Matthew 00 The Instructor’s Gospel
INTRODUCTION
The Synoptic Gospels
Mark, Matthew and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. The word, Synoptic can be broken down into syn (as in synthesize) and optic (as in to see). We can lay these Gospels side by side and see how they compliment each other.
Mark was the original, it has 661 verses, Matthew has 1068 verses and Luke 1149. Matthew reproduces 606 of Mark’s versus and Luke 320. They most commonly agree on events with the other gospels adding more to the statements and sayings of Jesus.
It seems apparent that both Luke and Matthew rely on a secondary source. The source, unavailable to modernity, seems to be a book scholars refer to as, “Q.” The letter stands for Quelle, the German word for Source. We have lost this book to time but it must have been an invaluable book to early Chrisitans documenting mostly the sayings of Jesus rather than the events.
Who was Matthew?
It is a sign of Jesus’ compassion that someone so hated by his community — as Matthew must have been — could have become so beloved by history. As a tax collector, the people of Matthew’s community would have hated him; he was a civil servant of the occupying force. With the power to sell people into bondslavery on a whim, Matthew and other tax collectors would be viewed as no less than traitors to those around him. With advanced learning in accounting and tax law, these people used their knowledge against their own people and on behalf of Rome.
We tend to talk about the calling of the disciples, but the majority of the disciples and the apostles came because a friend or family member invited them. Matthew was one of the disciples (and later apostles) that Jesus went out to intentionally call.
He could be found at the local Roman Tax Collector’s station surrounded, no doubt, by a number of Roman soldiers. When he stood up to leave the table he was different than most of the other apostles, he could not go back to his work once he walked away. It was like literally leaving his credit card open on the table or his car with the keys on it on a busy street.
He was a traitor of the people turned chronicler of the Messiah. He left behind occupation, life savings, if he had family — he left them too. All he took with him was his knowledge, ability to write and do accounting.
It is very much like the old joke about the chicken and the pig deciding to have bacon and eggs for breakfast. The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. The other disciples would (and did) go back to fishing and other blue-collar work. Matthew lost that ability as soon as he left his taxes on the table.
Why Did He Write?
Each of the Gospel writers had an agenda and an audience to whom they were writing. Mark is the Immediate Gospel. He largely captures the events of Jesus’ life. Luke is the Integrated Gospel pulling in multiple perspectives from the viewpoint of a Gentile, historian, Paul’s physician and some day Paul’s attorney — certainly Paul’s constant companion through the Apostle’s most trying years. There are others who also say Luke was a painter using the art of multiple contrasts to paint for us the life of Jesus. John writes to confront a number of growing heresies in the church during the latter years of his life, including Gnosticism and a group claiming John the Baptist was the Messiah and not Jesus.
Matthew writes largely for a Jewish Audience, focusing on the prophetic sayings leading up to Jesus’ birth and on Jesus as King.
More than anything else, Matthew’s Gospel is the Instructor’s Gospel. In a time when books were rare and those who could read almost as rare, Matthew lays his Gospel out so that it can be easily memorized. He has five great blocks of teachings
1. The sermon on the mount or the laws of the Kingdom (5-7)
2. The duties of leaders in God’s Kingdom (10)
3. The parables of the Kingdom (13)
4. Who is great and the importance of forgiveness in the Kingdom (18)
5. The coming of the King (24, 25)
Matthew also systemizes his teachings in easily remembered threes and sevens.
· Three messages to Joseph
· Three denials of Peter
· Three questions to Pilate
· Seven Kingdom parables in Chapter (13)
· The scribes and Pharisees have seven woes (23)
Even the genealogy of Jesus is designed to be remembered easily, Hebrew did not use numbers. Instead letters were substituted for numbers. The letters (numbers) for David were DWD, which stands for the number 14. There are three sets of ancestors for Jesus leading back to David and each set has 14 ancestors.
A primary point of Matthew is to point to Jesus as King. So the lineage of Jesus leads back to Israel’s greatest king, David. Matthew uses the title “Son of David,” more than any other writer. He also has Jesus expressing his authority on multiple occasions such as in the Sermon on the Mount. Five times Jesus quotes the law and then goes on to say, “But I say to you…”
Matthew’s depiction of Jesus riding into Jerusalem is specifically a portrayal of Jesus as a king and the final claim of Jesus is, “All authority has been given unto me (28:18).”
Pilate mockingly puts the title above Jesus’ cross as King of the Jews.
This is the Instructor’s Gospel written to depict Jesus as King — a king of peace and compassion — opting to replace the power to manipulate and coerce with the power to influence through humility.