The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

The Charter:  Matthew’s Literary Structure, Part One

‘…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…’ (28:20)

Each year, when my kids start a new grade in September at their elementary school, their teachers meet with us as parents.  They tell us what they will cover during the school year.  They have a goal of covering a certain amount of topics.  They already know to what they will give our children exposure.  And by the end of the year, our children should have become competent in those things.  This is how all good teachers plan the curriculum they expect to cover.  Similarly, Matthew is a good teacher who has planned his curriculum around Jesus’ identity and mission.  He designed it for us as students, and eventually for us as teachers, too.

          Matthew finishes his Gospel with Jesus’ command to his disciples that they teach others:  ‘teaching them to observe all that I commanded you’ (Mt.28:20).  They are not to produce merely converts, in a simplistic sense of that word.  They are to produce disciples, full fledged followers of Jesus who abide by ALL Jesus’ teaching.  But what is ALL of that teaching?  Matthew is surely not excluding what is included in Mark, Luke, and John, but at a minimum, we should look at how Matthew structures his Gospel around Jesus’ teaching. 

Matthew groups Jesus’ teaching in five major blocks.  Each section ends with a similar phrase:

Mt.7:28 When Jesus had finished these words.

Mt.11:1 When Jesus had finished giving instructions.

Mt.13:53 When Jesus had finished these parables.

Mt.19:1 When Jesus had finished these words.

Mt.26:1 When Jesus had finished all these words.

Matthew structures Jesus’ actions and teaching in a pattern of five, in a structural allusion to the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the original constitution-like document of Mosaic Israel.  ‘Torah’ means ‘teaching.’  It’s not that each ‘section’ of Matthew’ matches each ‘book’ of Moses; the structural allusion doesn’t work quite that way.

          The first section (1:1 – 7:28) deals with Jesus’ identity and his teaching which transforms the human heart. The second section (8:1 – 11:1) is about Jesus healing us by his word, which builds the disciples’ confidence that his word is powerful, a useful thing since Jesus sends them to do a short-term missions trip to Israel. The third section (11:2 – 13:53) deals with the mixed response to Jesus and how Jesus trains his disciples to interpret rejection; the Old Testament anticipated this, so it’s not a failure of prophecy but a fulfillment. The fourth section (14:1 – 19:1) deals mainly with Jesus doing ministry with the disciples among the Gentiles, i.e. cross-cultural, multi-ethnic ministry. This is vital hands-on training for the Great Commission. The fifth section (19:2 – 26:1) deals with Jesus’ final confrontation with the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, his parting of ways with them (ethically and socially), and his preparing the disciples for the fall of Jerusalem, the sign that he was indeed the Messiah.

          One thing that we can do with Matthew’s Gospel is use it as a kind of diagnostic tool.  Some of us need Jesus to work on our hearts.  Others of us need to experience the power of his healing word and develop our understanding of it.  Others of us need to think more about kingdom expansion, to face our fears of rejection, to sharpen our minds, and get over our discomfort with making spiritual distinctions between true Christians and everyone else.  Others might need to expand the range of people to whom we witness.  Others may need to understand the key distinctions between Jesus and other figures – religious, literary, philosophical, or political – even if it reproduces the same conflicts Jesus experienced in his final days in Jerusalem.  Spend some time thinking and praying about where you have been more or less developed.  You might sense the Lord leading you to develop some area of your life.

Then comes a climactic summary epilogue where Jesus dies and rises again, and tells his disciples to ‘go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.’  That statement summarizes what came before.  Look at the structure:

Mt.7:28 When Jesus had finished these words.

Mt.11:1 When Jesus had finished giving instructions.

Mt.13:53 When Jesus had finished these parables.

Mt.19:1 When Jesus had finished these words.

Mt.26:1 When Jesus had finished all these words.

Mt.28:16 – 20 Make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

What does this mean about the function of Matthew’s Gospel?  Just as the Torah is Moses’ teaching, so Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus’ teaching.  And just as Moses’ teaching was the founding charter, the constitution, of Mosaic Israel, so Jesus’ teaching is the founding charter, the constitution, of Messianic Israel.  That is, the church. 

          Our founding charter document commissions us to make disciples.  But, just for the sake of clarity, it would be fair to say that it commissions us to make disciplers.  That is, a disciple is someone who can do evangelism, help bring someone into Jesus’ kingdom, and nurture and mentor that person.  We are supposed to be able to develop a person from the threshold of faith in Jesus into maturity and then into someone who can disciple others in the same way.  And those disciples of theirs are supposed to make disciples, and so on and so on.  It’s as if Matthew is saying to us, ‘Go therefore and make disciplers.  Carry this book with you wherever you go, and put it to good use.’