Evidence supports this as an authentic saying of Jesus (Semitisms and background in Jeremias 1958:55-62). Matthew may draw Jesus' words here from another context (Lk 13:28-29) to reinforce the point that this story prefigures the Gentile mission, which Jesus endorsed in advance (France 1977:260).

Subjects of the kingdom (literally "sons of the kingdom"; compare Mt 13:38; 23:15) refers to Jewish people-those who expected salvation based on their descent from Abraham (3:9). The damnation of those who thought themselves destined for the kingdom sounded a sober warning to nationalist Jews of Matthew's day; it sounds a similar warning to complacent Christians today (Goldingay 1977:254; compare 13:38).

Rome was the great power that lay to the west, and Matthew had earlier illustrated the coming of pagans from the east (2:1). Pagans thus would recline at table (the standard posture for feasts and banquets) in the kingdom with the patriarchs-the messianic banquet Israel expected for itself (5:6; 22:2; Lk 16:23; 4 Macc 13:17; 1 Enoch 70:4).

"Exceptions" can make a difference. When one white minister living in the U.S. South was experiencing the deepest trauma of his life, some African-American Christians took him under their wing and nursed him back to spiritual and emotional health. The white minister began to experience the spiritual resources and strength that the black American church had developed through slavery, segregation and contemporary urban crises and was eventually ordained in a black Baptist church. Subsequently he discovered slave narratives and other accounts that brought him face to face with what people who looked like him had done to the near ancestors of his closest friends. He became so ashamed of the color of his skin that he wanted to rip it off. But the love of his African-American friends and the good news of Christ's love restored him, and soon he began to feel part of the community that had embraced him.

He often joined his friends in lamenting the agony of racism and its effects. But one day after a Sunday-school lesson, a minister friend said something about white people in general that he suddenly took personally. "I didn't mean you," the black minister explained quickly. "You're like a brother to me." The black minister made an exception because he knew the white Christian, but the white Christian wondered about all the people who didn't know him. He had experienced a taste of what most of his black friends regularly encountered in predominantly white circles.

The next week the ministers were studying together the story of the centurion's servant in Luke, and they noted that the centurion's Jewish contemporaries viewed him as an exception to the rule that Gentiles were oppressors. They also noted that the Gospels tell this story because that exception in Jesus' ministry points to a huge number of Gentile converts pouring in at the time when the Gospels were being written.

If even a few people become exceptions and really care enough about their brothers and sisters of other races to listen, these exceptions can show us that the racial and cultural barriers that exist in our societies do not need to continue. If we are willing to pay the price-which will sometimes include hints of rejection from people we have come to love-we can begin to bring down those barriers.