Reflection on the Gospel of Matthew
Liturgically speaking, this is the year of Matthew. He is one
of the three synoptic gospel writers along with Luke and Mark. Synoptic
means a similar view; however, while all but a few of
Matthew’s stories can be found in the gospel accounts of Mark
and Luke, Matthew’s stories take a different approach and
present Jesus in a different light. Most importantly, Matthew presents
Jesus to his Christian community that is primarily Jewish as the long
awaited, promised Messiah. In Matthew’s view Jesus as Messiah
is best understood as the fulfillment of the words of the Old Testament
prophets. As a result, Matthew shows how Jesus’ words and
actions give witness to His identity as savior, not only for the people
of Israel, but for everyone. Matthew continually relates Jesus to the
Old Testament by identifying Him with the lowly of society. Unlike the
people of the Old Testament who kept forgetting to embrace the widow,
orphan and stranger, Jesus reached out to those that society left
behind. Matthew also sees Jesus as a great teacher inviting His
listeners not only to be obedient to the law, but to go beyond the
letter of the law and live out the spirit of the law; in other words,
to discern the will of the Father and live the kingdom life.
For Matthew it is not enough to merely believe in Jesus, but this
belief must be put into action. Comparing Matthew’s gospel
stories with Luke’s gospel stories of last year, I find
Matthew to have a hard edge. He is willing to call a spade a spade and
wants his readers to know that there are consequences for their actions
or inaction. “Not everyone who says ‘Lord,
Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do
the will of My Father” (Matthew 7:21). For me
Luke’s account of an all-loving God willing to forgive over
and over again is a God I can fall in love with. Ironically, it was
reading Matthew’s gospel some 25 years ago that converted my
heart, opened my eyes and changed my way of thinking and acting. (That
process continues and is far from completion). Matthew’s
gospel continues to confront and challenge me, the mark of a good
teacher, much like the Jesus he presents.
Over the years that I have read Matthew’s account of
Jesus’ life, I have come to see that one of the underlying
themes that he wants his readers to understand is about power and
authority. For Matthew, power must always be used in service as
Jesus’ life demonstrates (bottom up) rather than lorded over
people as everyone else in his gospel stories does (top down). Matthew
spares no one from this lesson whether it is the ruling government,
religious leaders, the crowd or Jesus’ own disciples who are
slow to come to this understanding. “You know how those who
exercise authority among the Gentiles lord it over them; their great
ones make their importance felt. It cannot be like that with you.
Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest, and
whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of
all.” (Matthew 20: 25-27). It doesn’t take Matthew
long to develop this theme. We find in his first two chapters that
Jesus, the prince of peace, was born into a world that is violent, a
symptom of oppressive authority. Matthew tells us that two authorities
have unknowingly conspired to prevent God from entering into the world
that He created. First, we learn that the church was opposed to
welcoming Jesus. The Law condemned an unwed mother to death by stoning,
an act that would have prevented Jesus’ birth had it not been
for God’s intervention and Joseph’s obedience to a
higher power. Second, the state, under King Herod who did not want his
power threatened, went to the extreme of killing all boys under two
years of age living in Bethlehem. Again, had it not been for
God’s intervention, Jesus would have been killed. Unable to
prevent Jesus’ birth, years later the church and state, still
threatened by Jesus, knowingly came together and killed Him.
Within these events Matthew also tells us that authority does not have
to be abusive. He holds out hope for an alternative by telling us about
Wise Men that are not trapped within the existing culture of top down
authority. These men are called wise because they knew that they were
not the center of their universe or they would not have been on a
journey looking for someone to fill their void. They know that this
void cannot be filled with something like gold, frankincense or myrrh,
since they are willing to give that something away to the one that
fills them with joy. Upon seeing the child, they prostrated themselves
and did him homage.
It seems to me that on those occasions when I serve others as
Matthew’s Jesus did, then I too prostrate myself and do Him
homage. Unfortunately, my prostration is most often a mere genuflection
since I often find myself like the others in the gospel account wanting
someone to serve me. It is my most subtle character flaw to overcome
and I suspect that includes all of us since Matthew indicts everyone.
Matthew completes his gospel account with the Judgment of the Nations
(Matthew 25: 31-46) by summing up everyone’s life by the same
standard, “When you did it for the least of My brethren you
did it for Me.”
What I think Matthew wants me (and maybe you also) to think about this
year is how threatened we are by Jesus wanting to influence our lives?
Don Stanner, Lay Minister