Sermon For The Second Sunday Of Ordinary Time, 2026

Matthew 9:35-10:15

“Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’

7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’” So the Lord commissions Israel to be his people, his priests, his kingdom in the world among the kingdoms of the world. Isaiah 42 speaks of future Israel as being a light to the nations, which we know is fulfilled in Christ, and through him, the Church also is a kingdom of priests (1Pet.2:9) and a light to the world, the light of Christ shining through us (Matt. 5:14). 

But…Israel failed to fulfill this calling and vocation. They said “we will do this,” and their children and children’s children were to follow, but Israel ultimately could not do what God called them to do. Jesus is the true Israel, who does accomplish this vocation to be a true priest, a light to the world, and the obedient one who would do all God commanded, for he is God himself. Here in Matthew 9:35-10:15, we continue to see how Jesus fulfills the vocation and calling of Israel for the salvation of the whole world, and how he calls his 12 disciples into this as true Israel, a New Israel, as well.

The line, “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” is meant to be an indictment of the leaders of Israel in that time. As we know, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and Scribes, all the competing factions seeking to lead Israel were bad shepherds. They were more concerned with their own perceived holiness, or purity, or knowledge, or wealth, than they were with the people so-called “beneath” them. They were not standing up for those who could not help themselves, the poor, the sick, and the demon oppressed. But even Jesus could not do it all, even he was but one man who could be in one place, and the proclamation of the Kingdom arriving in Him needed more messengers. And so at this point in his ministry he gives to the twelve disciples their calling and vocation.

Kids, I remember when I was growing up and we would go to my grandparents house on the weekend. They lived up in the woods, with a cabin and a shop. Now, living in the woods like they did requires a lot of work. They had to do a lot to keep the weeds down, and trees from growing too close to the houses in case of fire. They had to fell trees and chop them up, so they would have firewood every winter. My grandpa worked with metal and would weld things to fix them himself. He would woodwork to repair or make his own furniture. They were building a second cabin too. And one of my favorite things was when i was asked to help. Sometimes of course I’d rather play, but when I got to help them, I felt important, because they needed me. It made me feel like I had value. We have incredible value simply because God made us all that way, but even greater than that, when we follow Jesus we are asked to help him by doing as he did. We are to tell people the Good News that Jesus can give us life forever. We get to help people they way he did. We get to be a blessing to others, like he is. How important, how valuable, how amazing it is that God himself asks us to take part in his mission!

They were twelve, an obvious parallel to the 12 tribes of Israel. They were to be the newly constituted Israel, and go to the rest of Israel and let them know that their Messiah was here. With that proclamation they also brought his power, gifted to them, so they could demonstrate what that kingdom was like and what our future as a species could expect: demons who desire evil for us would be driven out, sickness would be expelled and we made whole, the impure would be made divinely pure. 

They were not to go prepared, planning for the trip with caravans of food, guards, packs of clothes. They were to travel as pilgrims, like Israel in the wilderness, not weighed down with worldly belongings but traveling light, on the move. They were to go to the lost sheep of Israel, those who were truly “sick” in the sense that we spoke of some weeks ago. God’s salvation came to his people Israel first, but with the intent that they, receiving it in faith, would then turn and take it to the Gentiles so that they may be grafted in as well (using the language of St. Paul). But these 12 would move with urgency; if it is heard and received, stay; if it is rejected, keep moving. 

This is the calling and vocation of God’s people, to continue the ministry of Jesus to the world. We too are to be messengers of Good News, that God has come and his Kingdom is here. We are to travel “light,” not clinging to worldly possessions too tightly, not hoarding things that will one day be left behind. We are to be a kingdom of priests, ministering to the world, and being a light, the light of Christ shining through us. 

More concretely, this means we as Christians are to see ourselves in a like manner to the disciples. We are a part of True Israel, as we are one with Jesus Christ. That means our very lives are to be proclamations of the Kingdom that arrived with him. We are to seek to live in peace with one another, not avoiding conflict but moving through it; we are to resist greed and consumption, thinking of our neighbor (ie other human beings) with every transaction, every saved dollar, every purchase, seeking to “travel light” as it were, knowing that our security and comfort is ultimately in Christ; we are to be especially attentive to the most vulnerable among us, not clinging to the powerful but advocating for those who are poor, who suffer from mental illness or homelessness, protecting those who are refugees and immigrants among us who have less power to protect themselves, aiding those who are sick, and welcoming those who have been rejected by our society. And we are, through all of this, to have on our lips that Jesus is Lord, that his Kingdom is both here and it is coming, and that that is the ultimate destiny of humanity, to see his face, and to live in the house of the Lord, forever and forever. Amen.