Through the New Testament with Michael Green: Matthew to Revelation

By Michael Green

The Bible is the story of God's seeking to reconcile men and women to himself. Time and again God says, "I will be your God, and you will be my people." Central to the Bible's story is Jesus Christ. Michael Green says, "That is why it is important for the followers of Jesus Christ to read the Bible, understand it, live by its light, and through it get to know God better."
Through the New Testament with Michael Green is designed to be read with a Bible . . . not in place of the Bible, and is intended to help a reader understand the main thrust of the New Testament's message. Through the New Testament with Michael Green, said a reviewer, "has achieved the big picture, not by abandoning the details of passages, but by providing a brief commentary on every one of them. It's a difficult trick to pull off, but this book is written as though it were a set of daily readings (which it could be). Because each section is short, you get a sense of the whole. It's almost as though Michael Green has crafted a mosaic where you never linger long enough with any piece of beauty to lose sight of the greater whole."
Here's a book that is easy to absorb. It is written in bite-sized teachings concisely and expertly explained. "Michael Green," said Allister McGrath, "was one of the most gifted evangelists of his generation." This book conveys Green's infectious enthusiasm for his faith as well his outstanding teaching skills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781912149438

Michael Green

Michael Green (born 1930) was a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and author of more than 50 books. He was Principal of St John's College, Nottingham (1969-75) and Rector of St Aldate's Church, Oxford and chaplain of the Oxford Pastorate (1975-86). He had additionally been an honorary canon of Coventry Cathedral from 1970 to 1978. He then moved to Canada where he was Professor of Evangelism at Regent College, Vancouver from 1987 to 1992. He returned to England to take up the position of advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York for the Springboard Decade of Evangelism. In 1993 he was appointed the Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral. Despite having officially retired in 1996, he became a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Evangelism and Apologetics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford in 1997 and lived in the town of Abingdon near Oxford.

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CONTENTS

THE TWENTY SEVEN BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Introduction

THE GOSPELS

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

HISTORY

Acts

LETTERS

Romans

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

Hebrews

James

1 Peter

2 Peter

1,2,3 John

Jude

APOCALYPSE

Revelation

About Michael Green

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

Some years ago a book was published called Men in search of God, and it contained a variety of approaches to God. But Christianity is entirely different. It is not about people in search of God but of God in search of men and women. It paints that search by the Great Lover on a broad canvas, from the Creation to the final fulfilment of God’s purposes.

Central to that canvas is Jesus Christ, in whom the Creator fully disclosed his nature, and through whom he reconciled reluctant and rebellious human beings to himself. The whole Bible tells us that God loves us so much that he was determined to rescue us from the mess into which our self-centredness has plunged us. In a word, the central theme of the Bible is ‘God to the rescue’ (that in fact is the meaning of the names ‘Jesus’). The heart of this rescue story reveals a God who came in person to this earth as Jesus. He lived a flawless life, which he willingly offered up on the cross as the incredibly costly way of removing our guilt, breaking our chains and making possible a way back to companionship with God.

This ‘rescue’ is no solitary journey of the alone to the Alone. It involves human beings in a new community which seeks to advance God’s purposes of peace and justice in the world. As if that was not enough, the Bible writers are confident that there is a future awaiting the people of God. He will not scrap us when we get old and die. A welcome awaits us in his home in heaven, and one day Jesus Christ will return to set the whole world to rights and believers will share in the completion of his rescue.

That is what the Bible is about. It would be amazing if one person had come up with such improbable insights. But when all forty or so authors of the Bible, spread over a millennium, with widely different backgrounds and writing in three different languages all come up with the same view of God, evil, restoration, the new community and human destiny, it is simply staggering. No wonder the Bible writers claimed, and the church has always recognised, that they were inspired by God. They could never have come up with the same answers by themselves.

That it is why it is important for the followers of Jesus Christ to read this book, understand it, live by its light, and through it get to know God better.

This library of sixty six books, which we call ‘Bible’ has two main sections, the Old Testament which is all about promise, and the New Testament which is all about fulfilment. The New Testament falls naturally into four. There are, first of all, four Gospels, an entirely new form of literature recording the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus. Then comes the Acts of the Apostles, the story of how the first Christians spread across much of the world in thirty years. It makes thrilling reading. Next come the epistles or letters from the first Christian leaders, some to individuals and some to churches. These explain more fully the significance of Jesus and the implications he has for the Christian community. Finally there is a highly pictorial book, Revelation, lifting our hearts to grasp something of God’s future plans.

