Preaching the Gospel of Matthew

Proclaiming God's Presence

Stanley P. Saunders

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780664229207
• eBook ISBN:
  9781611640830
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This commentary for preaching Matthew, a companion to WJK's successful Preaching the Gospel of Luke, Preaching the Gospel of John, and Preaching the Gospel of Mark, works through every passage of Matthew's Gospel with exegetical insight and a keen sensitivity to the demands of preaching. Stanley P. Saunders' commentary follows the biblical text, divided into passages. After each passage, a number of possibilities are presented for how to preach that text. He includes a wealth of creative and pertinent tips to help preachers apply Matthew's narrative to the lives of today's churchgoers.

PART ONE

The Beginnings of “God with Us”
1:1–4:25

Roots

Matthew 1:1–17

Exploring the text

While many people today have taken renewed interest in genealogies, most readers still skip quickly past the genealogies found within the pages of the Bible. The names are unfamiliar and difficult to pronounce and, after all, it’s not our family. Or is it? Matthew’s genealogy of “Jesus Christ, Son of David and son of Abraham,” sets forth the lineage not only of Jesus himself, but of those who call themselves his disciples. Still more important, the genealogy names the new time and new world in which the risen Jesus and his disciples live. Finally, Matthew uses the genealogy to begin training the audience for what they will experience throughout the Gospel. Matthew will continually surprise us and compel us to become active interpreters.

Matthew’s first line functions as a title for the whole Gospel as well as the opening section. “Origins” (or “genesis” or “genealogy”) names the literary form that follows, a genealogy, but also hints that the whole Gospel is the story of a new beginning, a new creation like that described in Genesis (cf. Gen. 2:4, “the generations of the heavens and the earth”). Matthew uses the genealogy to establish two seemingly contradictory impulses: the story of Jesus is both the continuation of Israel’s story and, at the same time, something definitively new. The genealogy locates its auditors in the stream of Israel’s history, yet dislocates them from their ordinary expectations. Throughout the Gospel, Matthew highlights elements of both continuity and discontinuity, treasures “new” and “old” (cf. 13:52), and the fulfillment and re-formation of Israel’s expectations in Jesus Christ. Matthew thus locates the audience at the edge of history and prepares them for life between the empires of this world and the empire of God.

Jesus is the “Christ” and also the Son of David, Israel’s royal Messiah, and the son of Abraham, who fulfills God’s promises to the patriarch. Jesus the Son of David seeks the restoration of God’s people. Matthew’s narrative will define this title with images of Jesus as a merciful healer rather than merely a political leader. It is the “little people”—the blind (12:22–23; 20:30–31), the Canaanite woman (15:22), the little children in the temple (21:15)—who perceive most clearly the meaning of Jesus’ identity as Son of David. As son of Abraham, Jesus embodies God’s blessings not only to Israel, but to all of the world’s peoples (Gen. 12:1–3), bringing righteousness and justice as well as material abundance—food (Matt. 14:13–21; 15:32–39), healing, and the forgiveness of debt (6:12; 18:23–35)—to the whole earth.

Matthew may have used the genealogical lists in Ruth 4:18–22 and 1 Chronicles 2:10–15 as primary sources for this genealogy, but the final product displays the evangelist’s bent in both style and content. Matthew directs the audience’s attention in 1:17 to the fact that the genealogy has been carefully crafted into three segments, each corresponding to a historical epoch in Israel’s life. The first (1:2–6a) runs from Abraham to the establishment of the monarchy under “David the king.” The second begins with Solomon and ends with the deportation to Babylon (1:6b–11). The last segment runs from the return from exile to Christ. Jesus brings the last epoch to an end and begins a new era. The Gospel thus traces the temporal transition from one time to another, to a time that is both continuous with and unlike what has preceded.

