The Gospel according to Matthew
1-2. The ancestry and birth of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.
3-4. Jesus’ ministry begins; John’s baptism, Satan’s temptations, first disciples called.
5-7. A summary of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, crowds were astounded.
8-9. An account of Jesus’ healings; the authority of Jesus is questioned and defended.
10-12. Jesus sends apostles on a short-term mission; then continues his own ministry.
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Jesus had to pivot 180 degrees away from casting a demon out of a blind and mute man and toward answering the criticisms of some of the Pharisees. Some Pharisees have their eye on him because he is swaying the crowds to be on his side, and that means that the Pharisees will have less influence over the people. In a society built on distinctions of purity/pollution, honor/shame, and patron/client relations, the Pharisees’ position is propped up by the willingness of the crowd to believe in the class system. If the crowds turn after Jesus, then their former patron’s power begins to wane. It is the same today, if people stop believing in ‘white supremacy’, for example, the power of racial hate groups is diminished. It is the narrative that gives evil its strength in society.
12: 33-37. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
The focus of Jesus’ topic is ‘speak’ and ‘words’; these terms show up most often in the text. Synonyms (words that mean the same thing) in this paragraph are ‘fruit’, ‘things’, and ‘treasure’; because all of these stand in for ‘words’. That means that every sentence here is about ‘words’ in one way or another. A tightly focused saying.
Jesus first relies on a well-worn analogy: You know a tree by tasting its fruit, and by analogy, you know the true character of a person by evaluating his words. A person with an evil inner self might fool some of the people some of the time, but such a charade falls apart eventually. Why?
Because as the person tries to speak from his heart, sooner or later the only treasure or words stored up there are evil ones. Thus, just as a glass overflows if one keeps pouring water into it, so the heart overflows if one keeps pouring malice, envy, treachery, revenge, and hatred into it; that will inevitably overflow into the words coming out of the mouth. If a person speaks long enough and loud enough, believe what they say because they are revealing their inner character, or lack of it.
I guess the scariest part of this is the last thing Jesus says: One’s words will come back to bite them…on the day of judgment. How bad will it be?
12: 38-42. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed something greater than Solomon is here!
The Pharisees are getting nervous. They are not used to hearing themselves vilified like that, especially in the hearing of the crowd. So, they try one more gambit. They challenge Jesus to give them a sign in order to prove that he is someone sent by God, someone with the authority to do the radical things that he has said and done.
What is a ‘sign’, and what do they mean by this? In Old Testament terms, it is some miraculous act that reinforces one’s claims. Remember when Moses was told to return to Egypt and talk first with the elders of the Israelites to garner their support for the struggle to escape slavery?
“Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the sight of the people. The people believed….” (Exodus 4:29-31). Moses and Aaron did the same with Pharoah. The point is that some miracle, rather like a magician’s trick, is expected by the Pharisees to validate Jesus’ words. But Jesus’ words and acts are his own validation. Will Jesus put up with a demand for a sign?
No, he will not! As I said last week, mimicking Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings,” in the scene where Bilbo resists giving up the ring:
Bilbo: “You want it for yourself!”
Gandalf: “Bilbo Baggins! Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks. I am not trying to rob you, I’m trying to help you,”
Likewise, Jesus will not do cheap tricks to convince people who are trying to trick him. Jesus will do a miracle when someone is in need, but, as he responded to Herod later, Jesus will not perform…even to save his own life (Luke 23: 8).
Earlier, Jesus condemned the cities that had just rejected him: “I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.” (Matthew 11: 24). Now he warns the Pharisees that the people of Nineveh, capital at the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire that threatened Israel, would “rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah….” Likewise, the Queen of Sheba will do the same. Why?
Because something (or perhaps translated as someone) greater than Jonah and Solomon is here, so the evidence of the presence of God is greater and should be believed. If the sign has no lasting effect, who knows what will happen? Jesus does.
12: 43-45. “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it returns, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”
The problem is that some people develop a bent toward unbelief in God and God’s plan of salvation. Even if Jesus does a sign to impress the people, if they miss the deeper meaning, then instead of salvation and transformation, the later stage of the person will be “worse than the first.”
This is the reason that a new convert needs a community of believers and a program of discipleship. Left alone, they may not be filled with good things but instead start to load up again on the bad things.
12: 46-50. While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
The previous paragraph helps us understand this paragraph. After all, didn’t Matthew organize this gospel story, arrange it according to a set plan, and thus make the scenes and events follow one another for a reason? What is that reason? Remember that John says that all the books in the world wouldn’t contain the stories of Jesus, “But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20: 31). Luke likewise declares his purpose (Luke 1: 1-4). Matthew and Mark are not so explicit, but we can see what they have written and make pretty good guesses at their plan.
In the previous paragraph, Jesus warned about being blessed by God, in this case by having a demon cast out, but then not following through on this new chance to come close to God. So, in this paragraph, Jesus explains the importance of joining or creating a community made up of the people of God. In that community of people committed to following Jesus, one can thrive as a believer.
That is why John Wesley, once his revival movement for the Anglican Church was underway, insisted on setting up accountability and discipleship groups. Wesley organized three kinds of groups. Societies were large gatherings of new believers who received basic teachings and doctrines usually in a lecture format.
Following that, people could join Class Meetings which were ten to twelve people who met weekly for spiritual guidance. Leaders would ask how a person’s Christian life and spiritual growth had been that week. Leaders might also share their struggles, partly to encourage others to do the same. These groups were Wesley’s biggest success.
Finally, there were Bands, more exclusive groups whose membership was based on gender, age, and/or marital status. We can recognize these in some of our Sunday School classes and group meetings, such as: Women’s fellowship, Men’s study group, Youth group, or Young Couples' Sunday School class.
Jesus’ point is that you should join or create a group of believers who will be helpful in your daily Christian walk. Not just socializers, but people who will ask how you are and how your soul is faring, and then listen to your story.