Christ sends you as his disciple, he also sends others to you as to call you back to himself. The people God sends to
Happy Sunday