PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ANNOTATED OPENING REMARKS: The first three parts will receive the primary emphasis: 1. Part One: a. Comments about preaching b. General comments about Matthew’s context, structure, and themes 2. Part Two, Jesus’ three ways of teaching: a. Wisdom b. Parable c. Miracle 3. Part Three: The church in Matthew 4. The passion and resurrection narratives will be deferred until the talk on Mark, and we will conclude with the infancy narratives: “Matthew’s Gospel in Miniature.” INTRODUCTION: The Act of Preaching 1. The tasks of the preacher in the liturgy: a. To interpret the lives of the assembled people in terms of the scriptures they have heard and b. To lead them into the celebration of the Eucharist. NOTE: “..the person and mission of Jesus, culminating in his Death and Resurrection, is ultimately the central content of all the scriptures”; thus “Every scriptural text on which [the preacher] preaches leads to that center and sheds light on the mystery of that principal deed of God from different biblical perspectives” (Preaching the Mystery of Faith, p.19). “[T]he indispensable key to interpreting [Jesus] was nothing other than the self-emptying love of the Messiah revealed in his Death and Resurrection. Everything that Christ taught and all of his actions were conditioned by this outpouring of life on behalf of others, the heart of the Paschal Mystery” (Preaching the Mystery of Faith, p. 14). 1 2. The resource of the preacher = the words of the gospel, which is NEWS, not just information and the words of all of the scriptures, that adumbrate (shadow forth) the gospel: a. Words that are capable of opening up new and wonderful horizons for people in “prison” or in “hospital” (see Dei Verbum, #11 and 12); b. New ways of seeing what our lives are really about (“the life that is truly life”); c. Real food for the hungers of the heart, for people with appetite (which may need to be awakened). 3. The method of the preacher: Incarnational, not Platonic a. To find what to say, be guided i. By the arrangement of the words of the gospel within the pericope, ii. By the arrangement of the pericopes to one another, and iii. By the relation to all pericopes to all of the scriptures: The OT and NT. b. Adduce witnesses to the word by examples of the word made flesh: For example in the lives of the saints and in everyday life. 4. The readings from Matthew in Year A: note the clusters of related Sundays and the prevalence of parables. Be guided by the “big picture” in order to see what is happening in any one episode. PART ONE: Context and Themes 1. The World Behind the Gospel, for which the gospel is “news”: a. Estimated date of composition: c. 80 AD, which is post-temple and a time of tension with the Pharisees. b. Location: Antioch in Syria; READ Acts 11: 19-26. i. A church with Jewish roots that was attracting Gentiles (see Acts 11:19-26: Paul in Antioch) and Gal 2:11-14 (Peter in Antioch) ii. A church that was mid-way between James and Paul on the applicability of Jewish law, with Peter as bridge builder (see Acts 2 15: 6-12, based on his experience in Acts 10 with Cornelius and the dream of the clean and unclean animals) iii. A church that is also a “new family” and is more egalitarian than the hierarchical order of the synagogues of Antioch. Questions implied by the themes and emphases of the text: How much of the law applies, if any of it? Who has authority to interpret the law? What is the scope of the church’s mission? Is the mission to gentiles as well as to Jews? How is church life to be governed? The role of forgiveness. How steer through turmoil both from within (7:1-23: false prophets and internal dissensions) and from without (24: the fall of the temple and messianic expectations)? The gospel as word and as news addressed the hearts of people long ago and by analogy addresses people today. 2. Outline: a. Birth and passion narratives b. Five, Torah-like sections, divided into narrative and discourse, with emphasis on the reign of God, proclaimed by Jesus and the church. 3. Themes: Jesus sums up the hope of Israel and is, at the same time, something new. a. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NOW. Like John the Baptist, Jesus announces the closeness of the kingdom: “Repent”: change your attitude in order to see something new; “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”: “Thy kingdom come.” Matthew’s gospel vibrates with the shaking of foundations and impending (“eschatological”) judgment. The kingdom of heaven makes radical claims on disciples NOW: To do “on earth as it is in heaven.” NOTE: “The kingdom of heaven” is “a way of speaking of God’s own redeeming presence and therefore would mean healing and forgiveness, true justice and lasting peace” (Preaching the Mystery of Faith, p.10). 