JESUS' RESTORATION OF ISRAEL


WEDNESDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Jer 31:1-7; Jer 31:10-12,13; Mt 15:21-28

Sent to the Lost Sheep of Israel

We hear the prophecy of restoration from Jeremiah, unlike the false restoration proclaimed by Hananiah. Unlike the false proclamation claiming two years to restore Judah and Israel, the restoration of the clans of Israel prophesied by Jeremiah is something in the future with no specific date or period. The Lord gave a period for their exile in Babylon, which was to last for 70 years. But the complete restoration of Israel is something spiritual and mystical. It is about achieving the purpose of Israel as people of God. Hence, Israel, which God will restore, would be a mystical nation comprising all the clans of the earth. "The Lord says this: They have found pardon in the wilderness, those who have survived the sword. Israel is marching to his rest. The Lord has appeared to him from afar: I have loved you with an everlasting love, so I am constant in my affection for you. I build you once more; you shall be rebuilt, virgin of Israel.” Dispersed through the world, God will gather them by their faith in him, not their ancestry. Hence, he will gather the new Israel to rest in God. The old Israel did not enter the rest of God because of their lack of faith; since the condition for membership of the new Israel is faith, they will enter the rest of God.

The preachers of the Good News are the Watchmen, who would walk around the world to summon Israel to Zion for the rest planned for her. “Yes, a day will come when the watchmen shout on the mountains of Ephraim, ‘Up! Let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God!’ for the Lord says this: Shout with joy for Jacob! Hail the chief of nations! Proclaim! Praise! Shout: ‘The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel!’ God will feed the new Israel with bread from heaven. That is, God himself will teach them. He will be their shepherd to guard and guide them from every nation to their eternal inheritance. Jeremiah proclaimed this clearly to all nations. “O nations, hear the word of the Lord, proclaim it to the far-off coasts. Say; ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.” Just as he rescued the old Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them by Moses through the wilderness to the Promised Land, the Lord will rescue the new Israel, the true children of Abraham, who are so by their faith in God, from the power of darkness and slavery to sin. They will come from all the nations led by the good Shepherd greater than Moses to the mystical and eternal Promised Land.

Our Lord Jesus Christ confirms this in the Gospel passage today. He is the Good Shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep of Israel to bring them back to the mountain of Zion. In this sense, we understand his silent treatment of the Canaanite woman who came to him. “Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, ‘Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ But he answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with him. ‘Give her what she wants,’ they said ‘because she is shouting after us.’ He said in reply, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’" Our Lord’s treatment made her reveal her true identity as one of the lost sheep of Israel by her faith. She would not take no for an answer because her faith assured her that the Lord would oblige her. The Lord granted it to her. “Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.” She is a woman with a faith that characterises the new Israel. The Israel of old were people who did not stretch their hands to God but were chosen because of their ancestry. The Israel God restored is constituted of people who stretch out their hands daily to God in faith like Abraham. They would be true children of Abraham lost in the world, among different tribes and clans. But the Good Shepherd comes to bring them back to Mount Zion. Let us never cease to stretch out our hands to God in prayer, for that is what characterises the new Israel of God.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to seek your face always in prayer, with faith in your word and taking you as our heavenly and provident Father, to truly commit our lives to doing your will and merit eternal communion with you in heaven.  

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