113 Major Themes in the Gospel of Matthew third part (16:21–28:20) deals with his journey to Jerusalem and subsequent passion and resurrection.
Major Themes in the Gospel of Matthew
“Where is God?” with a series of three propositions. First, according to Mat- thew’s Gospel, God is present in Jesus. This might not seem like a very radical claim, since Jewish people would have recognized that God had been present in lots of good people throughout history: Moses, David, a host of prophets, and even certain Gentiles such as Cyrus of Persia. But Matthew does not just mean that Jesus was an agent of God or that God worked through him; rather, Matthew thinks that when Jesus was born, God entered the world as never before: God was now “with us” (with Israel or, perhaps, with humanity) in some unprecedented sense (1:23). In fact, Matthew thinks that it is appropriate for people to worship Jesus. As an adult, Jesus affirms the traditional teaching that one should not worship (proskyneō) any entity other than the Lord God (4:10; cf. Deut. 6:13), but eight times in this Gospel people worship Jesus and are not rebuked for it (2:11; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 20:20; 28:9; 28:17; see also 21:15–16). The point seems to be that God is present in Jesus in such a way that worshiping Jesus counts as worshiping God.
This affirmation of God’s presence in Jesus might have settled the question
“Where is God?” for people who lived while Jesus was still on earth, but for those who lived after Easter the question would be simply transformed: If God is present in Jesus, then where is Jesus? Matthew’s answer is that Jesus is present in the church. Jesus says in this Gospel that he will be in the midst of his fol- lowers when they come together in his name to pray (18:20) and that he will be with them as they go out into the world to make disciples of others (28:20; cf.
10:40). Indeed, the world will be judged according to how it treats members of his family, for what is done to them is done to him (25:40; cf. 10:41–42; 18:5).
Thus, Matthew’s answer to someone seeking the presence of God might be,
“Go to the church, and there you will find the God who is present in Jesus”
(see 10:40). But Matthew does not really expect seekers to do this. Thus, a third proposition: the church is present in the world. For Matthew, the church is not a static institution but rather a dynamic movement, an assembly of mis- sionaries who go out into the world as sheep in the midst of wolves (10:16) in order to bring good news, healing, and life (10:7–8). Followers of Jesus will be the light of the world and the salt of the earth (5:13–14). The world may not appreciate them, but it will be a better place because of them. Indeed, the church that Jesus will build will overcome the gates of Hades (16:18), moving triumphantly against the forces of death and evil.
Jesus as the Son of God
Matthew’s Gospel places special emphasis on the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. As in Mark, in Matthew’s Gospel God speaks twice from heaven (at Jesus’ baptism and at his transfiguration), and both times God
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115 Major Themes in the Gospel of Matthew calls Jesus “my son” (3:17; 17:5; cf. 2:15). But Matthew has expanded on this theme by adding a story of virgin birth that presents Jesus as God’s son in an almost literal sense (1:18) and by including accounts of the dis- ciples confessing Jesus to be the Son of God (cf. Matt. 14:32–33 with Mark 6:51–52; Matt. 16:16 with Mark 8:29). Ultimately, Jesus’ identity as God’s Son in Matthew is closely linked to the story of his crucifixion: Jesus claims that the reason his enemies want to kill him is that he is the Son of God (21:33–46), and sure enough, he is later sentenced to death for claiming to be God’s Son (26:63–66). On the cross, he is mocked by opponents who claim that such a fate proves that he is not the Son of God (27:40, 43), but ironically, the manner of his death leads others to confess that he is indeed the Son of God (27:54).
The Teaching of Jesus
The role of Jesus as a Jewish teacher or rabbi is more prominent in the Gospel of Matthew than in any other New Testament book. For the most part, this teaching of Jesus is presented in five large blocks of material, which constitute five speeches of Jesus. Scholars refer to these speeches by distinc- tive names:
• the Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5–7)—on discipleship, trust in God, moral behavior
• the Missionary Discourse (chap. 10)—on mission, persecution, radical faithfulness
• the Parables Discourse (chap. 13)—on mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
• the Community Discourse (chap. 18)—on life in the church, forgiveness, and discipline
• the Eschatological Discourse (chaps. 24–25)—on the end times, the second coming, and the final judgment
All five speeches of Jesus are important, but the Sermon on the Mount receives the most attention because it offers a compendium of Jesus’ teaching that has been extremely influential. It is here that one finds the Beatitudes (5:3–12), the Golden Rule (7:12), and the Lord’s Prayer (6:9–13). Jesus urges people to “turn the other cheek” and to “go the second mile” (5:39, 41). He refers to “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (7:15), to “serving two masters” (6:24), to storing up “treasure in heaven” (6:20), and to “casting pearls before swine” (7:6). These and other expressions from the Sermon on the Mount find common usage even among people who have little or no connection with Christianity.
