Another Bible Commentary: Matthew

Matthew was written down by a Jewish Christian still in love with the Law of Moses (Acts 21:20). The gospels were regional: Matthew was popular in Jerusalem. Jesus is shown to be God’s Anointed King with many Old Testament quotes. Peter is seen at his most special in this one. As a later production by the Church, this includes details that seem to say, “Hey Rome! We’re okay with tax collectors and centurions!” Tax collectors were considered traitors; Matthew was a tax collector whose book shows there are no outsiders to the Kingdom of God. Jesus spoke harsh words to some of His Jewish audience, but is ultimately shown to be Gentile-friendly (Matthew 10:18, Matthew 12:41-42, Matthew 28:19). See Galatians 4:4-5, Matthew 15:24, Acts 15:7-11, and Acts 21:20,25 to see the Jew/Gentile distinction in Christ’s missions on this planet. Jesus sees and helps outsiders (Matthew 9:11). Jesus is the “new Moses” people were waiting for (Deuteronomy 18:15, Deuteronomy 34:10-12, Isaiah 51:4); He escaped infanticide, fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, gave the Law on a mountain, etc. The teachings are in five blocks mixed in between narrative sections. Moses wrote five books; note the symbolism.

1:2 There is a pattern. Abraham was called from Mesopotamia.

1:3 Women weren’t usually included in genealogies. Including a possible Canaanite who got impregnated by her father-in-law while pretending to be a whore seems to be an unusual choice. The women in this genealogy point to Gentiles being saved by grace and place Mary’s unusual pregnancy into a grand Old Testament narrative.

1:5 Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute, and Ruth was a Moabite.

1:6 David turned out all right with those genetics. As a king who got away with doing priestly things involving the showbread, an ephod, etc., without becoming leprous and who prophesied in his songs, he smells like Melchizedek. Bathsheba is another unusual woman to mention.

1:7 Solomon lost the quasi-priest-king status with his idolatry.

1:8-9 There are generations missing (1 Chronicles 3:11-12), which is common in genealogies. Limiting entries to notable branch points and plot-relevant characters seems to be a guiding principle. The phrase “father of” can mean “ancestor of”; guessing the age of this planet is not the purpose of genealogies.

1:11 Back to Mesopotamia, per the aforementioned pattern. Matthew will show another trip from Mesopotamia to “Melchizedek”. Jesus is the ultimate Prophet-Priest-King.

1:12 Any lingering Jeremiah 22:24-30 curse was lifted in Haggai 2:23.

1:16 Regarding Joseph, our adoption by God is just as binding. Both this and Luke 3:23 pertain to Joseph, so the old dodge about one of the genealogies belonging to Mary seems to be out. Let’s play the possible Levirate marriage card and move on.

1:17 The numerical value of David’s consonants in Hebrew is 14, so assigning 14 plot-relevant generations to each trip in this introduction was important to the Jewish Christian author of this gospel for the purpose of emphasizing Jesus as Messiah, Son of David.

1:18-22 See Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7, and Isaiah 11:1-10. Jesus is Greek for Joshua, “the LORD saves”.

1:23 See Isaiah 7:14. This also alludes to the days of Isaiah 7:1 through Isaiah 10:11 featuring Jewish infighting, bad shepherds, threats of destruction for Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, etc. There was every indication that 70 AD was going to rhyme with 586 BC.

1:25 This was to fulfill the promise of verse 23 (and perhaps to avoid a coital 2 Samuel 6:7 scenario). Merry Christmas, whether it coincided with a popular pagan gift-giving festival or not. Jesus’ divinity and our humanity are compatible with each other, and Jesus came here to save us; these things are certainly worth celebrating. Making formerly unholy things (like us) holy is what Christianity is all about.

2:1 Herod the Great, an Edomite, died in 4 BC. This gives us a time vague enough plus or minus two years to avoid conflicting with Luke. Celebrating Epiphany on the twelfth day of Christmas is just traditional. Our BC/AD system was devised by a monk much later and does not line up cleanly with the life of Jesus. The magi from the east bearing gifts were currying the favor of the new monarch in a similar way to what we saw in Psalm 72 and with the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon.

