Recap

So far in Mathew, we've read through the prologue, the first four blocks of Jesus' ministry. Matthew opens with a genealogy and the story of Jesus' birth. Both rooted Jesus in Old Testament prophecy and allusions. He's a descendant of David, born through the Holy Spirit. A king and the son of God. He's given gifts from wise men that match what was given to Solomon's temple. He is God's presence on earth. He is brought out of Egypt as a new Israel.

The first block of Jesus' ministry involved preparation, demonstrations, and teaching. After being baptised and affirmed by God, Jesus resisted temptation in the desert for forty days. He chose his first disciples, declared the kingdom of God, healed the sick, cast out demons, and explained the kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount, similar to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Jesus began with the Beatitudes, emphasising inward heart attitudes over outward behaviour. He taught genuine faith, prioritising God's kingdom over power, money, or self-reliance. He advised self-reflection before judging others, treating others as one wishes to be treated, and judging by actions, while assessing ourselves by our relationship with God.

Then came the second block of Jesus' ministry, the kingdom of heaven, applied to people's lives. We read a total of ten miracles, mostly focused on people who were outcasts and those far from God. The kingdom of heaven brought them healing and freedom. The teaching of this second block then focused around how the disciples would bring the kingdom of heaven to others. The cost would be high. They would be persecuted and reviled. But if they trusted in God, he would give them the authority they need.

The third block of Jesus' ministry focused on responses to him. John the Baptist doubted if Jesus was the Messiah. The Pharisees challenged Jesus, even after witnessing his miracles. Jesus couldn't perform miracles in his hometown due to their unbelief. During this phase, Jesus taught in parables, which are intentionally cryptic. Parables compel those interested in God to seek answers, while deterring the disinterested, naturally filtering out those who wouldn't follow Jesus even if they understood.

The fourth block of Jesus' ministry focused on further revealing his identity and subverting expectations. He fed 5,000 people, echoing Moses, walked on water to show his divinity, and healed and fed 4,000 Gentiles, showing his mission for all people. Jesus accused the Pharisees of prioritising tradition over God's law. Peter recognised Jesus as the Messiah, but Jesus clarified he was also the Suffering Servant. On a mountain, Jesus met Moses and Elijah, and God affirmed Jesus as his son.

Then we got the fourth block of teaching, further reinforcing the upside down nature of the kingdom of heaven, all while Jesus moved closer to Jerusalem. He emphasised humility, removing temptation, and including others. Offenses should be addressed with love and forgiveness, and heart issues should be the focus in a marriage.

A young man asked Jesus how to enter heaven, and Jesus advised him to follow the commandments and give away his wealth. Jesus taught that one cannot pursue both wealth and God, humbling the disciples who had given up everything. He shared again that he was going to Jerusalem to die and reiterated that greatness in his kingdom comes from serving others, not seeking power.

Matthew 21-22

Jesus has now arrived at Jerusalem, which brings us to the final block of Jesus’ ministry. This block is focused on the class between the kingdom of heaven and the authority of the religious leaders. It follows the version of events we find Mark 11-12 pretty closely with a few extra parables.

When a new leader or king takes the throne, they will often enter the city with a great procession. Jesus' entrance looks a little different. He gets his disciples to collect a donkey and her colt and bring them to him. He then rides into Jerusalem on that donkey. Matthew links this to the prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9. In Zechariah, the future king is entering the city on the back of a donkey, here to bring peace.

The crowds surrounded Jesus, celebrating his entry as the future king. They call out to him as 'the Son of David' shouting 'hosanna'. Hosanna is a difficult word to translate, but has connotations of salvation. They believe that Jesus has come to save them from oppression.

Upon entering the city, Jesus goes straight to the temple to cast out all those who had been selling there. He is asserting his authority as the future king to bring in God's kingdom and presence. Jesus no longer recognises the authority of the religious leaders. To further demonstrate his authority to do this, he then invites all the blind and lame forward so he can heal them.

The next morning, Jesus sees a fig tree, but as he gets closer to eat some of the figs, he realised that it hasn't produced any figs. So he curses the tree and it withers. This may seem strange to us, but this was a prophetic act referring to Israel. Multiple times throughout the prophets, Israel were associated with a fig tree that bears no fruit (see Micah 7:1-6 and Jeremiah 8:13).