This commentary is intended to help Christians to read and understand the main thrust of the New Testament message. It is designed to be a companion to regular reading, not a substitute for it. So read the passage indicated from the Bible, before you read the notes. Ask God to speak to you. Look for a promise you can make your own, a command you can obey, a warning to heed, or something new about yourself or God. Then turn to the notes. And finally spend a few minutes in prayer, praise, confession, and commitment for the day. If you make this a priority even in a busy life, I can guarantee you will ‘grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 3.18).

Michael Green

THE GOSPELS

MATTHEW

Read Matthew 1.1-17

Matthew and the start of his book

Nobody is sure who wrote this gospel, but it was a Jewish Christian about 40 years after the crucifixion who drew heavily on Mark’s Gospel and a lost source giving Jesus’ teaching. This source was, so the ancients tell us, written down by the apostle and ex-tax gatherer, Matthew – hence his name attached to the Gospel. It is a well organised book, perhaps designed for Christian leaders, who were acutely aware of the synagogue down the street! But why start with a long list of names? It may seem odd to us but not to the Jews, who cherished their genealogies. This (selective) list is arranged in 3 groups of 14 generations and is designed to make 3 names stand out: Abraham, father of the Jewish nation; David, its greatest king; and Jesus, his descendent. It is the genealogy of Joseph, Jesus’ ‘legal’ father, whereas the one in Luke’s Gospel belongs to Mary: both of them were descended from David. Most unusually for Judaism, four women are included. Matthew, at the very start of his gospel, goes out of his way to stress that the coming of Jesus breaks down barriers: between women and men, as women share in the list; between Jew and Gentile, as Ruth a Moabitess plays her part; between bad women like Bathsheba and Tamar and good women like Mary. The all-embracing love of God is emphasised. There is nobody who does not need it! Not such a dry list after all!

Read Matthew 1.18-25

The birth of Jesus

There is no beating about the bush. Jesus is seen from the start of the gospel as God’s long awaited Deliverer or Messiah. Mary becomes pregnant from God’s unique action, and Joseph, minded to dismiss his fiancée quietly, is enlightened by God in a dream that the Holy Spirit of God is responsible for her condition and that the child to be born will have two names. One was ‘Jesus’ which means ‘God to the rescue’. He will rescue his people from their sins and failures. The other is ‘Emmanuel’ which means ’God is with us’ and explains how this rescue is possible. It will be God’s work through this child. Joseph sees this as the fulfilment of a prophetic hint in Isaiah that a virgin (Mary), will conceive and bring forth a son who is no less than God with us. We are brought face to face with the central theme of the gospel: God who has been at work among his people from the time of Abraham has come in person to this world in order to rescue humans from the mess we have got ourselves into. I love the obedience of Joseph. He does not put Mary away but marries her. He did not have sex with her until after the birth of Jesus. And as instructed, he called the lad Jesus. We know little more about Joseph, but he is an example of trust and obedience to God which we could well follow.

Read Matthew 2.1-12

Herod and the wise men

Bethlehem was David’s city. How appropriate that his great descendent should be born there, as Micah prophesied (5.2). But now a very different king was in charge, Herod, a monstrously cruel half-Jew. He ruled as a client-king of Rome from 40-4 BC. Jesus was clearly born before that date, and the start of the Christian era was miscalculated by a sixth century monk! The wise men were astrologers and we have clay tablets from Sippar in Babylonia which record the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, looking like a very bright star, three times in 7 BC. As Jupiter was the royal planet and Saturn was associated with Israel, they could have guessed that the sovereignty of the world would shift to Judaea: hence their journey, their gifts and their worship. Their gifts were symbolic: gold for royalty, incense for divinity, and myrrh for burial. The coming of Jesus is already seen to be divisive: the wise men come to worship him, Herod plans to kill him. This is the first of several occasions in the gospel when non-Jews come to worship. Their arrival anticipated the number of Gentiles flocking into the church by the time Matthew wrote.