2:2 We’ve seen plenty of Diaspora Jews in foreign governments (Esther, Mordecai, Nehemiah, etc.) to account for the magi hearing about Him. See Isaiah 60:3 and Numbers 24:17-18 (which was prophesied by a pagan wizard). This is similar to Augustus using “Caesar’s Comet” to claim to be the son of a god. Another religion called Mithraism started from a shift in the constellations, but Jesus tore open the universe (Matthew 3:16). Saturn and Jupiter allegedly converged three times in 7 BC, and there was an alleged supernova recorded in China in 5 BC, if that helps anyone.

2:5 near Herod’s Herodium, a palace built on a man-made mountain.

2:6 See Micah 5:2,4. His origins are from Everlasting.

2:9 Remember the pillar of fire the Hebrews followed in the wilderness. The Ezekiel 10 glory moved from the Temple; the Glory of God is Jesus (John 1:14).

2:11 His first worshipers were Gentiles. The gifts might have funded the Egyptian vacation for our King, God, and Sacrifice. See Isaiah 60:6. These gifts were also elements of the Tabernacle, another way God lived among us (Exodus 30:23, Exodus 30:34, Exodus 39:38).

2:13-15 Never mind that Zedekiah the oathbreaker also ran afoul of Deuteronomy 17:16, we have Hosea 11:1 to fulfill. David got away with stuff similar to what made Uzziah flaky. Jesus is the Son that national Israel wasn’t; later in this gospel, He is seen passing tests that they failed.

2:16 For the critics that cannot find historical evidence for Herod’s Pharaoh-like move, Bethlehem was a small village with likely few boys in that age range. The history books say Herod killed members of his own family, so this is on-brand for him.

2:19 like Exodus 4:19. Herod’s sons that we’ll read about later include a) Archelaus, who was in charge of (still under Rome’s thumb) Judea, Samaria, and Idumea/Edom, b) Herod Antipas, who went on to rule Galilee and Perea, and c) Philip of the northeast of Galilee.

2:23 “Nazarene” The Hebrew consonants “nzr” spell Branch, as we saw in Isaiah 4:2, Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3:8, and Zechariah 6:12.

Matthew 3 – The name John is the same as Jonah, which means “Dove”. A dove flying over water told Noah that the wrath was over; the Spirit says the same thing in this incident.

3:1 The nation was defiled (Leviticus 18:25, Haggai 2:14), so a man that reminded people of Elijah lived away from it (Exodus 33:7) like Elijah (1 Kings 17) in the wilderness (Isaiah 32:16, Isaiah 40:3, Hosea 2:14) similar to the Essene approach. John the Baptist prepared the way (Isaiah 35, particularly verse 8); the earliest followers of Jesus were known as the Way (Acts 9:2, Acts 19:9, Acts 19:23, Acts 22:4, Acts 24:14, Acts 24:22). 

3:3 “Isaiah” This verse corrects Mark 1:2’s attribution of a Malachi verse to Isaiah. Matthew does the same thing, though, in Matthew 27:9. We worship Immanuel, not a manual. To get the full sense of what John was proclaiming (impending world domination by the Good Shepherd), read Isaiah 40:1-24 now, please. God has always been King (Deuteronomy 33:5); the Kingdom of God (Daniel 2:44) is Christ, our King, and we’re in Him (Colossians 3:3).

3:4 like Elijah (2 Kings 1:8, Malachi 4:5).

3:5-6 See Leviticus 14:8, Isaiah 1:16, Zechariah 13:1, and Ezekiel 36:25. See also the Leviticus 15 notes. The prophets performed many symbolic actions. John the Baptist offered a baptism/immersion of repentance analogous to the Essenes’, which was a public declaration of a commitment to follow God’s rules. Jesus hadn’t died on the Cross yet (Hebrews 9:15-22), so we’re still talking about the Old Covenant. Jesus also preached Law to those under the Law; see Galatians 4:4-7. New priests got washed (Exodus 29:4, Leviticus 8:6), and so an attempt to reboot Israel as a priestly nation (Exodus 19:6) involved a symbol of new birth (moist as a womb evictee). Jesus required no repentance, but “fulfilled all righteousness” by undergoing John’s baptism to be consecrated as our High Priest and washed as our sacrifice. God was not traditionally a fan of human sacrifice, but the Old Testament high priest was said to bear the guilt of the people (Exodus 28:36-38), and the death of the Old Testament high priests cleared the books of manslaughter (Numbers 35:28); everything was pointing to Jesus all along. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11). The Holy Spirit is received by believing what you heard about Jesus’ death and resurrection (John 17:20-23; Romans 10:9; Galatians 3:2,5). Believers are placed into Christ by virtue of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23. The spiritual “dunk” is the one that matters, regardless of what method, outfit, location, age (the old Christening/Confirmation two-step), etc., a person was moistened (1 Corinthians 12:13 like Colossians 2:11). Gentiles in Acts 10:44-48 received the Holy Spirit and therefore salvation (Ephesians 4:30) while still dry. “Do you have Jesus Christ living in you?” is the test (2 Corinthians 13:5, Romans 8:16).

