What Did Jesus Teach About Gentiles?

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." -Matthew 28:18-20

January 30, 2011: The content of this blog post is now available as part of an audio teaching series called Discipleship and the Torah. Click the following link to listen to the MP3 discussion (approx 72 min).

The words of the Master which direct his Jewish disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" have been the subject of much debate in the Messianic Jewish/One Law-One Torah/Two House world for many years in terms of the meaning and intent of Yeshua towards Gentile believers. Was the Jewish Messiah really telling his Jewish disciples to make new Messianic disciples of the Gentiles and to teach the Gentile disciples to literally obey everything that the Jewish Messiah taught the Jewish disciples?

In the One Law movement, the above quoted verse is usually married to the following scripture:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 5:17-20

Putting this together with Yeshua's words in Matthew 28, you could interpret this teaching to mean that the Jewish disciples were to teach the Gentile disciples the whole of Torah, with the warning that anyone "who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven", meaning that the Jewish disciples were not only to teach Gentile disciples Torah, but they were not to teach them to break any of the Torah commandments.

Wow! That's starting a lot of trouble right there, isn't it? Is that what Yeshua meant? I can hear some of you shouting out a resounding "YES!" while others are screaming "NO!" How do we understand these teachings?

As I mentioned before, this subject has been a matter of intense debate for many years so I probably don't have much of a chance at solving it once and for all, but on the other hand, I don't want to sweep it under the rug either. I also certainly don't want to make one set of assumptions or the other about these teachings, if I can at all help it. What to do?

In my case, I went through the book of Matthew and tried to tease out just what Yeshua actually did teach. It's not easy. I don't want to write one really long blog post trying to figure this one out, so I'm creating a series of articles with this being the first one.

As it turns out, Yeshua taught many things, so I've had to compartmentalize the topics. I'll present them, one by one over the next few days or weeks (depending on how long this takes) and then see what conclusions we can draw at the end (and what comments people will make along the way). Keep in mind that a teaching can fall under more than one category and there's bound to be a bit of overlap, so don't get excited if I consider a teaching as being found in one "pigeon hole" and you would have put it in another. Sooner or later, it'll all get covered anyway. Oh yes, I'm using the book of Matthew as my foundation and I'm not unmindful that Matthew wrote his Gospel specifically for a Jewish audience. What better place to try and determine what the Jewish Messiah's message was to the Jewish disciples about the Gentiles?

Speaking of which, let's launch our first topic: The Gentiles.

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."

Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."

The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour. -Matthew 8:5-13

We learn a couple of things here. The most immediate message is that Gentiles, as well as Jews, have access to the Messiah through faith and because of faith Gentiles can expect a response from Yeshua, in this case, in the form of healing. However, there's a more enduring message. Yeshua says that "many (Gentiles) will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This seems to mean both that lots and lots of Gentiles will have access to the Messiah and to God through faith, and that even some Jewish people will not, presumably through lack of faith, attain that same access to "the feast". Faith appears to be the great leveler of playing fields in this teaching.

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
"Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope." -Matthew 12:18-21

Quoting Isaiah 42:1-4, Matthew announces (among other things) that the Jewish Messiah will proclaim justice to the nations and that the Gentiles will put their hope in his (Yeshua's) name. Of course, we have to now try to understand what justice to the nations means. After all, it could just mean that God will toss all the Gentiles who ever existed into the lake of fire because of how they treated the Jews, but if you take it in the context of the scripture portion and in the larger context of what else the Bible says about Gentiles, we can reasonably believe that "justice" at least for some of us, will be provided in the same manner for Gentile believers who have suffered for the faith as it will be for the Jewish believers.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.

He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. -Matthew 15:21-28

Here we have another non-Jew approaching the Master and almost being turned away because he had "come for the lost sheep of Israel." We again see that it is her great faith and perseverance that results in the healing of her daughter and, as I mentioned before, faith seems to be the leveling factor in a person's relationship with the Jewish Messiah, as opposed to any other quality.

I feel constrained to point out the following scripture because of its relevancy:

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. -Matthew 7:6

Some folks out there might consider that Yeshua contradicted himself by saying these words and then responding favorably to the "Canaanite woman" since after all, he did call her a "dog". My own personal interpretation is that a "dog" in this context, is a person (maybe just a Gentile; maybe anyone, Jew or Gentile alike) who comes looking for favors from God without having faith and devotion and possessing only bad motives. If they get what they want, they don't value the gifts from God and may "tear to pieces" the emissaries of the Messiah. However, the Canaanite woman established she wasn't a "dog" by demonstrating her faith (there's that word again) and humbly accepting the "crumbs that fell from the table".

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. -Matthew 24:12-14

Yeshua doesn't seem to be saying that the whole world will accept "the gospel of the kingdom", just that it will be preached to the whole world as a "testimony to all the nations" and then after that, "the end will come". I suppose, in context, the meaning of "testimony to all the nations" is a testimony of the Messiah himself and that the salvation he offers, he offers to everyone.

Conclusion: What did Yeshua tell his Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples about Gentiles?

1. He taught them to tell the Gentiles that the Messiah is just as accessible to them as he is to the Jewish believers, both individually and as a people group.
2. He taught that many Gentiles will take their place at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, meaning many Gentiles will be there in the Messianic Age.
3. He taught that faith; great faith is the characteristic or factor a person must possess, Jew or Gentile, in order to approach the Messiah and be received with favor.
4. He taught that justice will come to the Gentiles and the Gentiles will put their hope in Yeshua as was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah.
5. He taught that the gospel will be taught to all the nations as a testimony to the Messiah and his salvation is accessible to everyone who accepts it by faith.
6. He taught that when Gentiles come to faith in Messiah, they stop being "dogs" (pagans, unbelievers) and that their faith gives them access to the Messiah and to God.

Of course, we have Matthew 28:18-20 which is Yeshua's final teaching about Gentiles in Matthew's gospel. In this case, Yeshua taught his Jewish disciples that the Gentiles are also to be taught that they can be disciples and to be taught to obey the same things Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples to obey.

Interestingly enough, when Yeshua taught about "justice to the nations" and "Gentiles putting their faith in Yeshua's name", quoting Isaiah, one of the things the Gentile disciples would have to do to make sense of this lesson was to read Isaiah. This means that the "Torah study" of the Gentile disciples was not to be limited to what we call the New Testament or more specifically, just to Acts 15 and Acts 21 (referencing the "Jerusalem letter"). In fact, we see this lived out in the example of the Ethiopian eunich reading Isaiah 53 during his encounter with Philip in Acts 8:26-40.

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that Yeshua taught that Gentiles have a place in the kingdom of heaven through faith and their place will be at the feast Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What teachings are the Gentiles supposed to obey? The teachings of faith in Yeshua and perseverance in approaching the Throne.

Exciting news.