January 11, 2008 - The Gospel According to Matthew Chapter
11
General Comment: Chapter 10 gave us an insight
into the work of the Disciples, now Apostles, commissioned by Jesus. It is
important that we do not miss a central feature of
their ministry. Once we get beyond the instructions we realize
that what they are doing is sharing in Jesus' own ministry. They are
doing what Jesus did, without wearing a "WWJD bracelet!" This leaves
us with a question: Is it not reasonable for us to fashion our own
understanding of Discipleship on that same basic premise, that we share in the
continuing ministry of Jesus in our time? Should we not be involved in the life
of the Church in ways that honor and continue that ministry, taking the
initiative to seek out opportunities - scouring the Messenger, Sunday
Bulletin and Gary's "Tidbits" rather than waiting to be asked?
Jesus was on the road, his Disciples were on the road, looking to find where
God had work for them to do. They did not wait for someone to come to them.
Chapter 11 devotes a major portion of attention
on John the Baptist, including the honor paid to him by Jesus.
John was a man fitted for a pivotal moment in history. It was said that there
had not been a Prophet in Israel for 400 years until John's appearance in the
Jordan. He was beloved by the Jews, feared by Herod Antipas who would
ultimately execute him, an act on which the defeat of Herod's army by
Aretas, King of Arabia, would be blamed (at the end of this review I have
placed the comments about John written by the Jewish historian Josephus ca. 95
CE). Also in this chapter are several unrelated passages, one on the
fate of cities that rejected Jesus' message and another on the revealing of
God.
Matthew 11:2-19 John the Baptist, the Greatest and the Least
John the Baptist is in prison at Herod's Macherus
Fortress/Palace, on the east side of the Jordan River. He has been hearing
stories about this Jesus whom he had baptized and once included among his
early Disciples until Jesus had forged his own path. The reports of
healings, exorcisms and the proclaiming of the nearness of God's Reign
both puzzled and excited him. Did his memory of Jesus support such
wonders? John called two of his Disciples (Torah requires two witnesses to
verify anyone's testimony) and sent them to inquire of Jesus if he was
"...the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another.?" John
does not specifically ask if he is the Messiah (Christos in Greek). Jesus'
ministry seems to be one of compassionate acts, teaching and healing rather
than John's expectation of his own "Hell fire and brimstone"
message. Jesus' answer summarizes the results of his own ministry as
one which reflected his understanding of the Reign of God, not
as beginning with wrath and destruction, but as a world transformed
and patterned after the justice and loving kindness of God (derived from the
word "hesed" used in the Hebrew Scriptures for the continuing
faithfulness and loving kindness of God for Israel).
Jesus addresses the crowds, praising John's work. Along
the Jordan, reeds - "shaken by the wind" - were growing in the
shallows; the palaces of Herod and the wealthy aristocracy who
were "dressed in soft robes" could be seen. But that is
not what people came out of the towns and cities to the Jordan to see.
They came for the purification offered by John. They came to see "more
than a Prophet." They came to see the one written of by the
Prophet Malachi (Mal 3:1,4:5-6 interpreted by early Christians as
referring to John). Indeed, Jesus declares that "...he is Elijah who is to
come." It was widely held in Judaism, long before Jesus' time, that
Elijah, who had been taken up into heaven (2 Kings 2:1-11), would return as the
forerunner of the Messiah on the Day of the Lord, to announce the arrival of
the new age.
Even though Jesus can say that John has arisen to be
greater than any man born of women, yet he is less than the least of those who
are in the Reign of God (Jesus' Disciples, or believers in Matthew's time)
which has already begun in Jesus. This is not a criticism of John,
and certainly not a slight of John's relationship with God. After all, it is
John who is doing God's work by preparing the way for the Messiah.
Jesus' appraisal suggests the sharp divide that exists between the Old Age
in which John stands as the last great Prophet, and the New Age, beginning
with the announcement of the Good News, and inaugurated in the Messianic
presence of Jesus. Furthermore, by Matthew's time believers were called
"Children of God," and so there may be a play on that idea, comparing
John, born of a woman, with the believers who are born of God - born from
above, as the Gospel of John will put it. In any case, we are called upon in
our time to imitate John, for his contribution to history is his witness
to Christ as present. We would do well, in whatever way we can, to demonstrate
through our own lives that same presence.
