Was Jesus sent to the Chil­dren of Israel or to the world ?

Jesus(P) was sent by God exclu­sive­ly to the Bani Israil (Chil­dren of Israel) and had many times clear­ly and explic­it­ly stat­ed that he is a Prophet sent only to the Jews. There are many vers­es in the New Tes­ta­ment that sup­ports this mis­sion of Jesus(P). The fol­low­ing are only a few indi­ca­tions of his statements.

In Matthew 1:21, we read that

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his peo­ple from their sins.”

It is clear from the very onset of Jesus’(P) birth that his mis­sion was for the Jews, his own people.

Fur­ther, we read in Matthew 5:17 – 18, where Jesus(P) said :

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to ful­fil. For ver­i­ly I say unto you, Till heav­en and earth pass, one jot or one tit­tle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

The verse above com­ple­ments the pre­vi­ous one. Jesus’(P) pur­pose is to ful­fil the Laws of Moses(P), and who else has this Law but the Jews them­selves ? It is true that the Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies has spread Chris­tian­i­ty all over the world, but Jesus(P) did not orig­i­nal­ly intend­ed for the reli­gion to be spread in this man­ner. The point is not what the mis­sion­ar­ies do, but what Jesus(P) him­self means. What is the pur­pose of God send­ing Jesus(P)? No one could give a bet­ter detail more than Jesus(P) himself.

The mis­sion of Jesus(P) is fur­ther sub­stan­ti­at­ed and made clear if we read the inci­dent in Matthew 15:22 – 27 as follows :

“And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, say­ing, Have mer­cy on me, O Lord, thou son of David ; my daugh­ter is griev­ous­ly vexed with a dev­il. But he answered her not a word. And his dis­ci­ples came and besought him, say­ing, Send her away ; for she cri­eth after us. But he answered and said, ​‘I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel’.

Then came she and wor­shipped him, say­ing, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, ​‘It is not meet to take the chil­dren’s bread, and to cast it to dogs’. And she said, ​‘Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their mas­ters’ table.’ ”

Although Jesus(P) did help the Canaan­ite woman in the end, it was because of his com­pas­sion for the wom­an’s plight. But note that it is only this sin­gle woman (a Gen­tile) who was helped. There is no oth­er Gen­tile that Jesus(P) had preached to. Oth­er relat­ed state­ments can also be found in John 11:52 and John 10:16.

Sim­i­lar­ly in Matthew 10:5 – 6, Jesus gave explic­it instruc­tions to his dis­ci­ples to whom they should preach his mes­sage, by commanding

“Go not into the way of the Gen­tiles, and into any city of the Samar­i­tans enter ye not : But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

In Matthew 21:11, the peo­ple of his time are record­ed as refer­ring to Jesus as a prophet in the coun­try of Galilee

“And the crowds said, ​‘This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee.’ ”

In Mark 6:4, it is stat­ed that Jesus(P) referred to him­self as a prophet to the Jews :

“And Jesus said to them, ​‘A prophet is not with­out hon­our, except in his own coun­try, and among his own kin, and in his own house.’ ” (also read Matthew 13:57, Luke 4:24 and John 4:43).

It is there­fore clear that Jesus(P) him­self rejects any notion of preach­ing to oth­ers besides the Jews he(P) was sent to.

Jesus’(P) clos­est dis­ci­ples do not agree that it is cor­rect to preach the Gospel to the Gen­tiles. This is evi­dent when we read in Acts 11:19 that

“Now they which were scat­tered abroad upon the per­se­cu­tion that arose about Stephen trav­elled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Anti­och, preach­ing the word to none but unto the Jews only.”

When the oth­er dis­ci­ples heard that Peter was preach­ing the Gospel to the Gen­tiles, they were upset with him.

“And the apos­tles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gen­tiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the cir­cum­ci­sion con­tend­ed with him. Say­ing, Thou wen­test in to men uncir­cum­cised, and didst eat with them.” (Acts 11:1 — 3)

Thus, it is clear that Jesus(P) had plain­ly stat­ed that he is not a Mes­sen­ger for the Gen­tiles and that his mes­sage is not a final one for all of mankind. His dis­ci­ples too heed­ed this orig­i­nal com­mand of Jesus(P) and was upset when Peter did not. Any­one who says oth­er­wise, i.e. that Jesus(P) was sent to the whole world, clear­ly nei­ther under­stands Jesus’(P) mis­sion nor the Scriptures.