Embracing Our Heritage: Jesus as Teaching Messiah

Lord God, we thank you for the privilege of being able to be together as we look at your word. We are thankful for the blessing it brings, as well as the challenge. We are thankful for your grace that enables us to live as you would have us live. Guide us by your spirit as we look at a wrap-up of this particular study.

We have been looking at Matthew's Gospel, specifically at the teaching blocks. The goal is not only to understand what Jesus is teaching, but to be able to know Jesus better so that we will follow Jesus more faithfully. We have been focusing more on the teaching than on the teacher. Matthew has a lot to say about who Jesus is.

In this particular case, we have talked about Jesus as a teaching Messiah, one who has come to guide Israel into the fullness of God. He has not come to abandon the law or the prophets, but rather to fulfill them. He is also the Son of Man, the Son of God, Emmanuel, and the King.

Matthew has used the Gospel of Mark as a foundation and outline for his own Gospel and has added and interjected these teaching blocks. Jesus begins each of these teaching blocks with something like, "He said" or "He began to teach." The ending is the same Greek phrase, "When Jesus finished or completed these words." The goal is to help us understand not only the teacher but the teachings, and to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus as we understand those teachings.

At the end of Chapter 24, the last phrase reads, "When Jesus had completed all these words." This marks the end of the teaching blocks of Jesus. According to scholarly assumption, Matthew's Gospel was based on Mark's Gospel, with the addition of a birth narrative in Chapters 1 and 2, and Chapters 3 and 4 which talk about John the Baptist and the Temptation and the calling of early disciples. Matthew also added extra material at the end. All of the Gospels have the crucifixion and the events leading up to it.

In Chapter 28 of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus sends out his disciples to make disciples of all the nations. They are to do this by baptizing and teaching them to keep all that Jesus has commanded. Baptizing here means affirming one's faith in Jesus.

When looking at the Gospel of Matthew, it is important to understand the teachings of Jesus. The first teaching section is on ethics, which is how to live with one another, how to treat others, and how to follow Christ. This begins with a discussion of blessings and grace, and then moves into how to live out the grace. It is also important to remember that the Ten Commandments begin with the Covenant promise of "I am the Lord your God."

When looking at the Gospel of Matthew, we are asking two big picture questions: what does this tell us about Jesus, and what does it tell us about the community of the author or editor? What we have here is not simply a collection of teachings, but a reflection of Matthew's decisions. The Messiah and he was a Jew, and so I think we need to be cognizant of that.

I think Matthew put these teaching blocks together to discuss Ethics, Mission, the Kingdom, the Parables of the Kingdom, the Church, and the Last End Times. Matthew was likely taking teachings of Jesus from oral tradition, the Q document, and his own understanding of what had gone on. He compiled them in these different ways, and there are ethical admonitions even when he's talking about the end times.

Matthew is telling us about the teaching of the teacher, not just about the teacher. He talks about Jesus beyond that and mentions different titles of Jesus like the Son of Man, Son of God, and Emmanuel. There is an intentional sense that Matthew is likening Jesus to a new Moses. He is anchoring Jesus' life, ministry, and teaching in the womb of Judaism. Early Christianity was a Jewish movement, and Jesus was a Jewish Messiah. He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.

Jesus' movement in the Gospel is a reform movement, much like the Pharisees wanted to bring Israel back to a deeper faithfulness. Paul, although claiming to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, was a Pharisee Jew who believed in Jesus as the Messiah and was a Jew. We need to be cognizant of this as followers of Jesus.

Jesus always started his ministry by going to the synagogue in a new place. He was doing something critically important in the life of Israel and the Jewish people. This eventually led to a parting of the ways, where Christianity and followers of Jesus were no longer seen as part of the Jewish movement. This was first acknowledged by Nero in the mid-60s.

Although the focus in Matthew's gospel was on the lost sheep of the House of Israel, by the end of the gospel it was clear that the message of Jesus was for all the world. This meant that the Gentiles had a place in the gospel. Discipleship was also critically important, and followers of Jesus should not be surprised if they experience persecution, hatred, or dismissal because of their faith. This was something the disciples had a hard time understanding, as they expected the Messiah to change the world and Israel's life politically.

No one wants to be reformed or told how to be. This is something Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, and Jesus Christ all experienced. A Georgetown professor at the Holocaust Museum did a four-day thing for teachers, and he talked about what happened to Luther after he thought Jews would flock to the new Christianity. Luther's writings at the end of his life were incredibly anti-Semitic, which was a shock to those in the audience who were Christians.

People need to be careful about anti-Judaism or anti-Semitic references in the gospel, such as in Matthew where it talks about the Jews in a sense admitting, "let his blood be on our hands" and being called "Christ Killers." We need to be careful with this because we are listening in on a family. The kingdom of God is not about those who are oppressed, but those who have the power and have defeated their oppressors. Jesus talks about this, and it gets him in trouble.

It should not come as a surprise that followers of Jesus may face hostility, persecution, and oppression. We live in a different world than Jesus lived, but this is something we can still say.

We have had heated discussions in my extended family over religion and politics that have almost led to World War III. If anyone had seen or heard us, they would have been shocked. My sister was crying, and people were yelling. We need to be cautious when discussing these topics because we don't know everything about God's plan for salvation.

Paul's argument in Romans 11 is that all Israel will be saved, but we don't know if this means physical Israel or the new Israel of God. We should be thankful for our spiritual heritage in the Jewish faith and religion, but we don't have to become Jews to be Christians. We should honor our spiritual heritage and be faithful disciples of Christ.