3:7 See Isaiah 59:5. Ancient people also thought snakes killed their parents upon hatching. Refusing to support elderly parents in need by exploiting korban (Mark 7:11) and inventing rules that would have condemned the patriarchs are both relevant here.

3:9 No wonder the Amalekites and Midianites kept respawning.

3:10 See Malachi 4:1-3.

3:11 We’ll cover why there was fire in Acts 2 later. Now, the Spirit comes with belief (Galatians 3:2,5).

3:12 “winnowing fork” See Jeremiah 15:7; “threshing floor” The Temple sat on the site of a former threshing floor (1 Chronicles 21:28 through 1 Chronicles 22:1), so this was a threat of Temple destruction. For “unquenchable fire”, see Isaiah 66:24.

3:13 like a Leviticus 16:4 Day of Atonement High Priest wash. Priests started their ministry at age 30. See Luke 3:23. This is the site of the 2 Kings 2:8-15 passing of the torch and an encounter with Heaven.

3:15 like when the Nazirite Samuel anointed David.

3:16 like Isaiah 11:2. We’ve got the Spirit over water again with God talking; this is another Genesis 1 reference to a new beginning.

3:17 like Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. The Father loves the Son and loves you enough to give up the Son for you. Now, we are united with Them (John 17:23); feel free to insert yourself into Matthew 3:17 because you are His child whom He loves, and He is pleased with you.

Why didn’t John the Baptist just join Jesus like the twelve disciples? See John 1:36. He stayed at his post preaching Christ like any pastor.

4:1 Remember how God “saw that it was good” back at the beginning? It’s time for a test.

4:2 like Moses (Deuteronomy 9:9) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8).

4:3-4 See Deuteronomy 8:3 and Jeremiah 15:16. Remember when Moses gave a big speech in the desert recapitulating the Law? That’s the Book of Deuteronomy. It is fitting that Jesus used it for quotes during this wilderness scene. Jesus’ weapon of choice against the devil here was knowledge of the Bible. Jesus passed the test that Israel failed by complaining in Exodus 16:3. The devil left out the part about being beloved and tried to get Him to doubt His status. Knowing your identity in Christ is essential to resisting sin. Regarding “every word”, God literally just said Matthew 3:17. The devil wanted Jesus to focus on His own comfort (or call for help or be King a different way as we’ll see in the next verses – See 1 John 2:16-17) to get Him to skip His calling (the devil did not fully understand the Cross – 1 Corinthians 2:8). See also Matthew 16:21-23 and Matthew 27:40. Jesus stuck to “every word”, even those that predicted His death.

Since we’re still plowing through Old Covenant material even in the part of the book labeled "New Testament", have some grace: Since we live on the Word of God (Deuteronomy 8:3, Jeremiah 15:16, John 1) Jesus is your bread (John 6:35), not the stone tablets of the Law (2 Corinthians 3:7, Galatians 5:4).

4:6 See Matthew 26:53-54. This is a bit of comedy. Psalm 91 is traditionally used by Jews for protection from demons, and the devil quoted it.

4:7 Deuteronomy 6:16 was about the incident in Exodus 17:2-7 in which Christ was the Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4) that was struck like in verse Matthew 4:6. Again, Jesus passed a test Israel had failed.

4:9 See Psalm 2:8 and Matthew 28:18. The devil didn’t offer Him anything that wasn’t already His.

4:10 Jesus made it clear that the Old Testament “fear” is New Testament “worship” (Deuteronomy 6:13). It's being in awe of His greatness and other-ness. His perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), so in Christ you can approach Father boldly. He's happy to see you (Ephesians 3:12). In the wilderness, Jesus passed the test that Israel had failed in Exodus 32 and Numbers 25.

4:12-17 See Isaiah 9:1-2. This transition from John to Jesus reminds me of Moses handing the reins over to Joshua. Elisha also carried on Elijah’s message and healed Syrians. The Sea of Galilee is a big freshwater lake. The Kingdom had come near because the King was talking to them (Luke 4:18-21). We’re in Him, so the King is the Kingdom.

