The unique material in Matthew, along with his use of other synoptic material, evidences that Matthew is arguing against a Jewish-Gentile conflict within the church, where certain Jewish leaders who have become Christians are incorporating Jesus into rabbinical Judaism’s interpretation of Old Testament religion as heavily ritualistic, and Gentiles are arguing for a complete abandonment of the teachings of the Hebrew Bible, and using Jesus as a means to live as they please. This has created a rift where Jewish leaders are using their positions to shun Gentiles and any other Jewish-Christians who fellowship with them. Matthew argues for both a rejection of these two false interpretations of Christianity and a reconciliation of all who would claim to belong to Christ. Jew and Gentile alike. Hence, Matthew’s argument solely concerns those within the covenant community.
Theology: Only the apostles have the right to interpret Christianity, and therefore, all other interpreters with contradictory interpretations concerning who Jesus is, what He did, and what He required of His followers are false prophets. Hence, rabbinical and antinomian interpretations of Christianity are false religions, and not merely different ways to practice Christianity.
Since Christ is the King of the Kingdom,, He determines who is a true follower, and His criteria concerns whether or not someone actual lives according to what He has taught. Since He is the true Israel, all who are truly His followers belong to Israel. Everyone who constructs a different Christianity that ignores the love of other covenant members by following the law, either by emphasizing ritual and deemphasizing the moral law by placing rituals over actions toward others, as rabbinic Judaism had done, or merely sets aside what was moral because he sees Christianity as a different religion than that established by God in the Hebrew Bible, as the antinomians were arguing, have rejected Christ as Lord by rejecting the apostles as His divinely ordained interpreters, and are thus, rejected as false Christians.
God has every right to save Gentiles as Gentiles, and not to require them to become Jewish in their customs, even if those customs were confirmed in the law. What God does require of everyone, however, is that they obey the moral law to the fullest expression possible because these are the righteous deeds of Christ’s reign. Any other practice is not of the kingdom because it is not of the King.
Ethics: Jesus relates that how one treats his fellow covenant member evidences whether he will truly be saved in the end. If he hates his brother, refuses to reconcile with him, and slanders him instead, he breaks the law prohibiting murder, and is thus damned to the Gehenna of fire. If he desires someone other than his spouse, or divorces his wife, or marries one who is divorced, he breaks the law prohibiting adultery, and is therefore damned to the Gehenna of fire. If he breaks an oath made before God, he lifts up YHWH’s name in vain. If he does not take care of his parents financially, he does not honor his father and mother. If he does not care for fellow covenant members, he rejects the law that commands him to do so. If he does not restore his relationships with other covenant community members, he will not be restored to God in eternity either.
Ultimately, those who do not repent of these sins by seeking to do otherwise do not have Jesus as Lord, and therefore, have no basis to claim the promise of the eternal kingdom spoken about by the prophets as that which is offered under the reign of the Messiah. Only those who obey the King will remain in the kingdom forever.
All of this makes up what Jesus calls the “will of the Father,” and those who hear His teachings on it, but don’t actually do what He teaches, are considered “lawless” fools who build their houses on sand. They are told to depart from Him into everlasting punishment. Those who do what He says, however, are His true disciples. They are called the righteous who are good and faithful servants, and build their houses on the rock (i.e., the teachings of Jesus). Any true teacher will serve Jesus and His people by teaching these, and disciplining over them, and not use his authority for his own honor/respectability. Hence, the idea of the servant leader is repeated throughout the book, as well as the contrast of those who seek their own honor by annulling Christ’s teaching and teaching his own version of what Christian practice within the kingdom/church should look like.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post above addressing your comment here. Let me just say about Luke that I think the same thing must be done that I do for Matthew. Luke's argument is about whether one is a true covenant member as evidenced by how he treats the poor and marginalized within the covenant community. I don't see his use of the Sermon as being generic anymore than his saying that the poor are blessed means the poor in general because he didn't say, "the Christian poor" explicitly. The context of his argument makes it clear that he is talking about the Christian poor, and not arguing that the poor, by virtue of their being poor, are have the blessings of salvation.
Those who persecute the prophets and speak well of the false prophets in the OT are primarily the visible covenant community, not pagans. Pharaoh and Balak don't persecute prophets that I am aware of. Jezebel persecutes them, but I would have understood Jesus' words to refer to the covenant community, as he places the blood of all of them upon those false believers within it, and not on the pagan world.
Finally, all of the Gospels are missional. Your understanding of mission is in the context of the social gospel, not the biblical witness, which tells us how we engage the pagan by proclamation and not by works of charity.