Jesus:
The Compassion of God

Seminar delivered by Fr Brendan Byrne, SJ, on September 3, 2003

Gospel of Matthew: Summary Statement

The First Gospel, no less than the other three, has as its primary focus the presentation of Jesus as Messiah and Son of God. Yet, because of its continuing dialogue with Judaism, it is very much concerned to present Jesus as the authoritative Interpreter of the Jewish Law (Torah). Jesus has not come to abolish the Torahùnot in respect to one letter or even one stroke of a letter; he has come to bring it to perfection (5:17-18).

For this reason Matthew begins his account of Jesus' public ministry with the long Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7). Here, with an authority greater than that of Moses, Jesus promulgates the way of life that is to characterise his disciples: they are to live the Torah brought to perfection and interpreted according to "what God wants". What God wants is indicated in a key text from one of the prophets of Israel: Hosea 6:6, "What I want is mercy, not sacrifice". The importance of this text for Matthew is evident in the fact Jesus twice makes explicit appeal to it in situations of conflict (9:13; 12:7). The supreme test of valid interpretation of the Torah and right action in accordance with it is whether such action displays the mercy towards fellow human beings that Jesus sees to be characteristic of the willl and action of God. The measure of "perfection"–of perfect faithfulness (righteousness) in keeping the Torah–is, then: "to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (5:48). Later in the Gospel, in the same spirit, Jesus will excoriate the scribes and Pharisees for tithing tiny herbs but neglecting what he calls the "weightier matters of the Torah: justice, mercy and faith" (23:23). He will also insist that the "greatest commandment of the Torah" is the twin commandment to love God and to love one's neighbour as oneself (22:34-40).

The heart is, in fact, the seat of the "surpassing righteousness" (5:19) that Jesus requires. Whereas the Torah in its older interpretation said simply, "You must not kill", Jesus' interpretation goes to the heart: to cut off the anger that is the beginning of murderous intent (5:21-26). Likewise, where the Torah said "You shall not commit adultery", for Jesus the battle begins in the basic attitude which a man has towards a woman in his heart (5:27).

This presentation of Jesus as Interpreter of the Law goes along with a distinctive view of the human condition. Matthew–more precisely, Matthew's Jesus–sees humanity as burdened, burdened by many things but especially by sickness and alienation from God. It is precisely such a vision that forms the context for the Great Sermon (Matthew 5-7). Jesus addresses his disciples in the presence of "all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics and paralytics, ... great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan" (4:24-25). Shaped by the Torah as he now interprets it, beginning with the Beatitudes (5:1-12), the disciples, are to be the kind of people who can be "Salt" (5:13) and "Light" (5:14) for this burdened world.

Above all, the Gospel presents Jesus himself–in his outreach to sinners, his celebration of mercy, his healing and his teaching–as the one who bears and lifts humanity's burdens (11:28-30). In this he fulfils the role of the Servant of Isaiah who bore the sicknesses of many (8:17; cf. Isa 53:4; 12:15-21; cf. Isa 42:1-4). He is the Son of Man who "has come not to be served but to serve and (again, like the Servant) give his life as a ransom for many" (20:28). Jesus not only teaches the Torah; in this respect he models it in his own behaviour and ministry. The negative portrayal of the "burdening-imposing" teaching of the scribes and Pharisees (23:4) forms the foil against which stands out the "burden-lifting" interpretation and action of Jesus.

But, along with the stress upon acceptance and mercy, Matthew's Gospel is also one of high moral demand. Faith is not something of words alone. It must issue forth in action (7:24-28). What is intolerable above all is hypocrisy: a mismatch between what one says and what one does, between what appears on the outside and what lies in the heart. There is, then, much denunciation and warning in the Gospel. But it is always important to see who is denounced and for what cause. The chief target of Jesus' wrath is not sinfulness in general but hypocrisy and failure to treat others with the understanding, mercy and forgiveness that one has oneself received from God (18:21-35). In the end at the great judgment, the sole qualification for entrance into eternal life will be whether one has performed acts of mercy towards "the least" of Jesus' brothers and sisters (25:31-46).

