Gospel of Matthew: Reflective Analysis

[Moss]

Not that any of you are going to read this, but thought I'd post it nonetheless. And no, I didn't do this for any other reason than because I was bored and found it an interesting endevour. Oh, and I focussed mainly on the specific things Jesus said (as quoted in Matthew) rather than the specific events in Matthew...so a lot of things are left out mainly because I don't have the time or the space to analyze everything.

Reflective Analysis: Gospel of Matthew
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The Gospel of Matthew is first in sequence in the New Testament of the Bible although chronologically it is of almost unanimous consent that Mark was the first of the Gospels to be written. Like all of the other Gospels, Matthew’s author tells about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. However, what separates the Gospel of Matthew from the other Gospels is the many parables that are written down in its pages, and also the account of the Sermon on the Mount. Both the parables and the Sermon on the Mount are key sources in the moralistic teachings of Jesus, and are quite possibly two of the most important aspects of the entire Bible and the Church of Christianity. Jesus, as the Gospels tell, lived and died, and then was raised from the dead. We should not forget those crucial facts, but let us also not forget the teachings, ministry, and actions of Jesus while he lived, and all of those things are quite visible in the Gospel of Matthew.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus attracted large crowds of disciples and followers, and on one occasion specifically written down in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus goes up on a hill or mountainside and begins to preach in what is now famously known as his Sermon on the Mount. He spoke about happiness, the Law of Moses, anger, happiness, compassion, and about helping others. Much of what he said is well known, but one section of his sermon in particular, seems to have been forgotten.

That forgotten thing is vows, and Jesus preaches about vows starting with Matthew chapter five, verse thirty-three.

“You have also heard that people were told in the past, ‘Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do. But now I tell you; do not use any vow when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by earth, for it is the resting place for his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. Just say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ – anything else you say comes from the Evil One.”

Jesus tells his followers, and tells us, not to vow by heaven or by earth for they do not belong to us. However, do we not, every time we swear in a witness in the courtroom, ask him to raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth so help them God? I swear to God we often say. No, we don’t swear to God or by God, as He’s not ours to swear by.

One could take this section of the scripture to mean that we need not swear by anything. When we answer a question or give someone a promise, we should already know in our hearts that our answer is true otherwise we should keep our mouth closed. The same goes for the person asking the question or asking for the favor. If you cannot trust the word of someone without first making them swear to something, why would you trust them if they did? Jesus doesn’t say the word trust in that verse about vows, but from if you trust in your own heart to do what you say, and you trust in what others say, there is no need for vows.

However, the cynical nature of humanity consumes even the most trusting person. We put our faith in our fellow friends, family, we trust them to be honest, and every once in awhile they let us down. We ask people to swear by things such as God or some other valuable possession because somewhere inside of us we interpret that the thing they are swearing by is more important than the person they are making that promise to. We have people swear by God because we believe that they Him in higher regard than ourselves. Some of us may, but if we held each other in a higher regard, trusted each other more, yes, there would be times we would get hurt, but there would be many more times where the good of humanity would show through, and we would be rewarded for our trust, honesty, and the fact that we believed in the person and not in the vow.

The next topics on Jesus’ mind were love for those whom you do not like. The next two sections of his Sermon on the Mount deal with revenge, and with how to love your enemies. In other words, being kind to another person even if you’d rather push that person off a cliff. Starting with Matthew chapter five, verse forty-three Jesus states:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies.’ But now I tell you; love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! You must be perfect – Just as you Father in heaven is perfect.”

That paragraph should be posted, in bold lettering, on the doors of every politician and diplomat’s office the world over. It should also be put on every chalkboard in school classrooms throughout the United States. Love your enemies, and be nice to them. The greatest way to get rid of an enemy is to befriend an enemy. It is hard to hate, dislike, or be jealous of, and envy someone who is kind and helpful to you.

It is very easy to love those who love you. It is very difficult to love those who do not. Had I heeded this moral teaching as a high school student, I would have had a much easier time. Without going into much detail, the early years of my school life were horrible. My classmates weren’t that nice to me, or to each other. Yet, as they matured, they got a million times better. However, revenge and hate was still deeply embedded in my heart. My last two years of high school were the best in my life in terms of how other people treated me, yet I didn’t return the favor for I was too busy remembering burned bridges and past hatred instead of trying to rebuild those bridges and focusing on the future.

