In this section Jesus is beginning the conquest of Caanan. He takes on death, leprosy, demons, the temple system, (Matt. 10:7-8) Jesus and his twelve disciples begin the prophetic and priestly cleansing of Israel. We need to learn that when Matthew is picking which miracles to tell us about (under the influence of the Spirit) and Jesus is picking which miracles to perform and how (under the direction of the Father) that Matthew is making an argument and Jesus is being a prophet. These aren’t random stories. Try and remember to read the gospels like a political cartoon or an SNL skit (Senator Kennedy chopping down a cherry tree “I can not tell a lie, Bush did it”). We tend to think of the miracles as proof of Jesus’ divinity, we know that he was God because he did miracles, but there are many people that did miracles, and we don’t think that any of them are God. Instead, think of the miracles as a combination of verifications of his authority to speak for God and as prophetic actions themselves (how do we know that the kingdom of God was arriving in the ministry of Jesus? Because Jesus was cleansing Israel “if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God is upon you.” Jesus was acting out prophecies.
Matt. 8:1-4 – Jesus makes a Leper clean, which is more than healing him. Jesus is doing something that was supposed to only happen at the temple. This would be like your butcher giving you a drivers license. Jesus, by touching the man, is offering changing his judicial status in the people of God. (judicial/health/spiritual status). Jesus is offering something apart from the temple that you were only supposed to be able to get at the temple, a restored place in society.
8:5-13 Jesus heals a gentile’s servant and begins his case against Jerusalem. Before v. 11-12 there were veiled threats, but from now through Ch 25 there are many explicit threats to the safety of Jerusalem and the Israelites.
14-17 Jesus heals Peter’s wife’s Mother and the demon possessed and sick line up to be healed.
His next miracle is when he calms the wind and the waves. This is an odd story because it is like Jonah. Jesus is asleep while the storm rages, they wake him up, but instead of throwing him overboard, he rebuked the wind and the waves and then there is a great calm. But it also made the disciples realize that they did not quite realize who they were dealing with. (This miracle and the commanding of demons do have a place in the argument for Jesus’ incarnation).
Next Jesus goes into a gentile country and meets two naked gentiles possessed with devils and Jesus sends the demons, by their own request, into pigs who then go crashing into the sea.
9:1-17 Jesus then returns home and heals a paralytic after telling him that his sins are forgiven. Jesus is doing some more temple abrogation. To get forgiveness of sins you needed to go to the temple, but Jesus just grants it on his own authority. He is acting as if he himself is a replacement for the temple and priestly system. This is why they thought that Jesus was blaspheming by forgiving his sins and why Jesus goes into the cryptic saying about new wine in an old wine skin. Jesus came offering himself as a replacement for the temple offering his table fellowship as covenant restoration, his touch as judicial covenant renewal, his word as the declaration of God. By eating with Jesus, you were restored to the covenant, by touching Jesus you were renewed to the covenant. By hearing and believing Jesus you were brought back into a right relationship with God. Jesus was abrogating, or setting aside the temple and offering himself as the one that was and did all that the Temple was and did.
Jesus then gives them power to go throughout Israel and divide it with miracles and the preaching of the coming of the kingdom of heaven (v. 7, 21).
v. 23 (Dan. 7:13) Jesus says here (and later more explicitly) that he is going to be vindicated on earth IN THE SIGHT OF HIS GENERATION as the son of man. God will vindicate him and that vindication is his resurrection and then the destruction of Jerusalem. The disciples are going to be chased around for a while, but they will be rescued and vindicated before the eyes of those that pierced Jesus. Within Israel there will be great division (10:34-36 and it begins during Jesus’ ministry) and it will eventually lead to the destruction of Jerusalem (more on that later).