3 b. THE FULFILLMENT OF HOPE IS NOW. Jesus “fulfills” the hope of the prophets, hence the many citations of OT scripture. This strategy is important in order to overcome the objection that Jesus died as a criminal and cursed because he hung upon a tree. c. JESUS IS A NEW MOSES: THE AUTHORITATIVE TEACHER OF THE LAW. Jesus teaches what “righteousness” requires: obedient response to the requirements of God’s justice and rule. Jesus the teacher stands in contrast to other authorities, especially the scribes and the “Pharisees.” d. HIS AUTHORITY IS ROOTED IN HIS IDENTITY: JESUS IS “SON” IN A NEW SENSE i. “Whose son is he?” is the subject of the fifth and climactic controversy of passion Week. ii. As “son of God” and “son of David,” Jesus is a “messiah” like David and Solomon. iii. As “son of man” (the title he uses for himself), Jesus encompasses the full range from human being (as in Ezekiel) to divine emissary and judge of the nations (as in Daniel); he qualifies the militant connotations of messiah in popular expectations iv. He is altogether something “new”: This is the emphasis of Benedict XVI’s Christology in Jesus of Nazareth, Part 1: “Jesus always speaks as the son…the relation between Father and Son is always present as the background of his message” (p, 63). e. THE CHURCH IS A NEW FAMILY. The church, founded on the 12, is the family of Jesus and the new Israel: see Matthew 12:46-49 “The nexus between Christ and his people, between Christology and ecclesiology, is the specific message of Matthew’s gospel”: The Vision of Matthew, John P. Meier f. PETER IS A KEY FIGURE. Peter is rock, scandal, and bridge builder: a hero of Matthew’s church and a salutary example. 4. SUMMARY of THEMES: Chapter 3: The preaching of John and the Baptism of Jesus 4 In fulfillment of Isaiah and in the desert, by the river Jordan, John preaches the imminent coming of the kingdom of heaven, the need to “prepare,” and judgment on the Pharisees and Sadducees: Mt 3: 1-3. Jesus is baptized by John: Matthew edits Mark to emphasize the theme of “righteousness” and the proclamation of Jesus to all. John shows Jesus as “the point of the story,” the fulfillment of hope. Allusions to Jesus from the OT emphasize Jesus as Son (like Isaac and David) and Servant (Isaiah 42) The setting: Like Moses; Jesus is ready to enact a “new exodus” for a new people of God: through the river to the desert to the preaching of the kingdom, the new law. PART TWO: Three Ways of Teaching in Matthew’s Gospel NOTE: The challenge to the preacher is to get people to think within a biblical framework: To take up the challenge of the gospels to “repent” – to see everyday life in new TERMS; to see wisdom in the patterns and root metaphors of biblical narratives. 1. Wisdom and Law: The Beatitudes (MT 5-7): The call for a heavenly, eschatological standard: “On earth as it is in heaven.” “When man begins to see and to live from God’s perspective, when he is a companion on Jesus’ way, then he lives by new standards, and something of the eschaton, of the reality to come, is already present” (Jesus of Nazareth, I, p, 72). a. Setting: The mountain top; in the sermon on the mount, Jesus summarizes the hope of Israel, God’s people; he fulfills the law (5: 17). b. Jesus is the new Moses and the teacher of wisdom, which is “the meaning and the manner of achieving the well-lived life” (Joan Chittister in The Rule of Benedict, xii): That is, how to be “blessed,” “righteous,” and (in contemporary terms) free of “addictions”; note that the blessings that are pronounced are rooted in OT hope, especially the wisdom psalms, such as Psalm 1 about the “two ways” (5:1-16) c. The disciples are to be “salt” and “light.” On being “perfect,” see Lohfink, p. 99. 5 d. Going deeper into the Law, uprooting the causes of unrighteousness (anger, lust, and swearing), Jesus contrasts his authority with what “was said to your ancestors.” (5:17-48) e. Jesus teaches the true = authentic way to “perform righteous deeds”: Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting and the need to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (6). f. Miscellaneous teachings and warnings, and a reminder to build WISELY on rock (7). g.