Matthew: 3
The second section of the Gospel, the proclamation of the Kingdom in words (chaps. 3-7), begins with echoes of exile (Matt 3:1-3). John the Baptist came preaching “in those days” (3:1a). In the Hebrew prophetic literature, the phrase, “in those days,” is closely tied to eschatology, i.e., the future, dramatic work/power/coming of God. Matthew quotes Isa 40:3, but a first-century, Jewish reader would have been familiar with the wider context of verses in Isa 40:1-5. Isaiah announced the end of the Babylonian Exile. Based on the tone of chap. 2, and his citation of Isa 40:3, Matthew is announcing that in Jesus Israel’s spiritual exile has come to an end—b/c their great Moses-like deliverer (see last blog) has come: hence, John’s call for repentance (Matt 3:2, 8-11)!
The uniqueness of Jesus as Israel’s deliverer is amplified by his baptism (3:13-17) and by his temptation in the wilderness (4:1-11). The final “OT” prophet (so to speak), John the Baptist, despite speaking with authority from heaven (Matt 21:25-26), deferred to Jesus (Matt 3:14). And when John finally does baptize Jesus, God the Father affirmed Jesus’ unique sonship (Matt 3:16-17, echoing the language of scripture: Ps 2:7; Isa 42:1).
Jesus’ sonship is also affirmed in the temptation narrative. The devil attacked by saying, “If you are the Son of God,” but Jesus’ victory over each temptation proved that he is indeed the Son of God. Taken together with the baptism, what Matthew shows is that, while Israel was a son of God (e.g., Exod 4:22-23; Hos 11:1), Jesus is the true Son of God; for where they, after crossing the river, ultimately failed in the wilderness of temptation (Deut 8:2), Jesus passed his test with flying colours. Thus, when Jesus emerges from the wilderness, his first words of proclamation are “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17)—so get ready!
Jesus then begins calling his first disciples (4:18-22), and they follow him as he travels from town to town proclaiming the Kingdom in words and in deeds (Matt 4:23). The first part of 4:23, i.e., “proclaiming [verbally] the gospel of the kingdom,” is the focus of the Sermon on the Mount, chap. 5-7. While a lot could be said of these 3 chapters (and indeed entire books have focused just on the Sermon on the Mount), I’m going to limit what I say about Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon. This section of the Gospel accomplishes a couple of things for Matthew. First, as I stated earlier, he defends Jesus against the charge that he came to undermine the Mosaic Law: rather, Jesus came to fulfil the Law (Matt 5:17-18). What that means is, on the one hand, the regulations of the Law find their ultimate and true significance in Jesus and his work on the cross. Thus, for example, those old animal sacrifices only “worked” to bring about forgiveness of sins b/c in God’s eyes, those sacrifices were bound up in/tied to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In and of themselves these sacrifices were useless (this is part of the teaching of the book of Hebrews). On the other hand, Jesus fulfills the Law in that he is the final, authoritative interpreter of the Law: what he says about doing/obeying the Law goes!
Second, the way in which Jesus interprets the Law affirms his uniqueness. While other Jewish interpreters of the time and the rabbis after him used a kind of introductory formula (e.g., ‘Rabbi X says A and I say…’ or ‘Rabbi Y says B, Rabbi Z says C, and I say…’), Jesus’ introductory formula is unprecedented: ‘You have heard … but I say…’ Jesus didn’t have to anchor his interpretations of the Law with other Jewish legal experts—b/c his interpretation is the ultimate/final interpretation! And his interpretive authority was not lost on those who heard him—they recognized it (Matt 7:28-29). It is b/c of who Jesus is that he becomes the fulcrum for entering the Kingdom: people must confess his name, and the validity of their confession is determined by him (Matt 7:21-23); it is his words that must be obeyed (7:24-27).
Matthew depicts the 2nd part of Matt 4:23 in chaps. 8-10: the verbal proclamation of the gospel of Kingdom is followed by the proclamation of the Kingdom in deeds. Scholars have referred to chap. 8 and 9 in particular as the “Miracle Chapters,” b/c of the individual stories of miracles that take place in such a short section of text. We’ll look more at this next.