Matthew's Gospel is also above all the Gospel of the Church. At the beginning of the story, in the annunciation of his birth, Joseph had been informed that the son to be born to Mary would be called "Emmanuel", that is, "God is with us" (1:23). This sense of "God with us" in the presence of Jesus pervades the Gospel. It is because he is Emmanuel that Jesus can offer an interpretation of the Torah more authoritative than that of Moses. Because he is Emmanuel Jesus can claim that "a greater than the Temple is here" (12:6). In the time when, following his death, he will no longer be physically present with them, he will be there as risen Lord "where two or three are gathered in (his) name" (18:20). That is why whatever disciplinary decisions they make ("binding and loosing") on earth will be binding not only on earth but also in heaven (18:18-20), as will also the determinations regarding teaching made by Peter in his role as "rock" foundation of the Church (16:19). In the great Commission that concludes the Gospel (28:16-20), the risen Lord empowers the Church for its mission to "make disciples of all the nations" with the assurance that his own authoritative presence lies behind its communal life and structures.

This last great scene indicates the Gentile world as the community's primary field of mission. Thus the Gospel, which has so stressed the Jewish roots of the Christian Church and depicts Jesus' own mission as directed solely to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (15:24), ends on this note of outreach to the wider Gentile world. Hints that this is the way things would go are not, however, lacking from the very beginning. The coming of wise men from the East to pay homage and bring gifts to the infant King of the Jews already foreshadows the later outreach (2:1-12). Later hints and suggestions are also there to indicate that Jesus the Jewish Messiah is the the Son of David "in whom the Gentiles will hope" (12:21). The great task of Matthew, as scribe trained for the Kingdom of Heaven, who knows how to bring out of his treasure things both new and old (13:52), is to show how the way in which the saving events have goneùthe Messiah who has come to give his life as a ransom for many, the Messiah in whom the Gentiles will hopeùis in fact in accord with the design of God for the messianic age as indicated in the scriptures of Israel. Hence Matthew, the most "scribal" of all the evangelists, is also the most concerned to point out again and again how events and features of Jesus' life fulfil what was stated by the prophets.

Thus Matthew's Gospel is one that looks in two directions: back to the Jewish matrix of Christianity, forward to the evangelisation of the Gentile world. Matthew's task is to hold the two together in one unified vision of God's people. His genius, like that of the scribe described in 13:52, is to have brought out of his treasure things both new and old.

The 'Burden-Bearing' Christology
of Matthew's Gospel

It is generally agreed that the dominant christological perception of Matthew's Gospel is that of Jesus as "Son of God". The First Gospel certainly presents Jesus as the Davidic Messiah of conventional expectation but, in line with the wider New Testament tradition, does so with "Messiah" greatly enhanced and deepened by the sense of Jesus' unique filial status in relation to God.

Within this christological pattern, a distinctive feature of Matthew's gospel is to that of presenting Jesus as the bearer of humanity's burdens. The Gospel brings out this function positively by the way it depicts the 'burden-lifting' teaching and practice of Jesus, negatively by the way it presents, by way of contrast, the 'burden-imposing' teaching and practice of other religious leaders (scribes and Pharisees), with whom he is increasingly in conflict as the narrative proceeds.

Various features and patterns characteristic of Matthew's gospel assist in creating this 'burden-lifting' impression:

Associating Jesus with the role of the Isaianic "Servant"

Using "shepherding" language of him

Portraying him in the guise of divine Wisdom

Stressing the priority of mercy in divine-human and inter-human relations (especially by appeal to Hos 6:6: "What I want is mercy not sacrifice" [Matt 9:13; 12:7]).

Depicting Jesus' rulership as lowly, gentle, non-threatening

Highlighting Jesus' ministry of healing (Gk: therapeuein) all kinds of diseases and afflictions [Matt. uses therapeuein 16 times (cf. Mark: 5 times)]

Texts

Reading

Brendan Byrne, S.J.

Top | Reports | ISS Home

This site is hosted by St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Australia.
Content is authorized by the Institute for Spiritual Studies
Maintained by the editor (editor@stpeters.org.au)