Matthew uses the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” to avoid casual use of the Name of God. Parallel passages in other gospels use “Kingdom of God”; they are the same thing. There are interpretations out there that treat them separately and identify the Kingdom of Heaven with the Millennial Kingdom of Revelation 20, etc., but don’t get confused. If you’re still not convinced that they are the same thing, compare Matthew 4:17 with Mark 1:15, Matthew 5:3 with Luke 6:20, Matthew 11:11 with Luke 7:28, Matthew 13:11 with Mark 4:11 and Luke 8:10, and Matthew 13:33 with Luke 13:20. That’s only about half of the available examples, but everyone’s either with me or not by now on this topic.

We’re about to see Jesus’ disciples. Disciples are students. The students of human rabbis walked wherever their teacher walked. Colloquially, they were covered in their teacher’s dust. They spent most of their time with their teacher learning not only what he taught, but how he lived and how he thought (in order to better emulate him). Let me jump ahead to point out what discipleship means for (especially Gentile) Christians. Christ is your life (Colossians 3:4); it’s not emulating Him but naturally exuding Him. We’ll talk more about the fruit of the Spirit later (Galatians 5:22-23). See Colossians 2:6-7. “As you received Him, so walk (emphasis) in Him.” You began as a person in need of grace, and you continue the same way. The realization of “I can’t save myself, so I trust You to do it” becomes “I can’t live the Christian life, so I trust You to do it”.

4:18-22 See Ezekiel 47:10. We’re only certain that four of the twelve disciples heard the Sermon on the Mount firsthand. Rabbis wandered with followers who left behind worldly cares like jobs until their Torah study had been completed. Rabbis married later in life, did not accept money to preach, lived on hospitality, and preached from hosts’ homes. That sounds a lot like what Jesus and His disciples did. After coming back from Babylon, there was a strong determination to avoid messing up again. Therefore, between the ages of 5 and 10 every Jewish male studied the five books Moses wrote. As they got older, the rest of the Old Testament was added to the curriculum. The age of bar mitzvah was considered the age of adulthood. The best students were welcome to keep studying and to follow famous rabbis. Everyone else eventually got sent (kindly) back to their fathers’ businesses. Recruiting fishermen meant picking students that had already been sent back by the Establishment. Peter being a fisherman with a mother-in-law would have made him among the oldest disciples around age 18 or 19. A rabbi and his disciples would have looked very much like a youth pastor traveling with junior high and high school students.

4:23 This is when His rejection at Nazareth (Luke 4) occurred. He healed “every” illness, and He’s not handing out diseases today.

4:24 They knew the distinction between physical ailments and demonic possession.

4:25 “Large crowds” See also Mark 3:7-8, but Matthew 5:1-2 says that the Sermon was not for all those Gentile ears but for the disciples. The Decapolis (“Ten Cities”) was a region settled by Ptolemy and Seleucid soldiers. This included Damascus, Philadelphia (modern Amman, Jordan), Gedara, Gerasa, etc. The Decapolis was figuratively thought of as Canaanite; Pharisees thought you could become ritually unclean by speaking of it.

Please allow me to introduce the Sermon on the Mount:

The Sermon on the Mount continues through Matthew 8:4. Jesus preached Law to those under the Law (Matthew 15:24). The details about animal sacrifices, the Sanhedrin (a Jewish court from thousands of years ago), and the admonition against being “like the Gentiles” let us know this was about the Old Covenant. Jesus and His disciples were still focused on teaching the Jews here, even looking ahead to Matthew 10:5-6. See Galatians 4:1-5. Jesus did not teach anything in the Sermon that was not already in the Law because He could not have done so without violating Deuteronomy 4:2 and Deuteronomy 12:32. The “you have heard…, but I say…” riffs do not imply that your Bible contains wrong laws; for example, Jeremiah 8:8 was about Jeremiah 7:21. From the context, it seems that the crowd was familiar with the Ten Commandments but they or their teachers zoned out in Leviticus before chapter 19. Imagine that. For more context about topics in the Sermon, see Mark 7, Luke 6, Tobit 4, and James.

