Gospel of Matthew 1-28

This is the perfect lead-in to the New Testament, considering its obsession with the Old Testament, and that's the best way to introduce the Gospel of Matthew.

It begins with the first of two genealogies in the gospels, which is something that both reflects a classic element of the Old Testament as well as prove that Jesus was descended from the house of David, which was one of the many prophesies this gospel seems intent to point out as fulfilled.

It has a nativity sequence, featuring Joseph's doubts, the wise men, the wicked Herod, the flight to Egypt (of course!).

Then a shift to John the Baptist.  We'll talk more about him a little later, but given the emphasis Reza Aslan put on him in Zealot, I can't help but see the Baptist in a different light.  He's always been prominent in Christian lore, but as Aslan depicts him, he was actually a pretty big deal in his day, to the point where he threatened to eclipse Jesus even after his ministry and crucifixion.  It's no wonder, then, that he keeps randomly appearing in this gospel.

He's the first one, by the way, in Matthew, to preach against corrupt religious leaders, a refrain Jesus enthusiastically picks up.

And then Jesus is baptized by him, of course.

Jesus then departs for the wilderness, where he stays for 40 days and is tempted by Satan.  As with many elements of the Bible, this reads like an echo of how his ministry will end, so there's suffering at both ends.

His basic message is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Although "his," I would argue, and I'll get back to this, isn't Jesus, but John the Baptist.

Jesus recruits Peter, Andrew, James, and John, the core and most famous apostles.  He begins his ministry in earnest, curing people and teaching in synagogues.  He delivers the Sermon on the Mount, which includes the Lord's Prayer (and the phrase "pearls before swine," which has since become the title of a delightful comic strip).  He talks so much, it's exactly like all the prophets in the Old Testament.

A leper is cured.  The centurion's servant is cured.  Peter's mother is cured.  There are exorcisms by the boatload.  Jesus uses the phrase "Son of man."  He calms the stormy sea.  He cures the paralyzed man.  He recruits Matthew, which begins the theme of the religious authorities challenging him that runs through the rest of the gospel.  Not coincidentally, after this he cures a blind man and asks him not to talk about it.  He realizes, perhaps, that he's doing everything necessary to provoke his bad end, but the time isn't right yet, so now he has to try and prevent word from continuing to spread.  Except Jesus became human for a trap.  And at least in Matthew he just keeps walking into them.  He can't help himself.

The twelve apostles are named in full: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, the other James, Thaddeus, Simon, and the notorious Judas Iscariot.  At this point none of them has really done anything.  Jesus sends them out to do the same stuff he's been doing.

John the Baptist is brought up again.  He seems to need reassurance as to who Jesus is.

Jesus becomes increasingly anxious about his ministry.  After he flat-out calls himself the Son of God, the religious authorities actively begin looking for ways to dispose of him.  He keeps trying to keep a low profile.

Jesus alludes to his impending fate, but this talk increases as the danger increases.

Interestingly, the only other time Mary appears in this gospel she isn't even identified by name but rather in her blood relation to Jesus.  And as he's asked his followers to do previously, Jesus distances himself from her.

There are a lot of parables.  This reading is also the first time that I seriously considered the idea that he's really talking about himself in them.  "Kingdom of heaven" is a way of referring to himself, then, like "Son of man."  He's the last royal figure the world will ever truly need, then, which is majestically and then cruelly demonstrated later in the gospel.

But few people really seem to know who he was, in this gospel, before the ministry.  "Is not this the carpenter's son?"  He himself doesn't even have a reputation!  Later, there's even talk that he's dismissed as a glutton and a drunk.  Just what was Jesus doing for his first thirty years, anyway?

John the Baptist is executed.  Like Jesus later he requires special justification and hand-ringing on the part of the figure who condemns him.

Jesus retreats after learning this news.  He then feeds a multitude with a small amount of food for the first time.  Then he walks on water.

He's also, however, growing increasingly frustrated.  Quite remarkably, from this point on in the gospel, actually, Jesus can be described as quite frustrated indeed.  It becomes his defining characteristic.  It's also at this point that he shifts the focus of his ministry to the Gentiles (i.e. Not Jews).  Previously he was quite insistent that he was coming to speak to Jews only, much like everyone in the Old Testament, and that everything that was old was new again.  But in fact he's making that a very literal development.

He feeds a multitude with a small amount of food again.

He keeps invoking Jonah, too, especially the whole "three days" period.  I suppose it's pretty obvious.

He makes it clear to his apostles who he is, and then tells them about what awaits him.  Then Jesus performs the transfiguration, in which it's really obvious that he's more than human.

He keeps trying to explain himself.  The religious authorities begin to test him openly.  It's funny, though, and appropriate, that Jesus has a lot of compassion for his apostles, although he shares the Old Testament virtue of favoring humbleness.  In the Old Testament, compassion was something often suggested but rarely practiced.

Palm Sunday occurs, the one time Jesus gets to enjoy what it's like to be apparently universally loved.  Then he causes a scene in the temple.  He's building the case against himself all by himself.

He becomes angry with a fig tree.  But really he's becoming more nervous about actually experiencing what he's been headed toward all his life.

As if to emphasis the curious link I've been making, he challenges the religious authorities concerning the legacy of John the Baptist.  So they decide to try and make it a Roman issue.

He talks about the end of days.  Although, "he" I think doesn't actually refer to Jesus but John the Baptist.  I know I'm going against classic theology again here, but the words he speaks at this point don't make any sense.  They make much more sense if you suspect the author of this gospel to have also been drawing from the legacy of John the Baptist, remembering his ministry, and having gotten them a little jumbled.  It would make sense.  In the earliest days of the emerging Christianity, they were trying to figure out what it all meant.  That was why they needed the gospel narratives.  Matthew is not the earliest one, but it's clearly the one that concerned itself most with the old faith and the transition to the new one Jesus represented.  John the Baptist is identified as Elijah here, one of the criteria for the coming of the messiah, which some of Jesus's own apostles think he embodies.  All this talk about "within this generation" would certainly have sturdy qualifications if referring not to a second coming but the first appearance, the crucial ministry itself, and thus must necessarily come from the mouth of John the Baptist.  Perhaps I will have further insight reading the other gospels.

Jesus is anointed by an anonymous woman, sometimes interpreted to be Mary Magdalene.  But this is an action that has the same symbolic weight as the visit of the wise men at the start of this gospel.

Judas betrays him for 30 pieces of silver.

The Last Supper occurs with the classic elements for Catholic mass introduced.  Jesus predicts Peter will deny him.  He suffers his worst moment of the gospel in the garden of Gethsemane, his supreme moment of doubt.  He's brought before the high priest.  He's brought before Pilate.  Pilate declares himself innocent.  After the scourging Jesus receives mock royal treatment.  Simon of Cyrene appears to help carry the cross.  The two robbers are referenced (but neither has a redemptive moment in this gospel).  Jesus is distraught on the cross.  After his death, it's a centurion who figures out what just happened.

Those present at the crucifixion are identified as Mary Magdalene, plus a Mary who is described as the mother of James and Joseph (whoever they are), and also the mother of James and John, the apostles frequently referred to as the sons of Zebedee.  Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.  Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" witness the resurrection, are later met by Jesus.  The religious authorities, incredibly, still conspire against him, trying to discredit the resurrection.  Jesus meets the remaining apostles on a mountain, asks them to spread the faith to all nations.  At the end of this gospel, he's still among them.