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Beatitudes: gener- ally, any statement of divine blessing, but the term is usually applied more specifically to the blessings offered by Jesus in Matthew 5:3–12 and Luke 6:20–23.
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Discipleship
Most of the teaching of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel consists of instruc- tions for how God wants people to live. According to Matthew, a person becomes a disciple of Jesus in the post-Easter world by being taught to obey what Jesus commanded (28:19–20). The Sermon on the Mount, in particular, provides a summary of these commandments of Jesus that disciples are to be taught. Jesus wants his followers to be perfect (5:48), and such perfec- tion is achieved by keeping even the most minute of God’s commandments (5:18–19) in ways that stem from sincere motives (6:2–6, 16–18) and that reflect inner purity, not just external compliance (5:21–22, 27–28). Much of the discussion of this sermon in theological circles is focused on the ques- tion of whether it is realistic: can any human being actually live this way?
But the author of Matthew’s Gospel would not have been troubled by such a question. The point, for him, is simply that Jesus has described the ethic of God’s kingdom and that those who are seeking God’s kingdom ought to do all they can to live in this manner (6:33). To the extent that the kingdom has drawn near (4:17), they will find some success—sufficient to be salt for the earth and light for the world (5:13–16). Their failures, on the other hand, may serve as reminders that the kingdom is not yet fully present; they need to pray for it to come so that God’s rule over their own lives can be complete (6:7, 11). Thus, the Sermon on the Mount presents an ethic that Christians are to live into, striving to live in the present as they are destined to live for eternity (6:33).
Interpretation of Scripture
According to Matthew, it is possible to know the scriptures in a superficial sense without truly understanding them. Even Satan is able to quote scripture, albeit with perverse intent (4:6). The religious leaders of Israel likewise pos- sess an academic understanding of scripture (2:3–6; 17:10; 19:7; 21:41–42), but Jesus repeatedly upbraids them for not knowing scripture in some deeper sense (9:13; 12:3, 5, 7; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:29, 31, 43; 26:54). What is important is that people know the proper way to interpret scripture. Matthew’s attention to this matter is interesting to biblical scholars because Matthew himself does not always interpret scripture in ways that would pass muster among exegetical experts today. He quotes verses with little concern for their original context, and sometimes he adds or changes words to bring out what he thinks is the intended meaning (see, e.g., Matt. 2:6, stitched together from Mic. 5:2 and 2 Sam. 5:2, with the words “by no means” added by Matthew to what the Old Testament texts actually said). For Matthew, the key to interpreting scripture lies in the recognition that it is fulfilled in the life and teachings of Jesus (5:20).
Golden Rule: a traditional name given to the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:12,
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”
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117 Major Themes in the Gospel of Matthew The revelation of
God in Christ sheds light upon the scrip- tures and reveals their true meaning and intent.
Binding and Loosing
The Gospel of Matthew displays special concern for helping followers of Jesus to address questions of moral behavior. From other sources, we know that many matters of contro- versy arose within the early church. In particular, as more and more Gentiles embraced the faith, many Christians
came to view Jewish laws as archaic or irrelevant. In Matthew’s Gospel, how- ever, Jesus declares that all of the commandments of the Jewish Torah (even the minor ones) will remain in full force “until heaven and earth pass away”
(5:18). That seems clear enough, but then, elsewhere in Matthew, Jesus sets aside certain regulations and claims that those who insist on their validity are condemning the guiltless (9:10–17; 12:1–7; 15:1–11). Is he contradicting his own principle?
Most likely, Matthew is presenting the moral teaching of Jesus as consistent with the Jewish practice of “binding and loosing the law.” Rabbis bound the law when they determined that a commandment was applicable to a particu- lar situation, and they loosed the law when they determined that a word of
hyperlink 5.15 Fig. 5.5. St. Matthew. The
author of Matthew’s Gospel is traditionally regarded as a scholar of scripture. (Bridge- man Art Library)
scripture, while eternally valid, was not applicable under certain circumstances.