Read Matthew 2.13-23

Out of Egypt

Three things stand out in this passage. First, the facts. Herod, furious at being tricked, kills the 2 year olds and under in Bethlehem. Typical of Herod – who killed his wife, mother in law, sons and half the Sanhedrin! Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt where they wait until Herod dies in 4 BC. Then they come back, and avoiding Herod’s son Archelaus, go to live in Nazareth in Galilee. Second, the link with Egypt. Pharaoh tried to kill Moses but failed and Moses rescued the Israelites from Egypt, the greatest feat in their history. The new Pharaoh, Herod, tried to kill Jesus but as Moses’ successor Jesus would also come out of Egypt and in due course rescue people from a worse bondage and death – the death of sin. Third, Matthew makes much of quotations from the Old Testament, as here. They are often obscure, which shows that the history is primary and the Old Testament, the acknowledged source of God’s revelation, is used to make his point – often using the allegorical method, which seems odd to us but was the one most favoured by the Jews.

Read Matthew 3.1-17

John and Jesus

Enter John the Baptist, for the first time in this Gospel. His appearance is wild, his message devastating. It will not do to boast Jewish nationality. True repentance and change of life is essential preparation for appreciating the coming Messiah. They must be baptised in the Jordan if they want sin to be forgiven (a terrible shock. Only new adherents to Judaism were baptised, not genuine Jews!) Many were humble enough to respond. Leading clergy came too: they were insincere and incurred John’s wrath. John baptised with water but said that Jesus would baptise with God’s Spirit and fire, burning up the chaff and gathering the wheat into his barn. His ministry would be divisive – as it has proved ever since. Enter Jesus, also for the first time. He too came to be baptised, not because he had any sins to confess (hence John’s reluctance to baptise him) but in order to express his solidarity with sinful human beings. This identification with sinners happened in symbol at his baptism. It would happen in stark reality on the cross. The chapter ends with the Father’s approval of his beloved Son who was prepared to undergo such a fate for flawed humanity.

Read Matthew 4.1-25

The start of the ministry

The temptations to be selfish, to go for the sensational and to compromise with wrongdoing come the way of all Christians. But here they are recorded so that we may understand the testing of God’s Son. After the high point of his baptism he is severely tested by the enemy of souls. Will he be the Messiah of popular expectation, winning earthly power and glory but avoiding the cross? Or will he go to the cross to win the crown? Adam had failed the test when faced with similar temptations. So had Israel in the desert. But, where they failed, the ‘last Adam’ – the very embodiment of the true Israel – succeeded. And he did so by using scripture as a weapon. The quotations he gives all come from within a couple of chapters in Deuteronomy: he had almost certainly been studying that scripture recently and committing some of it to memory. A model for ourselves when tempted! Victorious over the devil, Jesus begins his ministry – a strict continuation of John the Baptist’s call to repentance. His light began to shine brightly in the darkness, and as the prophet had foreseen, the very area that was ravaged by the Assyrians in 734 and 732 BC (Zebulun and Naphtali), now becomes the centre of his ministry. Four tough fishermen become the core of his followers as Jesus goes throughout Galilee. It was not a large area (some 50 miles by 25) but it was extremely fertile and one of the most densely populated areas in the world. His ministry had three main elements: preaching the good news of God’s kingly rule, healing all manner of disease, and teaching the people. The next three chapters give us a sample of that teaching.

Read Matthew 5.1-16

The good and happy life

Matthew sees Jesus as the new Moses, who has come to bring both deliverance and a new way of living which transcends the Old Testament Law. So he groups the teaching material of Jesus into a five–fold division, modelled on Moses’ five books (chapters 5-7,10,15,18,24-5). These three chapters are all about discipleship, the quality of life God desires for members of his kingdom. The standard is impossibly high, embodied only in Jesus himself: hence our need for repentance (4.17) and building our life on him (7.24-27). The opening paragraph is a bolt out of the blue for any who think life in the kingdom of God is a miserable affair. It is happy, blessed by God: it is the best life possible. Here Jesus outlines eight characteristics of the good life – and fulfills them all himself. He looks for qualities like those in his followers (for it is to them, not the crowds, that the sermon is primarily addressed, 5.1). These qualities are revolutionary and would not figure in any political programme! The lifestyle Jesus calls for is radically different from ‘religion’ as the Pharisees understood it. Christians are meant to be distinctive, like salt and light. But this is only possible if we are fully involved in our environment, but different from it. We are called to function in society as an alternative and challenging community, that brings glory to God.