Matthew’s careful, even monotonous, structuring serves to highlight departures from the norm. When read aloud, breaks in the repetitive structure announce a particularly important generation or, more often, an anomaly that Matthew wants to underline. At the end of 1:2, for example, Jacob is named as the father of “Judah and his brothers” (the twelve tribes), and at 1:11 “Jechoniah and his brothers” designates the generation that was taken into exile in Babylon. The more arresting departures from the normal structure, however, involve women: Tamar (1:3; cf. Gen. 38), Rahab and Ruth (1:5; cf. Josh. 2:1–21; 6:22–25; and Ruth 2–4) and “the wife of Uriah,” i.e., Bathsheba (1:6b, cf. 2 Sam. 11–12). These names recall moments in Israel’s history when God’s purposes were achieved through the agency of women who were outsiders (non-Israelites). Each of these stories also involves some kind of sexual impropriety. Matthew goes out of his way to suggest this especially in the case of Bathsheba, where, rather than using her name, the evangelist designates her “the wife of Uriah,” thereby highlighting David’s covetousness and deceit in arranging the death of Bathsheba’s husband. These women all set the stage for Mary, whose conception of Jesus also raised questions of impropriety, both for Joseph and for Christians of later eras. God works not only through the patriarchs and kings, but through women, outsiders, Gentiles, and even by means of situations of intrigue and compromise. The prominence Matthew grants to these women subverts the patriarchal world inscribed in the rest of the genealogy. The Messiah’s lineage reaches back to David and Abraham, but also to Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. It includes both the righteous and the wicked, the powerful and the lowly.

When Matthew finally introduces Jesus himself at the end of the genealogy, several details suggest a sense of discontinuity from what has preceded. Matthew uses a passive voice construction to break the heretofore consistent use of the active voice of the verb “to beget”: “Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was begotten Jesus, the one called Christ” (Matt. 1:16). The shift to the passive voice signals that Jesus breaks the mold and suggests God’s agency in Jesus’ birth. His birth marks the culmination of the lineage that stretches (through Joseph) back to Abraham, and also the genesis of a new world and a new time.

The summary in 1:17 has at least three purposes. First, it makes explicit the historical structuring of the whole genealogy; Matthew’s goal is not merely to name Jesus’ ancestors, but to locate him in Israel’s story and within the larger history of creation and new creation. Second, Matthew’s use of the number fourteen in each segment lends the genealogy an apocalyptic flavor (cf. 2 Baruch 53–74, “The Messiah Apocalypse”). Third, when Matthew repeatedly names “fourteen generations,” he issues an engraved invitation to go back and count. When one does so, however, it becomes clear that the last segment, which runs from Shealtiel to Jesus, is defective, yielding but thirteen generations.

Did Matthew make a mistake? If so, it is likely an intentional “mistake.” Throughout the genealogy Matthew has included surprises, incongruities, and broken patterns. Matthew is training us to attend to the details. Here he creates a puzzle for us to grapple with. Is Jesus to be counted twice, once as Jesus and again as the Christ? Or does Matthew understand Jesus as the one who simultaneously stands as the sole survivor of his generation (cf. 2:16–18) and again as the firstfruits of the time of resurrection (cf. 27:51–54). Is he both the “Son of Humanity” (or “the human one” or “Son of Man”) and Son of God, the representative of both God and humankind? Does the Holy Spirit (cf. 1:20) represent the thirteenth generation, and Jesus the fourteenth? Matthew does not resolve the puzzle, but compels us to become active interpreters who, in the light of the larger story, must sort out for ourselves who Jesus is. By the end of the genealogy we already know that we should expect the unexpected, look for God’s agents among the vulnerable and powerless, and learn how Jesus fulfills Israel’s history while radically disrupting it.

Preaching and teaching the Word

The genealogy is not included in the lectionary and is rarely used for preaching today—both to our loss. Many churches today find themselves in times of transition, in crises of identity and vocation, and in thrall of conventional notions of power and status. Matthew’s genealogy provides rich resources for addressing these concerns. First, with its careful structuring and intentional disruptions and its focus on disorientation and reorientation, the genealogy suggests ways in which we might understand the task of preaching itself. Matthew’s Gospel dislocates its auditors from the assumptions and perspectives of the old creation and then moves them toward a place where they can perceive, experience, and name the power of God in their midst. Faithful preaching cannot leave the world’s assumptions unchallenged. The Gospel challenges the root assumptions upon which we make meaning, construct our societies, and transmit “culture.” Preaching should “move” us, and not just emotionally, by dislocating us from our ordinary sense of time and location and then reorienting us so that we gain fresh perception of God’s ways.

Second, the genealogy provides roots for those who have none. While modern readers may not see this genealogy as their own, Matthew understands that Jesus’ identity is the foundation for Christian identity even today. The genealogy is the “beginning” of the story of God’s new creation coming into being. Jesus embodies God’s presence and power among us. As disciples, we live in the time of Jesus Christ, when God is restoring and healing the creation, gathering the lost, and overwhelming the powers of violence and death. Discerning and living faithfully into this new time and space is at the heart of Matthew’s vision of discipleship.

