Happy Pride Weekend. Happy Father's Day. Proclaiming, teaching, healing. That is what we hear Jesus is doing at the beginning of today's Gospel: proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, teaching in the synagogues and curing every disease and sickness. And then Jesus looks at the crowds that are teeming around him and he has compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless. Jesus' compassion leads to his selecting from the disciples, who are with him, twelve apostles, who are named today. We should notice how careful Matthew is in naming them: how important it is that these apostles be named, be known. For as disciples they were all "learners", which is what the word means. But as the apostles they are now "those who are sent out", which is literally what the word apostles means: sent out to proclaim, to teach and to cure.

Then Jesus does something that seems to be out of character, he says "go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This does not sound like the inclusive Jesus we talk so much about. This sounds much more like an exclusive, xenophobic person much at odds with the all-embracing and loving Christ we know. Once we take a breath we can see that this is not the final word by Jesus on that subject, because we know how the Gospel ends. We know that at the end of Matthew's Gospel Jesus charges his apostles and disciples to "Go therefore and make disciples of ALL nations." So what is going on here? Why is Jesus narrowing the disciples focus today?

The Israeli people historically understood themselves to be God's chosen people through whom God's light reaches others, based on God's promise to Abraham. We are reminded of that in today's Genesis reading when we hear that Sarah laughed to herself when God reminds Abraham of the promise that Sarah will bear a son from whom a great nation will emerge. The Israeli people would have understood what Jesus was doing...after all, Jesus was Jewish....Jesus was giving the first offer of the Gospel to God's chosen people. So this is not so much exclusivity on Jesus' part, as it is him living into his own tradition and understanding of the world. Jesus' decision could also be based on the truth that these twelve apostles were simply ill-equipped to go into Gentile lands and proclaim the Gospel: think about the humble roots that almost all of them came from. Their spiritual journey to this point only allowed them to reach out to those with whom they were already familiar.

In today's Gospel, Jesus sees the crowds, has compassion and appoints apostles to reach out to them. He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Jesus' compassion was not because of sickness, but because of the lack of leadership available to the Israeli people: they were in need of a shepherd to lead them, and he appoints twelve leaders. Jesus uses a metaphor about few laborers and a plentiful harvest, where we are to envision the parable of the sower of seed: with the disciples charged with sowing the seed of the word of the kingdom through preaching, teaching and healing.....We know how their mission works out, the apostles are rejected just as Jesus is ultimately rejected and murdered. Upon his resurrection Jesus sends his apostles out to all: all nations, all peoples. At the end of Matthew's Gospel those apostles' spiritual journey has led them to a place where their leadership can be brought to those with whom they are unfamiliar.