1-15 This is the first mention of Jesus calling twelve disciples. By calling twelve disciples to correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel, Jesus is broadcasting his intentions. He is making a new Israel. This scene in Matthew is concerned with the present and future state of the old Israel, and the conflict between the old and the new. Jesus calls the twelve and then sends them into the old Israel, telling them to be careful not to enter a gentile or Samaritan house, because this first cleansing is for the house of Israel. Israel will have the demons cast out, but because there will be no repentance
16-23
24-31
32-42
CH. 11 Jesus finishes instructing his disciples and the disciples of John the Baptist come and question Jesus (read 11:2-6). Jesus then turns to the multitude and completely aligns himself with the ministry of John, including the prophecies of Woe (a tree that won’t produce fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire) and Jesus adds to those prophecies of doom and expands them. These cities are the cities that Jesus grew up in, and he upbraids them severely for having not believed and adds severe warnings about a coming judgment, but ends with one of Jesus’ most famous invitations to follow him.
Ch. 12:1-21 Matthew then proceeds to tell a story about the Sabbath problems that Jesus had. The disciples and Jesus were walking through the wheat field and grabbing heads of wheat and popping them into their mouth and the Pharisees flip. Jesus responds (12:6-8) then goes into the synagogue and performs another prophetic miracle, there was a man with a withered hand and he says, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? Jesus heals him and that is the final straw for the Pharisees, from here on in the story there are three distinct factions in Israel that are all organized around what they understand the kingdom to be, the Sadducee/Herodians, the scribal Pharisees, and Jesus and his multitude. And according to Matthew, this means that the gentiles were about to come in.
Matt. 8:1-4 – Jesus makes a Leper clean, which is more than healing him. Jesus is doing something that was supposed to only happen at the temple. This would be like your butcher giving you a drivers license. Jesus, by touching the man, is offering changing his judicial status in the people of God. (judicial/health/spiritual status). Jesus is offering something apart from the temple that you were only supposed to be able to get at the temple, a restored place in society.
8:5-13 Jesus heals a gentile’s servant and begins his case against Jerusalem. Before v. 11-12 there were veiled threats, but from now through Ch 25 there are many explicit threats to the safety of Jerusalem and the Israelites.
14-17 Jesus heals Peter’s wife’s Mother and the demon possessed and sick line up to be healed.
His next miracle is when he calms the wind and the waves. This is an odd story because it is like Jonah. Jesus is asleep while the storm rages, they wake him up, but instead of throwing him overboard, he rebuked the wind and the waves and then there is a great calm. But it also made the disciples realize that they did not quite realize who they were dealing with. (This miracle and the commanding of demons do have a place in the argument for Jesus’ incarnation).
Next Jesus goes into a gentile country and meets two naked gentiles possessed with devils and Jesus sends the demons, by their own request, into pigs who then go crashing into the sea.
9:1-17 Jesus then returns home and heals a paralytic after telling him that his sins are forgiven. Jesus is doing some more temple abrogation. To get forgiveness of sins you needed to go to the temple, but Jesus just grants it on his own authority. He is acting as if he himself is a replacement for the temple and priestly system. This is why they thought that Jesus was blaspheming by forgiving his sins and why Jesus goes into the cryptic saying about new wine in an old wine skin. Jesus came offering himself as a replacement for the temple offering his table fellowship as covenant restoration, his touch as judicial covenant renewal, his word as the declaration of God. By eating with Jesus, you were restored to the covenant, by touching Jesus you were renewed to the covenant. By hearing and believing Jesus you were brought back into a right relationship with God. Jesus was abrogating, or setting aside the temple and offering himself as the one that was and did all that the Temple was and did.