We all do things we regret in life. We all seek to redeem ourselves, or pay back those who have wronged us. In the end everything evens out. In the section before the one about loving your enemies is a section about revenge. Starting with Matthew chapter five, verse thirty-eight, Jesus teaches about letting the actions of others, be just that, the actions of others and not anything more. Not a platform for hate or revenge or war, but a platform for forgiveness. No eyes for eyes, but when someone wrongs you, let them do it again until they, themselves, realize the error of their ways.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But now I tell you; do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.”

One could argue that this says that a person has no right to stand up for his or herself when attacked. It sounds that way, but I look at it in other version. I think the verse means that you should not rush to action against those who wrong you, and realize that for every action, there is not always an equal and opposite reaction. If someone hits you, the right action is not to hit back. Two wrongs do not make the situation right.

In Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus goes on to teach about many other things as well. In speaking about charity he asks us not to, “perform our religious duties in public.” In other words, we are not to show bout or brag about our contributions to society, but do so in a fashion of believing that it what we are supposed to do and does not go above and beyond accepted normal behavior.

The Lord’s Prayer first shows up in Matthew as well. Jesus also teaches about fasting, and about not saving our riches on earth because they will not be brought with us to heaven. One of the last things Jesus teaches about in his Sermon on the Mount is the premise of ask, and thou shall receive. Starting with Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, Jesus says:

“Ask, and you will receive, seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock. Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for break? Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

“Do for others what you want them to do for you; this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets.”

This section of the sermon is one that asks us to put a lot of faith and trust in our Lord that what we ask of Him, we shall receive. It’s also not only that, but we are to have faith that like a father would not give a snake when his son asks for a fish, God will not lead us in a way that is destructive to our own personal lives. Our goals may not be God’s goals, but somewhere, God has a path for us, and He leaves it up to his sheep to find that path and do well for ourselves by reaching the end of that path.

That verse also gives us a golden rule. Do for others as we would have done to us. We should not be hypocritical in our ways and think people should treat us a certain way when we do not return the favor and treat them in the same way. We do not want our possession stolen from our homes so we should not steal from others. We do not like being insulted so we should not insult others. God gives what we ask of Him. However, sometimes we have to work for his gift. We should give to others what they ask of us. Even if sometimes we also have to work for it.

 

[Moss]

Not long after the Sermon on the Mount is recounted in Matthew, Jesus calls the tax collector Matthew to him and has a meal with him and his associates. The recount of what happened starts with Matthew chapter nine, verse nine.

“Jesus left that place and as he walked along, he saw a tax collector named Matthew, sitting in his office. He said to him, “Follow me.”

Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and other outcasts came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such people”

Jesus heard them and answered, “People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. Go and find out what is meant by the scripture that says: ‘It is kindness that I want, not animal sacrifices.’ I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”

In searching out and gathering his disciples, Jesus did not look for those who are already perfect, but for those who needed the most guidance and help. Helping those who need the help is a theme very prevalent in Matthew, and is showcased even more deeply when Jesus talks about the final judgment starting with Matthew chapter twenty-five, verse thirty one.

“When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right, ‘Come you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty, and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.’ The righteous will then answer him, ‘When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for tone of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!’”

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me a drink; I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.’ Then they will answer him, ‘When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and we would not help you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.’ These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life.”

All people are not created equal. Some of us are athletic, some artistic, some can write, some of us can complete complex algebraic equation, and others of us can tear apart a motorcycle or car and put it back together or build a house. We were all blessed with very different talents and we should use are own, unique talents to benefit society as a whole. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”

Helping the least fortunate of the Lord’s followers certainly means helping the poor, the sick, and the abandoned, but it also means helping each other. It means giving to the community the skills we can give. Talking to a friend of mine the other day while tutoring writing at the college I go to, I was reminded of the Bible verse above.

She’s also a tutor and said that she had a difficult time turning down people who came in for help, no matter how swamped she was at the time. Then she said she felt blessed that she had the intellectual capability to be able to do what she does because she realized, as I think many of us do, that some people just don’t have the capacity to be able to write well. God gives certain people certain talents, and it is our duty to use those talents to help others. Just like I can help someone with writing, I’m very glad there are people who can fix my cars I’ve driven in over the years and have been able to build the houses I’ve lived in.