Verse 12 in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) attests
to the difficulty of translating certain Greek verb "voices." Among
the diverse opinions, and because the NRSV translation does not fit any
other New Testament idea of becoming a believer, the New International Version
(NIV) provides the better translation: "From the days of John the Baptist
until now, the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful
men lay hold of it." This wording portrays Matthew's assessment that
the Church is growing rapidly, primarily among the Gentiles, and that many are
anxious and crowding in to become believers. Other views which see the
text as reflecting the violence being faced by Matthew's community are not
persuasive.
Matthew 11:20-24 Rejection of the Jesus ministry
In this brief section the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and,
surprisingly, Capernaum, are singled out for severe criticism and
condemnation because they have not been swayed by Jesus' "deeds of
power," miracles. To say that this is because the citizens of these cities
did not believe in miracles is to misunderstand the ancient world view in which
miracles were commonplace. We might be reading the experience of those
itinerant evangelists who preached after the time of Jesus death, but
who were unsuccessful in converting Jews to this new faith. Among
Jews the dual stumbling blocks were the need for repentance (they were, after
all, children of Abraham and thereby had inherited their right to be considered
Children of God as a birth right), and accepting the title Son of God for Jesus
(a rejection of strict monotheism - one God). Reading Paul's letter to the
Romans, written in the winter of 57/58 CE, we see that Paul struggles with
this same issue and reliably conveys the historical reality that not many Jews
did become Christians beyond the narrow confines of Palestine. The Book of
Acts, despite its more than optimistic stating of the numbers of early converts
in Jerusalem, is clear that at some point the center of evangelistic
work shifted from Palestine to Gentile territory. By no later than 63 CE,
when James, the brother of Jesus, was ordered killed by the High Priest,
it would not be unrealistic to say that all major Christian centers were
in predominately Gentile cities; Antioch, Damascus, Ephesus, Corinth and
westward to Rome. By 70 CE, with the destruction of the Temple and much of
Jerusalem, the move would be complete.
Matthew 11:25-30 A Prayer and an Invitation
The prayer and the well known invitation, "Come to me
all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest," are windows to revelation. It is not to the Earth-wise and
intelligent, who believe they already know everything, that God has been
revealed, but to the "infants," those who are open to hearing and
learning what God has to reveal. And that revelation has been fully handed over
to Jesus by God, "...and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no
one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom he chooses to
reveal Him," and he chooses to reveal God to any who have ears to hear.
In Jesus' invitation to accept an easier yoke, we have
an example of how Jesus' sayings were used in the preaching and
teaching by the evangelists in Matthew's Church community. In the attempt
to convince Jews to convert, the heavy yoke of the Scribes and Pharisees,
represented by the onerous regulations governing Sabbath, food, worship,
circumcision, and other rites of Judaism, was declared to be overturned by the
coming of Jesus, who had revealed and established a new era in
one's relationship with God. It is not that being
believers freed them (or us) from the defining strictures of
Christian faith, but they were free of those requirements which, in
the Christian view, played no role in what it means to be a true child of God.
It was a different age, and the new wine could not be held in the old
wineskins.
We United Methodists are people of tradition. Along with
Scripture, Reason and Experience, Tradition is one of the major elements
upon which we base our doctrines and the content of teaching,
preaching and organization. The Wesleyan emphasis on prevenient and sanctifying
grace, the aspiring to holiness and perfection, the order of worship and, of
course, the songs of Charles Wesley, mark us as "a peculiar people, as
Methodists were called. From John Wesley we inherit the itinerant concept of
the 18th and 19th centuries Circuit Rider, still with us today. We inherit and
we make our own traditions, among them the wording in the reception of new
members, in which we all promised to uphold our Church with "...our
prayers, presence, gifts and service." It is the yoke we all have accepted
with a promise to wear it well. It is the narrow gate, the fruit we bear, it is
being doers and not hearers only.
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Notes
1. "Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction
of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he
did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a
good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness
towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that
the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it,
not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for
the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly
purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds
about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words,
Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put
it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready
to do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, by putting him to death, to
prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties,
by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late.
Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to
Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the
Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment
upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him." Antiquities
of the Jews XVIII Chapter 5:2
2. Herod spent most of his time at his Macherus Fortress
where he felt protected against his own citizens who hated him.
Apparently all the Herods seem to have been a rather despicable lot!
3. The title "...the one who is to come." was
variously used as a designation of the Prophet mentioned by Moses in
Deuteronomy as the one whom God would raise up to replace him, as well as a
general term used in the first century for an expected savior. It was not
specific to the idea of the Davidic Messiah.
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