“These Twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 10:5-6
Today’s gospel is the recounting of Jesus choosing the Twelve Apostles, with Peter as the head. Our Lord sets these twelve men apart from all others and sends them out. This is the essence of what it means to be an Apostle, from the Greek for one who is sent. More than that, Our Lord sends them to a very important group of people, those whom He calls the lost sheep of Israel. What is the meaning of this?
Our Lord is sending the Apostles to Galilee, the northern most part of Palestine at the time of Christ. Geographically, this is the region that several of the tribes of Israel settled in after the Assyrian Exile.1 From this time, Galilee was ruled separately from both Samaria and Judea. This is a holdover from the division of the Kingdom after the death of Solomon.2 From the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Galilee resided in the Northern Kingdom, which housed nine tribes as well as half of the tribe of Manasseh. Only two tribes: Judah and Benjamin (as well as the other half of Manasseh) dwelled in Judah. Historically, it was the southern Kingdom in which the Davidic line continued until the Babylonian Captivity. While the Monarchy fell at the Exile, the Davidic line never ended as Jechoniah was freed from captivity by the King of Babylon.3
Now, why is this historical context important? It’s because the Davidic King has arrived and the Kingdom is now here. As the descendant of David, Jesus Christ has come to reunite the broken Kingdom of Israel and go to the lost sheep, those tribes that left the Davidic kingdom after the death of Solomon. This is why Our Lord sends His Apostles, His representatives, to the other tribes before they go to the Samaritans or Gentiles. It is important to note that under the reign of Solomon, even Gentile peoples came to be ruled by the King. This is a direct prophecy of Christ gathering both Jew and Gentile in the one Kingdom of God.
Christ, salvation itself, comes first to the lost sheep of Israel. The Twelve Apostles represent the reconstitution of the Twelve Tribes as they are sent out to gather the people back to their shepherd. This is the beauty of today’s Gospel. Christ appoints His shepherds for His lost sheep, as both King and Chief Shepherd, He gathers those who had gone astray. The new and eternal David has come. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
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Cf. 2 Kings 15:29ff.
Cf. 1 Kings 12:1ff.
Cf. 2 Kings 25:27-30. The final few kings of Judah can be a bit confusing, especially when attempting to square it with the Genealogy of Jesus found in St. Matthew’s Gospel. In the passage from 2 Kings cited, it says that Jehoiachin is freed by the king of Babylon. Jehoiachin is the second-to-last king of Judah, reigning from about 598 BC to 597 BC. He is then carried into exile, and his uncle, Mattaniah, is placed as king of Judah and renamed Zedekiah. 2 Kings records Jehoiachin as the son of Jehoiakim in 24:6, who succeeds him as king. The parallel lineage is recorded in 1 Chronicles 3:16, where the records refer to him as Jechoniah. This is the connection to the genealogy in Matthew, who records that Jechoniah came out of the exile and was the father of Shealtiel, who is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 3:17.