The people who are allowed into heaven, and in this verse, are on the right side of Jesus, are the ones who saw that other people needed help, and helped them in the way they could. Not everyone can give money to charities, as some of us just don’t have the money to spend. Not everyone can become a doctor or a nurse or a teacher. However, we can all work hard at the things we are good at, and use those skills to help others. Time can also be a gift. Visiting people in the hospital or going and talking with or bringing lunch to shut-ins who don’t get a chance to socialize for reasons they cannot control.

Along with his explicit teaching of the final judgment, Jesus also uses many parables to describe the Kingdom of heaven. The Parable of the Sower is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and tells of the man who went out to sow grain and as he dropped the grain, certain bad things happened, such as birds coming to eat them up, or the seeds would sprout too soon because the soil was too shallow and then the sun would burn the stem up. The lesson from that parable is that only the seeds from the farmer that found good soil represented the Kingdom of heaven, as those are the people who birth hear and understand the message of God.

Another parable written in Matthew, and only found in Matthew is The Parable of the Weeds which is written down starting with Matthew chapter thirteen, verse twenty-four.

“Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field. One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up. The man’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sire, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from? ‘It was some enemy who did this,’ he answered. ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’ they asked him. ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them. Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then together in the wheat and put it in my barn.”

This parable seems to say that we should not get rid of the weeds, or evil souls, when they first become known to us. Let the good and the bad grow together, and in only when all is ready, divide them into two separate groups. To me this means that things are not final until the final judgment of the Lord. It means that people can always change, and some of us may start out as weeds, but end up like wheat. Others of us may start out like wheat and end up like weeds.

God doesn’t give up on us if we have a bad day, or week, or year. There’s always that chance for forgiveness, and part of this parable is making sure the weeds don’t harm the wheat while it is still growing, but another part is making sure that you only pull the weeds out when everything is finished. Don’t mistake a wheat stem for a weed, and don’t mistake good for evil and in doing so, ruin a life that shouldn’t have been ruined.

As Jesus taught, he brought people to help him with his teachings such as he called Matthew, the tax collector, to follow him and other disciples. We are still following the Lord two thousand years later. In Matthew chapter ten, verse five, the Bible tells of how Jesus sent out his disciples, and tells of what Jesus told them about their mission.

“These twelve men were sent out by Jesus with the following instructions: “Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. Instead, you are to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go and preach, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; do not carry a beggar’s bag for the trip or an extra shirt or shoes or walking stick. Workers should be given what they need.”

“When you come to a town or village, go in and look for someone who is willing to welcome you, and stay with him until you leave that place. When you go into a house, say, ‘Peace be with you.’ If the people in that house welcome you, let your greeting of peace remain; but if they do not welcome you, then take back your greeting. And if some home or town will not welcome you or listen to you, then leave that place and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than to the people of that town!”

All of information and feelings in this interpretive analysis means nothing without that quote from Matthew and without Disciples going out into the world and helping others, giving others knowledge, and proclaim the good news of the Lord. All of the knowledge gained by reading the bible, all of the moral teachings, mean absolutely nothing if one cannot act on those moral teachings. Actions, will always speak louder than words.

Jesus not only taught, but he acted. He healed others and he did what the prophets proclaimed that he would do, he died and rose from the dead. We would not heed his teachings if he had not put action behind his words, just like we do not heed the word of someone who says one thing and does another. Words are important; speaking about the word of God is important, but not as important as action.

These reflections on the moral teachings of Jesus, such as his Sermon on the Mount and his many parables as printed in Matthew, mean absolutely nothing if one reads those and believes those teachings, but does not act on those teachings. The Gospel of Matthew gives a powerful picture of Jesus as a great minister of the people, but also as a person who acts on what he says. According the Gospel of Matthew, being a good Christian is not just believing in God and in Jesus and in their Laws and teachings, but being a good Christian only comes in acting on those beliefs. Only in helping the least of the followers of Jesus can we ever consider ourselves worthy of the love of Jesus Christ.