Jesus is demonstrating that judgement on Israel for not being the people God has called them to be. When the disciples are amazed at how quickly the fig tree withered, Jesus uses this as a teaching opportunity to explain to them again the power of faith.

Some religious leaders come up to Jesus and challenge him, asking by what authority he does all these things. Jesus tricks them by asking them what authority did John the Baptist do his works. He knew that the religious leaders would be trapped, because either way they answer they will lose.

Jesus then uses three parables to explain the situation to them. The first is of two sons, one who was all talk and no action, and the other who said he wouldn't do what he was told but eventually does. The religious leaders are all talk, no action, while these sinners Jesus deals with are actually turning back to God.

The second parable is adapted from one we saw in Isaiah 5:1-7. A master rents out his vineyard to some servants and then goes away for a while. A little later, he sends some servants to collect his rent, but they are all beaten or killed. Eventually he sends his son, and the tenants kill him too.

Familiar with this parable, the religious leaders point out that at that point, the master would just kill the tenants and get others to replace them. Jesus then deftly points out that's exactly what is happening. The religious leaders are the original tenants, ignoring all the signs that God is giving them. So God will take away all their authority and give it to others who will use it to give God glory and produce much fruit for his kingdom.

The third parable is similar to the second. In this situation, a king is holding a wedding feast for his son and invites a load of guests. But when the time came, many of the guests ignored the summons, and some even killed the servants that came to invite them.

So the king has these guests killed and opens the invitation up to everyone. But when the king arrived at his own wedding feast, he saw a man who had come but hadn't dressed appropriately, so the king had him killed too.

Jesus is saying that while the kingdom of heaven is now open to everyone, it still requires an appropriate response from each individual. Someone can't spend their entire lives living however they want and then rock up to the kingdom of heaven expecting to get in.

But the religious leaders aren't finished. They continue to try to trap Jesus. The Pharisees go first and ask him whether it's appropriate to pay the emperor his taxes. They hope to trap him because if he says yes then all the people would be mad that he was loyal to the very empire they were expecting him to overthrow.

But if he says no, then they can hand him over to the authorities for inciting people to not pay their taxes. But Jesus sidestepped them by pointing out that the coins all had the emperor's face on, so they should give to the emperor what is his and to God what is God's.

Next up are the Sadducees who don't believe in the resurrection, and so tried to trip Jesus up over that. They give the example of a woman who married seven times because all her husbands die and ask who she would be married to when they're all resurrected. Their logic is that the system makes no sense, therefore the resurrection isn't real.

But Jesus points out that their logic is flawed, because they don't understand the resurrection. People won't be married once they're resurrected. He then points out that by their own language, God has to be a God of the living, not the dead, so why would he not want to bring people back to life?

The Pharisees come again, asking what is the greatest commandment, hoping for some kind of slip up they could use against Jesus. But he deftly summarises all the commandments by saying, love God and love people.

Jesus then challenges the pharisees. In their mind, they had assumed that the Christ, the future king, was just a human descendant of David. But Jesus points out that if this is the case, why does David refer to the future king as Lord? In that case, it seems like the future king is more than just human. He is divine.

Psalm 97

This psalm is not attributed to anyone, and falls into the category of praise psalm. Is part of a small collection of psalm (Psalm 93-99) that focus on God as king.

Psalm 97:1-5 - The Lord reigns in power

Psalm 97:6-9 - He is above all other gods

Psalm 97:10-12 - Hate evil and rejoice in God

The psalmist starts with the declaration that the Lord reigns. He reigns supreme in the clouds and storms. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his reign. He controls fire and lightning and even great mountains melt before him.

The heavens themselves proclaim his righteousness and glory. So much so that anyone who worships anything else should be put to shame. The Lord is so much greater than all the other gods. Those other gods should be worshipping him. This is why the people of Jerusalem and Judah rejoice, because they know their God is greater than all other gods.

And so the psalmist encourages those who love the Lord to hate evil. He is a God that preserves those who keep themselves holy and saves them from the wicked. He provides light to guide these righteous ones and joy to lift their hearts. So rejoice in the Lord, stay righteous, and give thanks to God for his goodness.

The psalm focuses on God’s might and ability to defeat the other gods. No other holds the right to reign like he does, and so in response we should pursue righteousness, for he is a God of righteousness.