Based on Isaiah 2:2, Isaiah 42:4, Isaiah 51:4, and Micah 4:2 the audience expected Messiah to perfectly interpret/explain the Law and follow it perfectly (Deuteronomy 17:19-20). The Sermon on the Mount was more about proving Jesus is the Jewish Messiah than our ability to live by it. Jesus, as the Messiah, interpreted the Law perfectly but also lives out that generosity toward us. Only He has anything worth giving, and He does. Only Jesus can live the Law, and only Jesus has (Romans 3, Acts 15:10, Acts 21:25). The apostles ran (Mark 14:50, Revelation 21:8), experienced unbelief (Mark 6:52, Revelation 21:8), had outbursts of anger and violence (although we’ll take another look at that), attempted idolatry with an angel, were competitive, possessive, ambitious, jealous; Pete lied three times (Revelation 21:8), etc. Remember when reading the “perfect” stuff in Matthew and Luke that our High Priest made us perfect (Hebrews 10:14). The man that Jesus healed in Mark 5:19 knew no Sermon, no Torah, and no ethics; he was just told to share what Jesus had done for him (1 Peter 3:15).

Later, in Matthew 10:32, this same book agrees with Romans 10:9 about what is important. Matthew 19:25-26 says that meriting salvation is impossible for humans. We must rely on God’s free gift. Not a jot nor a tittle (Matthew 5:18) has left the Law, but believers have died to the Law (Galatians 2:19, Romans 7:4,9), and Christ is the end of the Law for believers (Romans 10:4). Jesus told his disciples to go make more disciples and teach them to obey what he commanded them (Matthew 28:20), but He taught them for forty days after He rose from the dead before He ascended to Heaven (Acts 1:1-3) – the Epistles are the result of the disciples’ obedience to His command; those are the teachings that went out as a light to the Gentiles. The behavior instructions in them are less harsh than what Jesus told the crowds. For example, there are no stump care tips. I don’t see anyone keeping Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to first century Jews about Judaism; the moralizers making people anxious typically own things and usually aren’t missing body parts (we’ll discuss Jewish cultural hyperbole later). Even if they checked those boxes, no one is keeping Matthew 5:48 by being as holy/set apart/perfect as God by their own efforts. Saying the Spirit empowers Christians to keep the Sermon about the Law throws the material about the New Covenant you read in the prophets in the trash. (Why would you run back to what you have died to? See Galatians 3:1-14. If you have the real thing, why look to its shadow? See Hebrews 10:1.)

If only we had someone that understood the cultural and historical context of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that was especially gifted at communicating with people outside that context, even Gentiles…oh wait, we have Paul. Paul was recognized as an Apostle preaching the same Gospel (Galatians 2:1-9) as the rest of the disciples, and Peter said that Paul’s writings are Scripture (2 Peter 3:16) and therefore inspired (2 Timothy 3:16-17). What was Paul’s takeaway from Jesus’ teachings about the Law of Moses before the Cross? Paul taught that we Gentiles were never under the Law of Moses, that Christians aren't under it now, and that we're not being tutored by it (Ephesians 2:11-18, Acts 15:10, and Galatians 3:23-25). That's a good thing, because trying to live under it is cursed (Galatians 3:10). Jesus alone ever kept it entirely (2 Corinthians 5:21), and it is an all-or-nothing proposition (James 2:10). The Law of Moses increased sin (Romans 5:20, Romans 7:8) to show us our problem. We who admit our need of grace establish the Law as the perfect, impossible standard it is meant to be (Romans 3:31). The Law has not passed away, but we have died to the Law (Romans 7:4). Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe (Romans 10:4). The greatest two commandments in the Law are love of God and neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40) and they tell what us the gist of what the Law is, but the true spirit of the Law that we died to because it kills people (Romans 7:10) was articulated by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on WWF: The Music, Volume 2:

You are completely pathetic! You know, you can start begging for some mercy right now, because you ain’t got what it takes to stay in the ring with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin from bell to bell! Why can’t I be like “Stone Cold”? Because people like you make me sick! You will beg for mercy, and that’s the bottom line, ‘cause “Stone Cold” said so.

Israel’s identity was formed through wrestling (Genesis 32), after all.