Read Matthew 5.17-48

A series of contrasts

The way of life Jesus looks for does not do away with the Old Testament laws: it intensifies them by going beyond actions to inner motives. Jesus had not come to abolish but to fulfil the law, and this is the single theme of this long passage. We see first the general statement (5.17-20) followed by six examples of Jesus’ teaching where it contrasts with the widely accepted understanding of the Old Testament law, as taught by the lawyers and Pharisees. Of course some elements of the Old Testament law were abolished by being fulfilled. They had pointed forward to a fulfilment which Jesus brought. But the moral law had not been abolished. Its teaching on issues like murder, adultery, divorce, oaths and retaliation stand, but they are intensified. Legalistic fulfilment of God’s laws can never qualify us for entry into his kingdom of righteousness. Jesus looks for the inner motive as well as the outer action. So nobody can say to God ‘You should be very pleased with me. I have never committed adultery’. He will reply ‘But what about all your lustful thoughts?’ The law is not the limit of our obligation. It is the springboard for love. And the chapter ends with an amazing description of that love: it extends even to our enemies. It is unlimited love – a reflection of God’s love for us.

Read Matthew 6.1-18

Spotlight on the devotional life

Jesus now turns to the three main areas of Jewish devotional life: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. He warns against making a show of religious observance. Giving should be done quietly and will not lack God’s reward. If you make a song and dance about your donations you have your reward in full already! Prayer should neither be showy nor mechanically repetitive. It should be simple, direct and brief. We are not telling God something he does not know or trying to persuade him to change his mind. Prayer is the adoring submission of the creature to the Creator. He knows. He cares. He is your Abba, your dear Father. First, there are three requests about God and his glory, then three about us and our needs. The content is slightly different from the Lord’s Prayer in Luke. Luke focuses on Gentiles who needed to know how to pray: Matthew focuses on Jews who need to learn how to pray right. Believers should pray for God’s character to be respected, his kingly rule to advance in people’s hearts, and his will to prevail – not their own. For themselves they should pray for daily needs, for forgiveness (provided they forgive others) and for his strength in times of trial. It ends superbly. If we give him the kingly rule in our lives, we can claim his power but must give him the credit! As for fasting, do it – but don’t make a show of it.

Read Matthew 6.19-34

Spotlight on ambition

Having dealt with our devotional life, Jesus turns to our ambitions. What do we really value? What do we worry about? One of the great differences between believers and others is that they know their treasure is in heaven and tend to hold earthly possessions lightly. You cannot serve God and mammon (the god of wealth), though many try to. Materialism is currently the curse of the West. 6.22-23 might seem out of place, but these verses too are about money – generosity. The Greek word for ‘single’ can mean generous and ‘bad’ can mean stingy. Generosity and a proper sense of kingdom priorities should mark our attitude to money. There is a beautiful simplicity about 6.25-24 where Jesus attacks worry, another besetting preoccupation of our culture. In contrast to the pagans, we have a loving heavenly Father. We can trust him. In worry, as in money matters, we need to demonstrate that we depend on him. How about checking up on our finances and seeing how extravagant we are on food, drink and clothes, to mention only the examples Jesus gives! The final verse reminds us that we are promised God’s care, but not freedom from trouble.

Read Matthew 7.1-12

Spotlight on relationships

Jesus turns to the subject of our relationships. He warns against a critical attitude to others – we can never know the full story behind them, though God does. And often the weaknesses we criticise in them we dare not face up to in ourselves. So why try to remove the speck in a friend’s eye when you have a massive plank in your own? Who said Jesus had no sense of humour? But verse 6 shows that there is a right kind of discernment which believers are called to exercise. If people are utterly hardened it is irresponsible to waste time and effort on them. Pigs would prefer acorns to pearls! Disciples need in all this to keep close to God (7.7-11). Ask, seek, knock. God will not refuse our prayers or give us what is harmful. Of course this wonderful promise assumes I am a disciple, that I am serious in prayer (the present tense in the Greek shows we should go on asking), that I ask expecting an answer, and that I leave the shape of the answer to an all-knowing Father. He knows what is best: often I do not. Finally the ‘Golden Rule’ (7.12) with its emphasis on a loving attitude to all, summarises Jesus’ instructions for living as a disciple. It is not cold duty, but the overflow of God’s love to us.

