Most of the public ministry of Jesus was conducted in Jewish territory. Under the circumstances, the number of personal contacts with Gentiles recorded in the Gospels is surprising. He healed a Gadarene (Gentile) demoniac (Matthew 8:28-34). Another time, among 10 lepers healed, one was a Samaritan (a mixed race, half-Jew), and Jesus remarked upon the fact that only the foreigner returned to thank Him (Luke 17:12-19). A Samaritan woman was the sole audience for one of Jesus’ greatest dialogues. She received the assurance that the time was near when God would be worshipped, not just in Jerusalem (where the Jews worshipped) or at Mt. Gerizim (where the Samaritans worshipped), but all over the world “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:5-42). A Canaanite (Gentile) woman’s faith was rewarded when her daughter was healed. Much has been made of Jesus’ challenging remark at the beginning of the encounter: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24, ESV). He declined to heal her because His mission was first to the Jews. The woman understood and didn’t challenge this. Even so, she humbly submitted herself to Jesus, asking for His mercy. The significant point is that Jesus did minister to this Gentile woman and praised her faith in the presence of His disciples and the Jewish onlookers (Matthew 15:28). This incident echoed forward to Romans 15:8-9 that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. Another example of Jesus reaching the Gentiles involved a Roman centurion whose servant was healed. Commander of a band of 100 foreign soldiers quartered at Capernaum to keep the peace, this Roman leader was despised by the Jews who resented this “army of occupation.” Conscious of his own authority as a military man, he humbly assured Jesus that it would not be necessary for Him to go to his house to heal his servant (and thus render Himself unclean — because He was a Jewish man — by entering a Gentile home). “But only say the word, and my servant will be healed,” he declared with genuine faith (Matthew 8:8, ESV). Jesus turned and announced to the Jewish crowd which was following Him: “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith” (Matthew 8:10, ESV). He did not stop there but continued with this solemn prediction: “I tell you, many such foreigners shall come from the east and the west to join Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But many others who thought they were ‘sons of the kingdom’ (the chosen people of Israel) shall be shut out” (Matthew 8: 11-12, author’s paraphrase). In Jerusalem, during the week of Passover, a group of Greeks who had made a commitment to follow the laws of Judaism asked to speak with Jesus (John 12). Their request for an audience caused Jesus to declare: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23, ESV). The deep interest of the Greeks was evidence that the world was ready for His redemptive mission to be culminated by His atoning death: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, ESV). “All men” — Greeks as well as Jews — this is the clear implication of these profound words recorded by John.