We see this when Jesus then immediately goes and eats with publicans and sinners Jesus is making a claim about himself. The Pharisees refused to eat with sinners. They saw themselves as righteous because they had separated themselves from the sinners of Israel. These sinners did not keep the strict ritual purity laws of the temple or the extra laws of the Pharisees. The Pharisees fasted, even the disciples of John the Baptist fasted regularly. Both groups wanted Israel to be restored to it’s place of prominence as the apple of God’s eye, so they are separating themselves from the sinners who won’t come out from among the sinners so that God will restore Israel. But Jesus flips the attempt of the Pharisees at righteousness on its head. They say that Righteousness and restoration come when you don’t eat with sinners, he claims that Righteousness and restoration come when sinners eat with him. They claim that Israel will be restored when people seek God in the temple, Jesus Claims that the restoration of Israel is happening as sinners seek God in Jesus. They claim that the God’s people will finally be restored to their place of providence when they take their sacrifices to the temple like God told them to, and Jesus tells them that they were not listening when God told them what to do. “But go and learn what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” “Jesus was offering himself as a replacement for the temple. If you want forgiveness, don’t go to the temple, come to me. If you want restoration, don’t Go to the temple, come to me. If you want to be made clean and restored to the community, don’t go and sacrifice a bird and then wash you clothes, come to me.” Jesus was not just a teaching good manners. Jesus was reconstituting Israel around himself. He was abrogating the temple. He was offering himself as the new socio-religious and political center of God’s people. In fact, he was threatening the temple because it was filled with corruption and uncleanness. The temple system was old, and if you tried to fill it with the new wine of the new heavens and the new earth, it was going to burst. The temple could not hold the glory of the newness of life that Christ was bringing, so it had to be destroyed.
This theme of restoration continues with the next three miracles. Remember that these miracles are like political cartoons. Jesus is acting out his prophecies like Elijah, Ezekiel, or Jonah. Jesus heals a dead child and a woman with an issue of blood twelve years. Both thing that would have made him unclean. The woman was legally and judicially dead, the girl was actually dead, and the law forbade that either be touched, but instead of Jesus being made unclean, the women were made clean. Jesus is reconstituting Israel around himself and he has the power and the authority to do it. Jesus continued to go around casting out demons and healing and preaching the good news of the kingdom. Then he calls his disciples; His twelve disciples. What do you suppose the prophetic action of calling twelve disciples would mean to a first century Jew? Jesus then gives them power to go throughout Israel and divide it with miracles and the preaching of the coming of the kingdom of heaven (v. 7, 21).
v. 23 (Dan. 7:13) Jesus says here (and later more explicitly) that he is going to be vindicated on earth IN THE SIGHT OF HIS GENERATION as the son of man. God will vindicate him and that vindication is his resurrection and then the destruction of Jerusalem. The disciples are going to be chased around for a while, but they will be rescued and vindicated before the eyes of those that pierced Jesus. Within Israel there will be great division (10:34-36 and it begins during Jesus’ ministry) and it will eventually lead to the destruction of Jerusalem (more on that later).
1-15 This is the first mention of Jesus calling twelve disciples. By calling twelve disciples to correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel, Jesus is broadcasting his intentions. He is making a new Israel. This scene in Matthew is concerned with the present and future state of the old Israel, and the conflict between the old and the new. Jesus calls the twelve and then sends them into the old Israel, telling them to be careful not to enter a gentile or Samaritan house, because this first cleansing is for the house of Israel. Israel will have the demons cast out, but because there will be no repentance
16-23
24-31
32-42
CH. 11 Jesus finishes instructing his disciples and the disciples of John the Baptist come and question Jesus (read 11:2-6). Jesus then turns to the multitude and completely aligns himself with the ministry of John, including the prophecies of Woe (a tree that won’t produce fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire) and Jesus adds to those prophecies of doom and expands them. These cities are the cities that Jesus grew up in, and he upbraids them severely for having not believed and adds severe warnings about a coming judgment, but ends with one of Jesus’ most famous invitations to follow him.
Ch. 12:1-21 Matthew then proceeds to tell a story about the Sabbath problems that Jesus had. The disciples and Jesus were walking through the wheat field and grabbing heads of wheat and popping them into their mouth and the Pharisees flip. Jesus responds (12:6-8) then goes into the synagogue and performs another prophetic miracle, there was a man with a withered hand and he says, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? Jesus heals him and that is the final straw for the Pharisees, from here on in the story there are three distinct factions in Israel that are all organized around what they understand the kingdom to be, the Sadducee/Herodians, the scribal Pharisees, and Jesus and his multitude. And according to Matthew, this means that the gentiles were about to come in.
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