What Jesus Did! 'Exclusive?' — Matthew 10:5-6

Our world is supercharged because of religious hatred and woeful acts committed in the name of religious leaders. Any time a leader speaks against racial intermingling, s/he is quickly branded a prejudicial and racial bigot. Yet, here we see Jesus promoting a racially exclusive plan, but in this case it was a plan given to him by the Father (John 6:38). He followed that will and executed that plan perfectly. Doing so meant going to the Jewish people, first. They were his own people. They were the people God chose to redeem the fallen world. Jesus wanted to save them. The apostle Paul, also followed this plan (Romans 1:16-17). But he was also training his 12 apostles to be ready to go into all the world. To be ready to reach the world, they needed first to learn how to influence the people with whom they were most familiar, the culture they knew best. Then, when time was ripe and the disciples were better trained, Jesus issued a new order to supersede this limited one. That later one (Matthew 28:19) was not just for Israel, but for all nations, and during his own ministry, Jesus cared for Gentiles and even commended some for their faith (Matthew 8:5-13, 15:21-28)!