Read Matthew 7.13-29

Four pictures of true discipleship

Jesus ends this amazing sermon with strong emphasis on the authority and identity of the preacher – himself. He himself is the central element in the life of the disciple. It is he who can confidently call God ‘Father’ (7.21), who can tell us where we will stand on judgment day (7.22); our final destiny will depend on whether or not we know him (7.23). This authoritative Lord (7.21) outlines four pictures of the true and false disciple. The first picture poses the question ‘Have you gone through the humbling, narrow gate? Are you on the road?’ Two roads, two destinations. The second asks in effect ‘Is there real change in your life?’ There must be attractive, genuine fruit in the disciple’s life. The third asks not ‘How religious are you? How often do you go to church?’ but ‘Do you truly know me?’ Relationship with Jesus is essential. Fourth, ‘Have you built your life on Jesus?’ He, like God in the Old Testament, is the Rock, the only foundation that will last. The division between those who are in the kingdom and those who are not could hardly be stressed more clearly. And 7.28,29 concludes this teaching section: similar words end the other four great teaching discourses in the Gospel.

Read Matthew 8.1-15

Three healing miracles

In the last three chapters Jesus has powerfully proclaimed the good news of the ‘kingdom of the heavens’ – by the way, this does not refer to what happens after death but what happens on earth when God is put in the top slot! Now Matthew collects 9 miracles stories (8.1-9.34) to show the power of the kingdom. They are arranged in three groups of three, and the first trio are here in 8.1-12. The healing of the leper, the centurion’s servant and Peter’s mother-in-law are all in his main source (Mark’s Gospel), but are considerably condensed here. The power of these miracles complements the authority of his teaching. These first two miracles illustrate the apostolic gospel; ‘first for the Jew and then for the Gentile.’ In healing the leper Jesus did what Judaism could never do. The man was sent to the priest to offer the gift Moses commanded, with a testimony – that a greater than Moses had come. What a powerful frontispiece for the collection of miracles! The healing of the Gentile centurion’s servant carried a hint of the later Gentile mission; it would have meant much to the Gentiles flocking into the church in Matthew’s day. They had never seen Jesus but had trusted his word and felt his healing in their lives. The domestic healing, too, would be a great encouragement to pray for family members.

Read Matthew 8.16-9.8

The cost and the significance of three miracles

The mention of further healings leads Matthew to Isaiah 53, much loved by the first Christians. Though usually cited as a prophecy of Jesus’ sin-bearing on the cross, here it is applied to his healing ministry. Matthew shows how costly the ministry of healing and deliverance was for Jesus. Following him would be costly too (8.19-22). It could involve homelessness and insecurity. And it was urgent – to ‘bury your father’ meant ‘to wait for your father’s death’. The challenge of the kingdom brooks no delay. ‘Let the dead bury their dead’ means ‘let those who have not found the life of the kingdom handle the funeral.’ The second trio of miracles follows (8.23-9.8) showing the power of Jesus over the elements (8.23-27) over demonic spirits (8.28-34) and over sin and disease (9.1-8). The Old Testament was clear that God alone could control the sea (see verses like Psalm 89.9). Who but God could drive out demons and rescue a broken life? And as the healing of the crippled man and the debate it aroused shows, it is the role of God alone to forgive sins and heal. These mighty acts pointed unambiguously to who Jesus is.

Read Matthew 9.9-17

The call of Matthew and the new wine

Matthew offers us a slice of his own story and an insight into the radical new movement Jesus brings, before recording three more miracles. Tax collectors were hated and despised – they cooperated with the Roman overlords. It is amazing that Jesus would invite one of them to be a disciple; amazing that Matthew left his prosperous business to obey the call; and amazing that his life would be so transformed. Matthew’s old job gave him facility with his pen and he gave us the first written records about Jesus, contained among other material in this gospel. When you discover Jesus, you discover joy – and Matthew’s conversion was worth a party! The guests were mainly crooks, but Jesus loved their company – to the disgust of the religious elite who were more concerned with ritual than costly love (9.13). Jesus came to save acknowledged sinners, not those who are sinners but think themselves righteous. The kingdom of God is a one-class society – for sinners only. This is God’s rescue mission, his revolutionary kingly rule breaking in, and cannot be a mere patch on the old religious garment. It is a dynamic, effervescent relationship with God which bursts out of the shrivelled wineskins of formal religion.