Thus, Matthew’s Gospel displays Jesus as making authoritative pronounce- ments regarding the applicability of biblical commandments. He binds the law prohibiting murder as applicable to anger and insults (5:21–23), and he binds the law prohibiting adultery as applicable to lust (5:27–28). Elsewhere, how- ever, he looses certain Sabbath restrictions, indicating that they do not apply when they pose an unreasonable burden (12:5–8) or prevent one from doing good (12:11–12). The commandments themselves remain valid, but in certain circumstances they do not apply.
More to the point, Matthew presents Jesus as passing the authority to make such judgments on to his followers: whatever the church binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever it looses on earth will be loosed in heaven (18:18). His expectation is that the church will exercise this authority with at- tention to the principles that Jesus articulates in this Gospel:
• allegiance to fulfilling scripture not abolishing it (5:17–19)
• commitment to doing to others as “you would have them do to you”
(7:12)
• recognition of the divine preference for mercy over sacrifice (9:13; 12:7)
• refusal to make void God’s word for sake of human tradition (15:6)
• prioritization of love for God and neighbor (22:34–40)
• attention to the “weightier matters of the law”: justice, mercy, faith (23:23)
Such principles may allow for some discrepancy of interpretation, but Jesus indicates that God will hold believers accountable for living in accord with the judgments reached by their authorized leaders (16:19) or by the community as a whole (18:17–18).
Worship and Doubt, Faith and Understanding
Matthew portrays the disciples of Jesus as fallible followers who, in spite of their failings, are destined to become apostles of the church; indeed, they will sit on thrones judging the tribes of Israel (19:28). Jesus’ pet name for his disciples in this Gospel is oligopistoi, “people of little faith” (6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20 [used elsewhere only in Luke 12:28]). They are filled with doubt (14:31; 28:17) and fear (8:24–26; 14:30; 17:6), and they often fail to meet Jesus’ high expecta- tions of them (e.g., 16:21–23; 17:14–17; 19:13–15). Still, Jesus indicates that a
“little faith” is all that is required for people to accomplish what God expects of them (17:20). Furthermore, the disciples’ doubts and fears are accompanied by worship; indeed, those seemingly incongruous phenomena are intertwined
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119 Major Themes in the Gospel of Matthew in this Gospel such that
worship, doubt, and fear occur together (14:30–
33). Even at the end of the story, witnesses to the resurrection respond with a mixture of both fear and worship (28:8–
9) and the community that receives the Great Commission is marked by both worship and doubt (28:17).
Transcending all of these phenomena, how- ever, is a peculiar em-
phasis on understanding. In this Gospel, the seed that falls on good soil in Jesus’ parable of the sower is identified as “the one who hears the word and understands it” (13:23; cf. Mark 4:20; Luke 8:15). The disciples of Jesus, in spite of their doubt and little faith, are portrayed as growing in understanding as the narrative progresses (see 13:11–15, 51; 16:12; 17:13). Matthew’s Gospel maintains that understanding is something that must be given by God (11:25;
13:11; 16:17), and often the disciples are portrayed as not understanding Jesus until he explains what they need to know. The exact purpose of this emphasis in Matthew is unclear, but he may be highlighting the significance of what we now call “Christian education”: the great apostles of the church were ordinary people who, when taught by Jesus, received the understanding that would en- able them to bear fruit (13:23; cf. 13:19). Indeed, they were able to go out into the world and teach others (28:19–20).
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hyperlink 5.18 Fig. 5.6. Angels Round the Cross.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the cruci- fixion of Jesus is depicted as a harbinger of supernatural events.
The curtain in the Jerusalem temple rips; an earthquake splits the ground; tombs are opened in a nearby cemetery, and bodies of the dead get up and walk around for a while (27:51–53). Angels are at hand (26:53), but they remain invisible until Jesus’ resurrection (28:2–5). (Bridgeman Art Library)
Hostility toward Jewish Leaders
Matthew’s Gospel exhibits a pronounced hostility toward the religious lead- ers of Israel. These individuals are presented as opponents of Jesus in all four Gospels, but the level of antipathy is extraordinary in Matthew. For one thing, Matthew’s Gospel does not seem to allow for exceptions. The other Gospels contain positive examples of Jewish leaders who are not opposed to Jesus (e.g., Mark 5:22; 12:28–34; 15:43; Luke 13:31; John 3:1–2), but in Matthew the Phari- sees, Sadducees, scribes, priests, and elders seem to form a united front against Jesus, and everything that they do, say, think, or believe is wrong.
