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

An Introduction to Matthew's Gospel

         When I decided to commit myself to Jesus, late my junior year of high school, I was in an impoverished part of Mexico near the California border. Having come from a fairly affluent suburb of Los Angeles, I was shocked at the poverty. I had been invited by Christian friends during our spring break to go on this trip, and that deepened my already nagging questions of purpose and meaning. I had already been getting to know Jesus in earnest for about 6 months prior. That had been a worthwhile experience in its own right. But in that dusty Mexican town, Jesus said something to me that was eerily similar to what he told someone else: "Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (Mt.19:21) He said to others generally, ‘Do not store up treasure on earth’ (Mt.6:19 – 34). And he identified himself with disciples who are poor, sick, homeless, etc. (Mt.25:31 – 44). Wow. Who is this guy who loves people this much? As I've now lived in lower-income, higher-crime urban areas, and struggled to give money away, I keep asking that question.

         During my freshman year of college, I was mentored by an older Christian guy that I really looked up to. He and I met weekly to talk about anything I wanted to talk about, and we also read through Jesus' very challenging Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5 – 7) together, accompanied by Dietrich Bonhoeffer's reflections on this section in his book The Cost of Discipleship. For example, Jesus' call to secrecy (Mt.6:1 – 18) challenged my craving for public affirmation. The following year, even though we had moved on to study another part of Scripture, I was still so deeply moved by Jesus' teaching – and bothered by things I was seeing in myself – that my thoughts kept turning back to that image of Jesus teaching on the mountain. Alone in my dorm room one day, I sat at my desk, trying to spiritually sense Jesus' presence, then slumped over in my chair and wept. I felt troubled but cleansed at the same time. It would take time and a deeper acquaintance with the rest of the New Testament to more sensitively listen to Jesus – or read Matthew, for that matter – and not feel so overwhelmed. But I remain thankful for that experience.

         Probably the most important reason for reflecting on the Gospel of Matthew now is that I'm seeing my own personal limitations in how I mentored younger Christians in the past. Why did I train people to study the Bible? For what purpose, ultimately? Or, why gather in Christian community? What's the point? Matthew suggests a helpful and practical framework of thinking about Jesus and the rest of the New Testament: Jesus taught and trained his disciples for his mission to the world. Matthew makes that perhaps more explicit than any other New Testament writer, in what is called "the Great Commission" (Mt.28:18 – 20).  "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

         Jesus’ unique challenge to the human heart in Mt.5 – 7 has been character forming to an image-oriented person like me, and now I see how it prepared me for Jesus’ mission to the world.  The restful yoke in Mt.11:28 – 30 has been an arresting and liberating experience, and now I see it’s for the purpose of sustaining me in Jesus’ mission.  Jesus’ training towards multi-ethnic ministry in Mt.14 – 18 is still quite useful in mentoring others in the same thing in places of increasing diversity.  And Jesus’ definition of marriage in Mt.19:1 – 12 has been invaluable in discussing sexuality nowadays as the mission forces us, not only to engage the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered community, but to engage the high rate of divorce and sexual brokenness in the Christian community. 

         I think the best place to start to understand the Gospel of Matthew is the end.  Why?  Because throughout all of his interactions with his disciples, his trial and even death, Jesus was preparing his disciples for the world.  Jesus was aiming for the world.  And Christians today live in the wake and ripples of this ‘Great Commission.’  So we will examine the Gospel of Matthew from the ending first.