Read Matthew 9.18–38

The third trio of miracles

Succinctly, Matthew brings out this radical newness of the kingdom of God in his third trio of miracles. They are notable for two characteristics, found in all three of them. One is faith. Unless they trust Jesus (unlike the Pharisees, 9.34) they can receive nothing from him. The other noteworthy thing is that all three of those Jesus healed were ‘outsiders’ as far as Judaism was concerned. The woman with the menstrual flow was ceremonially ‘unclean’ and so was the dead girl. The blind and dumb were also outcasts. Yet all of them experienced this new life Jesus came to bring. Matthew must have been thinking of himself as he recorded these miracles. He too was an outcast, a despised tax-collector. He too had trusted Jesus and discovered a new way of life. They were all what the rabbis scornfully called ‘the people of the land’ who by definition could not be holy! A rabbi would never bother about such people, but Jesus did. He had enormous compassion for them because ‘they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd’. This was the harvest field he had come to reap. His friends would join in that work too, as we see in chapter 10, but first they must learn the hard part – to pray (38). There is a Lord of the harvest – and thankfully it is not us. He will act – if we pray.

Read Matthew 10.1-16

The second discourse: the mission of the Twelve

The first section of the gospel came to a climax with the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, telling us what the kingdom is like. The second section, which showed the power of Jesus, ends with the mission charge, telling us that disciples must spread the good news of the kingdom. This chapter should be read at two levels: first the historical mission of the twelve and then the continuing mission of the church for which Matthew writes. Jesus passes on to them the authority he has so powerfully wielded in word and deed in previous chapters. They are to go, preach and heal as Jesus did. For now, theirs is a restricted mission, to the Jews alone – after the resurrection it would be different. There is an urgency about it. There is challenge. There is the need to trust God’s provision for their food and accommodation. There is sure to be opposition. They go as vulnerable as sheep among a pack of wolves, so shrewdness and integrity of life are essential.

Read Matthew 10.17-42

Marks of effective mission

The focus is still on the mission in Galilee, but Matthew adds some additional teaching of Jesus on the subject of mission to the basis he found in Mark 6.7-13. This was highly relevant to the church in his own day, and the hardships missionaries would inevitably face (10.17-23). Mission is essential. It is shared – the disciples went out as a group. It is complex – not just preaching but bringing peace, healing and a ministry of deliverance. It needs to be clearly focussed – in their case it was in Galilee: they were not yet to spill over into Samaria or Gentile territory. Mission is demanding and costly. And all the time mission is ‘Jesus shaped’. If it does not embody something of Jesus’ character and point people to him, it will fail. There are invaluable criteria here for Christian evangelists. How about their attitude to money and comfort (10.9)? How about their peace in the midst of undeserved suffering (10.17-19)? How about their endurance (10.22)? How about their likeness to Jesus (10.24)? How about their cutting edge (10.34)? Have they the courage to face persecution (10.18)? Above all are they accountable? 10.23 may mean that they will not complete their work before Jesus meets up with them, or it may mean that mission will continue until he comes to meet his people on the Last Day.

Read Matthew 11.1-19

Varying responses to Jesus

In chapters 11 and 12 Matthew gives us a glimpse of varying attitudes to Jesus to prepare us for the clear division of his followers and enemies which will emerge in the next great discourse, chapter 13. John the Baptist, rotting in Herod’s prison, is plagued with doubts. He expected the Messiah to bring judgment: remember his fierce predictions in 3.7-12? Instead Jesus was bothering with the diseased and helpless. Much too low-key! By way of reply Jesus wove together Old Testament references in Isaiah 35 and 61 to show that acts of mercy were indeed part of the work of the Messiah. He commended John as the greatest of the prophets, but still only the fore-runner of the Messiah (11.10, quoting Malachi 3.1), seen as the returning Elijah who would inaugurate the last days (Malachi 4.5,6). God’s new initiative, the breaking in of his kingly rule, began with Jesus while John stood on its threshold. John and Jesus were different in their style and message, but there was no pleasing some folks. John’s lifestyle was thought fanatical; Jesus’ friendship with sinners scandalous! Yet God’s wisdom is wiser than human prejudice and is vindicated by their respective actions.

