Question about Matthew 15:28

[audreyg123]

Please, I need the help of a person that is a priest or was a priest or a nun was a nun or anyone who is very knowledgeable about the bible in a similar way. I attended a Lutheran Church for about 4 months just as an experiment after an incident with some people at my Catholic church. One of the sermons was about Matthew 15:28 and the Pastor explained that Jesus was only sent to save the Jews and this is why He spoke to the woman in the way He did. … I was flabbergasted. First, I have been a Catholic all my life. I attended Catholic school all 12 years. I loved God and the Catholic Church so much that for many years I believed my calling was to be a nun. I take my love of Christ very very seriously. For this man to say something like this… please tell me, someone… he seemed like such a nice person. I want to understand this passage better. In all my life, I have never doubted God’s love for me. I have known that Jesus was sent to save us all. That He came to die on the cross and save all of us. All meaning everyone. Please, someone please explain this for me because right now I am teetering on a very fine line and I need spiritual help very very bad.

 

[Gorgias]

Audrey,

In the Old Testament, we see that God’s plan is to save everyone, but the way He goes about it is by making ever-larger covenants:

• First with a couple (Adam & Eve)
• Then with a family (Noah)
• Then with a tribe (Abraham)
• Then with a nation (Moses)
• Then with a kingdom (David)

So, we can see that, even in the Old Testament, God was working His way up to the whole world. That was His goal, but in His plan, He worked from a smaller group to increasingly larger groups.

We see a similar progression in the New Testament. It is true that Jesus says what you mention, in the Gospels. Jesus mentions that He has come “to save the lost sheep of Israel”. But, this refers only to the period of time of His earthly ministry. As He prepares to ascend to heaven, He tells His apostles what the goals of their ministry will be: "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Notice that here, too, there’s an ever-widening circle:

• First only Jerusalem
• Then expansion into the rest of Israel – Judea and Samaria
• Then all the world!

So although Jesus, too, worked in ever-widening circles, He too shared His Father’s goal: salvation of the entire world!

(One other note: even though Jesus said “Israel only”, He relented. In the passage you reference in Mt 15, Jesus did heal the daughter of the Canaanite woman. He also went into Samaria, and brought the woman at the well there to belief in God and in Him. He went to the Decapolis (a non-Jewish Greek region) and preached to them.

So, although Jesus, too, was working from the “start small, grow larger” playbook, He also ministered to people who were not Jews.)

I’ll be praying for you, @audreyg123!

 

[BartholomewB]

Pastor explained that Jesus was only sent to save the Jews

You’re saying you heard a Lutheran preacher tell his congregation that they were all—including himself—making a terrible mistake by being Christians? That only Jews can be saved, not Gentiles? What did they all do next? Renounce their faith in Christ there and then?

 

[guanophore]

While I can certainly understand why you might want to exclude yourself from an incident with people at your parish, your experience is a good example of how easy it is for a sincere individual to fall into heresies.

Consider that leaving Jesus how He is present in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church can not only get you “flabbergasted” but cause you to lose your salvation.

If you are hurt or upset by people in your parish, then go to another parish. Now might be a dandy time for you to find a local CATHOLIC bible study!

Matthew 15:28 and the Pastor explained that Jesus was only sent to save the Jews and this is why He spoke to the woman in the way He did. … I was flabbergasted.

22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

If you do decide to study the Bible, as I strongly recommend that you do, then you will learn that every passage must be understood in context. Part of that context is that God has always been preparing a people for HImself, from the beginning of salvation history until the coming of Christ. He revealed Himself to Israel and His intention was that Israel would reveal Him to the world. In the fullness of time, He came to His people and they “received Him not.”

In this passage Jesus is teaching His disciples some important principles. You see that they wanted to send her away, because “salvation is of the Jews” and as they thought, only “for” the Jews. Jesus wanted to demonstrate to them that saving faith was also present in non-Jews, and that God would respond to their prayers. Jesus was also testing the womans’ faith to make sure that she would still persist. As a Caananite, she was accustomed to being rejected and treated badly by Jews, called “a dog”.

Spiritual “Israel” are all those who put their faith in Christ, and are not defined by race. The Apostles did not yet understand this. Even Peter, who followed Jesus for three years, and observed this and other interactions with Gentiles, still did not “get it” until God gave him a vision and sent him to the house of Cornelius.

One of the ways you can tell that what this Pastor said is false is the end of the story.

Another way you can tell that what the Pastor said is false is that it is not consistent with the Teaching of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Jesus gave His teaching authority to the Church only He founded

Please, someone please explain this for me because right now I am teetering on a very fine line and I need spiritual help very very bad.