We can go further. Matthew frequently uses the term evil to describe these religious leaders: they are evil people who are incapable of speaking or think- ing anything good (12:34; cf. 9:4; 12:39, 45; 16:4; 22:18). This quality identifies them closely with Satan, the evil one (13:19, 38–39). Throughout Matthew’s Gospel they are identified by epithets such as “brood of vipers” (3:7; 12:34;
23:33) or “child of hell” (23:15), which characterize them as offspring of the devil rather than as children of God. The meaning of such an identification becomes clear in a parable that Jesus tells: the world is like a field in which God has placed potentially good people and in which the devil has placed evil people (13:24–30, 36–43). Jesus explicitly identifies the Pharisees as being among these “plants that the heavenly Father did not plant”; they are not God’s people, and they will be uprooted in time (15:13). Thus, in Matthew’s Gospel (unlike the others) Jesus never summons the religious leaders to repentance;
he no more attempts to minister to them than he would to the demons that he exorcizes. Rather, he counsels his disciples to “leave them alone” (15:14). They provide a paradigmatic example of people who will never enter the kingdom of heaven (5:20), and Jesus promises that they will not escape being sentenced to hell (23:33).
Scholars wonder why Matthew treats these religious leaders so harshly. It is often proposed that he is portraying them in the worst possible light because he is angry at contemporary Jews for refusing to believe in Jesus and for act- ing abusively toward Christians. Thus, the polemic is informed not only by historical tensions between Jesus and Jewish leaders (ca. 30) but also by cur- rent tensions between Matthew’s church and “the synagogue down the street”
(ca. 85). This is certainly possible, but other scholars think that Matthew is more concerned with scoring a theological point through the literary rhetoric of his story. Matthew portrays the religious leaders of Israel as a personifica- tion of all that is opposed to God so that he can present the victory of Christ as a conquest of evil. The main point of the story is not that Jesus bested the Pharisees in various ideological contests; the more significant point is that God, through Jesus, overcame the ultimate powers of evil, even when they succeeded at doing their worst.
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121 Major Themes in the Gospel of Matthew Before leaving this point, we should note that Matthew’s Gospel often has been accused of fostering anti-Semitism. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you” (21:43), and he tells a Gentile centurion that “the heirs of the kingdom [the Jews?] will be thrown into outer darkness” (8:12). Finally, he portrays the people of Israel as a whole as taking responsibility for the murder of Christ, calling out, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (27:25). It is likely that Matthew meant this last verse to be read ironically: the blood of Christ brings forgiveness of sins (26:28), so the Jewish people are not evoking a curse upon themselves but instead are unwittingly praying for salvation (probably with words taken from the Christian liturgy).
Nevertheless, the verse has not usually been read this way, and anti-Semitic people throughout history have used it and other texts from Matthew’s Gospel
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Hyperlinks—www.IntroducingNT.com
5.1. Content Summary: Expanded Overview of the Gospel of Matthew 5.2. Authorship of Matthew’s Gospel
5.3. The Community of Matthew: Clues from the Gospel Itself 5.4. Distinctive Characteristics of Matthew’s Gospel
5.5. The Structure of Matthew’s Gospel: Two Views 5.6. Worship in the Gospel of Matthew
5.7. The Presence of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 5.8. Matthew’s View of the Church
5.9. Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
5.10. Jesus as the Son of God in Matthew’s Gospel 5.11. The Lord’s Prayer
5.12. Parallels between the Sermon on the Mount and the New Testament Epistles 5.13. Theological Interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount
5.14. How to Interpret the Scriptures according to Matthew 5.15. Binding and Loosing in the Gospel of Matthew 5.16. People of Little Faith in the Gospel of Matthew 5.17. Fear, Joy, Worship, and Doubt in the Gospel of Matthew 5.18. The Theme of Understanding in the Gospel of Matthew 5.19. The Religious Leaders of Israel in Matthew’s Narrative
5.20. Jewish Responsibility for the Death of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 5.21. The Bias against Gentiles in the Gospel of Matthew
5.22. Passages from Mark Omitted by Matthew 5.23. Salvation History in Matthew’s Gospel: Two Views 5.24. John the Baptist in the Gospel of Matthew 5.25. The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 5.26. The Disciples of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 5.27. Matthew in the Revised Common Lectionary 5.28. Bibliography: The Gospel of Matthew