Modern Christians live amidst constant change. We are witnessing the diminishment and marginalization of traditional forms of religion. It feels as if the world we have known is slipping rapidly from our grasp. Matthew was produced in a time of great upheaval for Jews and Christians, who lived under the domination of Roman imperial rule, in the wake of the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, and in a time of intense social and political conflict and economic hardship. Matthew does not offer easy answers, but affirms that disciples of Jesus Christ live most faithfully at the edge of history, between epochs, in a time of both continuity and radical discontinuity. Disciples trace their lineage to patriarchs and kings, the mighty and the humiliated, men of power and women from the margins. Matthew does not locate security or stability in what humans produce or control, but in God’s merciful rule, where the powerful are brought low and the lowly are lifted up, and where even the boundaries between earth and heaven are blurred. Matthew’s whole Gospel explores and maps these “in-between” times and places for subsequent generations of disciples. The genealogy reminds us that God works through those we least expect (cf. 25:31–46) and in situations that bend the rules of this world. God’s power constantly challenges the structures we create and our perceptions of what is firm, real, and secure (cf. 27:51–53). We also begin to see what the gospel is, as Matthew understands it: a story of disruption and fulfillment, danger and blessing, upheaval and hope. It is precisely in times like these that we should expect to see God.

The Origins of Jesus

Matthew 1:18–25

Exploring the text

Jesus has two fathers, so Matthew now explores the implications of Jesus’ dual “origins.” The Greek word “genesis” in 1:18 (cf. 1:1) may be translated as “the birth” of Jesus Christ (as in most English translations) or as “origin” or “genesis.” Matthew here aims to define who Jesus is in relation to both of his fathers. In doing so, Matthew addresses an anomaly raised by the genealogy, which runs through Joseph, yet abruptly dissociates Jesus from Joseph in 1:16, where Joseph is described only as “the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.” Whose son is Jesus? Whose identity and power is in his blood?

Jesus’ divine origins are “from the Holy Spirit” (1:18; the same grammatical structure used in reference to Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah in the genealogy). Later in the passage Matthew confirms Jesus’ divine identity by designating him “God with us” (1:23). Because Jesus is “from the Holy Spirit” (1:18, 20), he is also the true “Son of God.” As soon as Matthew has named the Holy Spirit’s agency in Jesus’ birth, the spotlight shifts to Joseph. Even though Matthew first mentions Joseph (1:16) in a way that distances him from Jesus, his relationship to Jesus is still important. It is Joseph, not Mary, who stands in the line of David (1:20) and Abraham. Jesus is the Son of David by means of Joseph’s legal paternity, which Joseph signals according to custom by publicly announcing Jesus’ name, as the angel has commanded him (1:21, 25). Matthew then carefully develops Joseph’s image, emphasizing his righteousness, obedience, and chastity (cf. Gen. 37–50). Matthew’s portrayal of Joseph owes much to images of Joseph’s namesake in Genesis 37–50 and in The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, especially the Testament of Joseph, which was popular in the first century. Like the Joseph of Genesis, Matthew’s Joseph is morally upright, caring for the preservation of life and relationships above all. Joseph refuses to put Mary to shame, although it would be within his rights, but seeks rather to end the relationship quietly (Matt. 1:19). Both Josephs have dreams that shape the subsequent course of their lives. And both find refuge in Egypt (cf. Matt. 2:13–15). Matthew’s portrayal of Joseph thus affirms a link between Jesus and the Old Testament stories of brotherly jealousy, betrayal, enslavement, and finally the redemption and restoration of Jacob’s family.

The angelic dream vision (1:20–21) first reassures Joseph and then affirms his responsibility for naming the child. Joseph is to name the child Jesus because “he will save his people from their sins.” “Jesus” is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, the one who brought to completion the redemption of the people from Egypt and their conquest of the Canaanites. The naming of Jesus in 1:21 also sets forth another interpretive puzzle, which will come to the fore as the Gospel unfolds: who are “his people,” and in what sense does Jesus save them from their sins? Does “his people” refer to Israel, to the followers of Jesus, to the church, or to all people? Does Jesus save his people Israel despite their rejection of him (27:22–25)? The relationship between the saving activity of Jesus and the people of Israel is one of the central interpretive puzzles that Matthew’s audience must resolve. But the resolution of this puzzle must await the end of the Gospel and the audience’s own interpretive choices along the way.