The best thing I can say to you audreyg123, is that you RUN, don’t walk, to confession, tell the priest what you have done in falling away from your faith due to this “incident” then get yourself back to Mass as quickly as you can.

 

[steido01]

If that’s truly what the pastor said, he is wrong.

Is there a chance you misunderstood him, or didn’t catch the rest of the sermon? Christ did come first for the Jews and then for the Gentiles, as Paul states, but I can’t imagine a Lutheran pastor saying only half of that.

 

[Vico]

Please, I need the help of a person that is a priest or was a priest or a nun was a nun or anyone who is very knowledgeable about the bible in a similar way. I attended a Lutheran Church for about 4 months just as an experiment after an incident with some people at my Catholic church. One of the sermons was about Matthew 15:28 and the Pastor explained that Jesus was only sent to save the Jews and this is why He spoke to the woman in the way He did. … I was flabbergasted. First, I have been a Catholic all my life. I attended Catholic school all 12 years. I loved God and the Catholic Church so much that for many years I believed my calling was to be a nun. I take my love of Christ very very seriously. For this man to say something like this… please tell me, someone… he seemed like such a nice person. I want to understand this passage better. In all my life, I have never doubted God’s love for me. I have known that Jesus was sent to save us all. That He came to die on the cross and save all of us. All meaning everyone. Please, someone please explain this for me because right now I am teetering on a very fine line and I need spiritual help very very bad.

Jesus is faithful there to Isaiah 53. He did direct that all hear the good news and be baptized:

Matt 28:19 Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;

Mark 16:15 And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

 

[audreyg123]

Thank you @Gorgias. This makes a lot of sense! I can’t tell you how bad this sermon affected me. I was so upset only because in all the time of going to mass and Theology classes in high school I had never remembered anyone touching on this issue. My faith in Jesus Christ has gotten me through some very very rough times in my life and after hearing this and the sermon after I was heartbroken. I really believed this man was a holy man in tune with God and His message and I felt that he was telling me something very different than what I believed. I did go and speak with him about it after a month. He tried to explain it to me but it didn’t help. What you have stated here really does help me get a better understanding. I do see now that Jesus, although He wasn’t here on earth to help me is always with me in spirit and that, as you stated, it was then the apostles jobs to further go and spread his word. The “smaller to larger” scenerio truly helped me understand that from the Old Testament to the New. Thank you! Thank you so much! Idk if you’re a priest a pastor or just a regular joe/jane but you have some very wise insight and I thank God you found my question. Thank you for the prayers. I think I’ll be going back to the Catholic church now. Truly my problem was what I have always had an issue with. Deity and misplaced power. The only being that is great is God. We are humans with faults and sins. All of us. No human is above another. Until we realize that as a whole I think I will always have a problem with the Catholic Church, but I do believe in respect being payed. Anyway, that’s a horse of a different color Thank you again and God bless

 

[Hereiam]

Don’t be so hard on the Lutheran Pastor, what he said is not heretical. It is only shocking to those without a fuller understanding or knowledge of scripture.

See tomorrow’s Gospel Reading.

In the execution of God’s Salvation Plan, the baton was passed first from John the Baptist to Jesus, at which point Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is at hand”, and Jesus took his message to the Jews first and foremost.

But, God’s Salvation Plan called for the Gospel to be taken to all of the world. Christ commissioned those remaining on earth, including us, to complete the mission. See Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:19-20.

But that is not to say God is not with us to assist us in this task…We are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and as Jesus told us, “I will be with you until the end of the age.”

Pax et Bonum

 

[audreyg123]

Thanks @Vico you’re right. That is a very good point as well! That helps

 

[audreyg123]

Thank you @Hereiam you are right. I have read the bible and studied some passages of it. I have read lots of different passages just never this one. Idk how I missed it but I’m kind of glad I didn’t read it before. At least now I can ask people. Can you go to confession and ask a preist about something like this?

 

[Hereiam]

Can you go to confession and ask a preist about something like this?

You may want to discuss it with a priest, but I see no reason for taking this issue to the Sacrament of Reconciliation—it appears to me that there has been no mortal sin committed.

Be at peace!

 

[audreyg123]

Okay. Thank you @Hereiam. I appreciate your advice. It’s been very helpful

 

[guanophore]

Can you go to confession and ask a preist about something like this?

Yes you can, and you should. You can make an appointment.

You may want to discuss it with a priest, but I see no reason for taking this issue to the Sacrament of Reconciliation—it appears to me that there has been no mortal sin committed.

I attended a Lutheran Church for about 4 months just as an experiment after an incident with some people at my Catholic church.

 

[audreyg123]

Thank you @guanophore ! I had no idea I could make an appointment with a priest. Thank you so much.