Read Matthew 11.20-30

Two responses to Jesus

The varying responses to Jesus become clearer. Towns like Capernaum which had experienced a lot of Jesus’ miracles but still had not repented and submitted to God’s kingly rule in their lives, are guilty: more guilty than famous Old Testament cities which, though wicked, would have responded to Jesus had they been given so much evidence. By way of contrast, those who come to Jesus, many of them struggling and burdened, find rest or refreshment (11.28). There is a ‘rest’ given us when we entrust our lives to Christ. There is also another sort of ‘rest’ we discover progressively as we learn to obey and partner with him. The imagery is of two oxen, an experienced and a younger one, ploughing together. The yoke does not rub if they keep in step. Judaism spoke of undertaking the yoke of the law. Jesus invites the weary and struggling not to the law but to himself! 11.25-27 is very important. Jesus tells us that only he fully understands the heavenly Father, and only the Father fully understands him, and accepts into that special relationship those whom Jesus chooses. This intimate understanding comes not by cleverness but by revelation. Only God can reveal God! Thus even today wise and learned theologians often fail to understand him but those who come with the simple trust of children often do.

Read Matthew 12.1-21

Two Sabbath encounters

What country boy has not wandered alongside a cornfield rubbing ears of corn and eating the wheat? This was OK in Judaism too. What the Pharisees reckoned was not OK was doing it on the Sabbath. ‘It is work’, they claimed! The Pharisees had hedged the simple Old Testament command to ‘keep the seventh day holy’ with endless pettifogging regulations. Jesus rejects these. He refers them to what their hero David did, and what priests in the temple constantly do. In Jesus, something greater than the Sabbath or the temple was before them. What a claim! The second encounter was in the synagogue. Would Jesus heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath? Jesus pointed out that they would pull a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. It is a day not for endless regulations but for doing good. But they loved ritual more than mercy (12.7) and God has no time for that. Jesus healed the man: the Pharisees took counsel to do away with him. So Jesus withdrew and sought to continue his healing work unobtrusively (12.15). Matthew sees this as the deeper fulfilment of the first of the Servant Songs in Isaiah (42.1-4), where God’s servant is described as quiet and gentle but ultimately victorious (42.1-4).

Read Matthew 12.22-50

Jesus’ power and his family

The argument with the Pharisees becomes more theological. They recognise his power but attribute it to the devil (Beelzebub). First of all Jesus shows how inconsistent such a charge was: it would mean that the devil would be contesting with the devil. A house divided like that collapses, and Satan’s power clearly has not collapsed. He then goes on to show them what a serious thing such an accusation is. It is attributing to evil what is clearly a power for good. They may say unkind and cruel things against Jesus personally (12.32) but to raise a charge like that is ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit’ and it cannot be forgiven, not because God is not willing to forgive but because humans are not willing to repent and receive forgiveness. 12.32-37 show how wrong it is for them to shrug off mere words: our words show what we are like, just as a fruit shows what the tree is like. In response to a sceptical demand for yet another sign (12.38), Jesus declines: Jonah’s miraculous escape from the whale’s belly authenticated his call for Nineveh to repent. Jesus’ resurrection from three days in the tomb will do the same. Their scepticism will inevitably incur judgment. 12.43-5 continues the evil spirit theme and points out that a half-hearted response to Jesus is disastrous. On the contrary those who follow him wholeheartedly and do the Father’s will are as close to him as family (12.46-50).

Read Matthew 13.1-33

The third discourse: Jesus teaches in parables

Chapters 11 and 12 have shown varied reactions to Jesus. The parables of chapter 13 explain why his teaching met with such a mixed response. A parable is not just an illustrative story: it contains a mystery which does not carry its full meaning on the surface. Like a cartoon, some ‘get it’ and others don’t. So the same parable, if uninterpreted, will enlighten some and leave others unmoved (13.14,15). Some, like the disciples, have the gift of penetrating to the deeper meaning given to them, and it is a great privilege (13.16,17), not the result of human cleverness. The parable of the sower comes first and is interpreted by Jesus. It is a reflection on his message and ministry. Some who heard him were hard, like a well-trodden path. Others made an initial response but had no roots. Others got entangled in the affairs of daily life. Only a proportion were fruitful. But the problem lies not with the sower or with the seed but