Especially in the early chapters of the Gospel, Matthew often cites Old Testament passages that interpret events described in the narrative and affirm aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry as the realization of God’s will. An introductory formula similar to what we find in 1:22 typically introduces these “fulfillment quotations” (1:22–23; 2:5–6; 2:15; 2:17–18; 2:23; 4:14–16; 8:17; 12:17–21; 13:35; 21:4–5; 26:54; 26:56; 27:9–10). The first fulfillment quotation in Matthew (1:22–23) cites Isaiah 7:14, which presents a rich, ambiguous array of interpretive possibilities. The word “virgin” or “young woman” in this quotation has generated a great deal of attention over the years, in some ways distracting readers from other important implications of the citation. Isaiah 7 describes both God’s promise of deliverance and the threat of judgment if the promise is refused. Isaiah addresses King Ahaz of Judah in order to affirm God’s faithfulness in the midst of impending defeat at the hands of Syria and Israel (the Northern Kingdom). The birth of the child from a “young woman” is to be a sign that during the baby’s lifetime both Syria and Israel will be deserted (Isa. 7:16), while Judah experiences a time of abundance. Ahaz, however, refuses to heed this prophetic vision, refuses to trust God, and suffers God’s punishment from the Assyrians. The child born of the “virgin” becomes a sign of judgment rather than hope of salvation. For the first time, we hear a hint of Matthew’s interest in the juxtaposition of judgment with salvation.

The citation is also the second instance in which Jesus is named and his name explained (1:23; cf. 1:21). Jesus is “God with us.” Matthew develops this designation throughout the Gospel, climaxing at the very end, when the risen Jesus commissions his disciples for mission to the ends of the world, supported with the promise that “I will be with you to the end of the days.” The designation of Jesus as “God with us” in 1:23 and 28:20 (cf. also 18:20) frames the whole Gospel as an exploration of what it means for Christians to claim that Jesus is “God with us.” In a context where Caesar was hailed as “savior” and “son of God,” and perceived as the mediator of divine power, will, and salvation, the claim that Jesus is God with us represents a challenge to the dominion of human empires. Wherever empires dress their goals and actions in the clothing of divine will, God brings judgment. Matthew confesses that there is but one true Lord, only one who is God with us, the one who was crucified by Rome and raised from the dead by God.

Preaching and teaching the Word

In this passage Matthew begins to develop an image of the dual nature of Jesus’ identity—both human and divine—that will run throughout the Gospel. The two elements of Jesus’ nature do not temporarily cohabit the same space as separable entities. In him the human and the divine merge into an integral whole. The boundaries between divine and human blur and mingle in Jesus, just as they will in his ministry and even among his disciples (cf. 14:22–33). Matthew locates the empire of heaven on the borders of human perception and experience, where new assumptions, new ways of seeing, and new relationships are possible. Jesus leads his disciples safely from one world to another. This in turn becomes the vocation of the disciples, and then of the church. Faithful discipleship flourishes among those who are convinced of how the world is being transformed, down to its very foundations, in the presence of “God with us.”

The account of Jesus’ origins and birth makes clear that the story of Jesus is Matthew’s way of talking about God (cf. 10:40; 11:27).¹ The designations of Jesus as savior (1:21) and “God with us” (1:23) challenge some of our most basic assumptions about the nature of this world and God’s presence. Popular forms of spirituality often presume God’s distance from us. We imagine that prayer, for example, is like calling “long distance.” In contrast, Matthew locates the risen Jesus here with us,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part One - The Beginnings of “God with Us”: 1:1–4:25
• Part Two - The Announcement of God’s Empire: The Sermon on the Mount: 5:1–7:29
• Part Three - Gathering and Healing the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel: 8:1–9:34
• Part Four - The Mission to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel: 9:35–11:1
• Part Five - Israel’s Crisis of Faith: 11:2–12:50
• Part Six - Jesus Speaks in Parables: (13:1–52)
• Part Seven - Discipleship and Division: 13:53–17:27
• Part Eight - An Empire of “Little Ones”: 18:1–35
• Part Nine - Training the Disciples for Jerusalem: 19:1–20:34
• Part Ten - The Possession of the Temple: 21:1–22:46
• Part Eleven - The Jerusalem Sermons: 23:1–25:46
• Part Twelve - The Revelation of the Son of God in Power: 26:1–28:20
• Notes
• Glossary
• Select Bibliography