At the Table of the Word

The Gospel according to Matthew is generally attributed to an author whose community was composed of Jewish Christians. Having started their lives as Jews, they had come to follow Jesus, believing him to be God’s Messiah or “anointed one.” For them, Jesus was seen as part of the continuous line of prophetic figures, continuing in the mission of such figures as Isaiah and Elijah. 

John the Baptist, who came to announce the coming of the Messiah, was seen as a new Elijah figure. Elijah, whom the Bible says was carried off to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), was expected to return to usher in the time of the Messiah. For the evangelist, the Baptist served as a bridge between the prophets of old and the time of Jesus. John is presented as being the messenger prophesied by Isaiah, who was to come calling the people to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Mt 3:3). Dressed in clothing similar to that of Elijah and eating the food of prophets in the wilderness (3:4), John called the people to repentance and baptized Jesus. At the baptism, a heavenly voice declared to John, and perhaps to those around him, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (3:17). 

Having been introduced as God’s beloved, Jesus began his own ministry, which is seen as a continuation of John’s. Once John was arrested, Jesus appeared on the scene in Galilee proclaiming a message similar to that of John (4:12–17). For Matthew, this is another example of a fulfillment of a prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures. 

In the following chapter of his Gospel, the evangelist presents us with a block of “Jesus tradition” that is commonly referred to as “the Sermon on the Mount.” Much of this material is also found in Mark, usually said to be the oldest written Gospel, and Luke. But in Mark and Luke, the material is spread throughout the text; it is only in Matthew that we find such a large block of teaching material gathered together in one sermon. 

The reason offered as an explanation for this is that Matthew is seeking to show the similarity between Moses, the great prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures, and Jesus. Like Moses, Jesus’ life was endangered when he was an infant, and in both cases God was watching over and protecting the child. For Moses, it was in his being rescued from the Nile by the pharaoh’s daughter, and for Jesus, it is in the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt when Herod sought to take the life of the child. 

Another parallel between the Sermon on the Mount and the life of Moses is that Jesus, like Moses, presented God’s words to the crowd on a mount (mountain). For Moses, it was the Commandments; for Jesus it was the Beatitudes and the subsequent teachings on such issues as anger, adultery, and revenge. In many of his teachings, Jesus first referred to the teaching of Moses, “You have heard that it was said ….” He then went on to present a new teaching, not contrary to the old but fulfilling or developing it, “But I say to you ….” 

Many of Matthew’s “fulfillment sayings” are based in texts found in the Book of the prophet Isaiah, so it is not unusual to find the first reading taken from Isaiah’s text on many Sundays in this cycle of readings. 

A key theme in both Isaiah and Matthew is that of universal salvation. Isaiah envisioned a time when, in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram (Gen 12:3; 22:18), all the nations of the earth would find blessing through his descendants. Israel is to be a “light to the nations” (Isa 49:6). In his genealogy of Jesus, Matthew begins with Abraham and shows how salvation history, with both saints and sinners, prepared for the coming of Jesus (Mt 1:1–16). After the birth of Jesus, the magi, who followed a star, came to discover the recently born child who would bring that light to all people. They represent the first manifestation of Christ to the world. 

In concluding his Gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus commissioned his disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19) as a continuation of his mission and in fulfillment of the prophecies of old. The blessing promised is the blessing received. So for Matthew, whose word we will break open this year, Jesus is both the fulfillment of earlier revelation and God’s ultimate revelation. ML

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