Romans 3:10-31 explains in detail that no one is righteous, that the Law just makes us aware of that lack of righteousness, and that salvation is a free gift. Throughout the rest of our trip through Matthew, I’ll try to point out things that show the Sermon shares this purpose. There is plenty of good stuff in the Sermon for Christians to think about, and it mostly got retold through a New Testament lens in Romans 12, Galatians 5, Ephesians 4 through 5, Colossians 3, 1 Thessalonians 4, etc. A good starting point for understanding the behavior instructions in the Epistles would be a) believe in Jesus Christ, b) love each other as He had loved His disciples in John 13 (He helped with a practical need; He didn’t wash every foot every day), and c) live the life He saved you for instead of doing things that were clearly judged as sinful even for those who never had the Law of Moses. Every bit of that is accomplished by looking to Jesus within you; He never told anyone to commit murder, mate with farm animals, engage in necromancy, etc. Even better than asking what Jesus would do is asking what Jesus is doing right now inside you. He will carry you on to completion, and trying flesh-powered obedience strategies (which is evidence of a lack of faith) just slows down your progress.

Jesus began the Sermon with the Beatitudes. Saying “blessed are the…” is like saying “happy are the…”; the people He described here were not traditionally considered favored by God. The first four Beatitudes are essentially the same thing. The next three are there to trip over to get back to the first four again. Pure Jesus (John 8:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21) made peace between us and God (Romans 5:1) (and He’s the only one who saw Him – John 6:46) by mercifully giving us righteousness, the Earth, comfort, and the Kingdom because that is what the Son does. Still don’t feel poor in spirit? Take a dose of impossible Law and go back to the first four Beatitudes.

This block of teaching is the first of five discourses in Matthew; this one is about the Law.

5:3 We’ve seen the “poor in spirit” concept a lot along with God’s care for the materially-deficient (Psalm 34:18, Psalm 51:17, Psalm 69:33-36, Psalm 86:1-5, Isaiah 11:4, Isaiah 57:15 which includes the New Covenant new heart and new spirit, Isaiah 61:1-3, Isaiah 66:2, etc.) Matthew took Luke’s “blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20) and explained the idea in the context the original hearers would have taken that to mean (and if Luke “improved” Matthew by removing the subtlety by making it only about being financially poor, that would be weird). Look at what Jesus did in Philippians 2:1-11 to see how this verse got fulfilled. He rules, and we’re in Him.

5:4 The Law causes despair or hypocrisy. Do the 613 requirements have you down? He’s got you (Psalm 147:3). You can say goodbye to that initial sadness at salvation. We are free to be happy when He’s around (Matthew 9:15), and He’s always with you (Matthew 28:20). The Holy Spirit inside you radiates joy (Galatians 5:22). That’s not a requirement to be “fake happy” all the time, either.

5:5 like Zephaniah 3:11-12. Psalm 37 is about this topic and will be referenced several times as we go through the Sermon.

5:6 See Psalm 107:9, Isaiah 25:6, and Isaiah 55:1-2. The Law makes us realize we lack righteousness. Only His righteousness will do, and it’s a free gift (2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:17, Romans 6:23).

5:7 See Proverbs 11:17. Mercy, pity, compassion, and kindness are all signified by this wording. The principle of karma can already be seen in Obadiah 15 and Habakkuk 2:8. Adding the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:17-18) to God’s exclusive right to vengeance (Deuteronomy 32:35, Leviticus 19:18) gets us to this notion that was already a part of contemporary Judaism (Sirach 28:2): they could expect the same quantity and quality of mercy from God that they had given to those made in His Image. Ouch. Imagine all the people that have a hard time forgiving, like those who have been molested or abused. Then, realize that only Jesus forgives perfectly, so only He merits anything under the Law. Then, you can back up and re-realize that Jesus forgives you perfectly (Isaiah 53:5, Luke 23:34), and then you can breathe a sigh of relief. Also, for those attempting to follow Jesus’ teachings about Judaism, in Matthew 18:21-35 and Luke 17:3-4, mercy is directed toward the contrite. Expecting blanket goodwill from you would be equivalent to expecting Universalism from God. For the Christian, Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 encourage us to forgive because we’re already totally forgiven people. Therefore, if (no, when) we mess that up, there’s no hellfire waiting. The behavior instructions in the New Testament encourage us to live up to our new identities as children of God; we share His nature now. There is such an earthly state as being saved and miserable (Galatians 5:17), and consistently acting out of character will not sit right with that new heart of yours. Forgiveness isn’t “stay to be abused some more” but letting go of the need to get even and moving forward. That can include healthy boundaries, distance, etc. See 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 to understand that you can totally shun someone and not be at odds with God about it.

5:8 See Psalm 24. Only Jesus saw the Father (John 6:46) because only Jesus is pure (John 8:46, 2 Corinthians 5:21). A pure heart (which is a promised part of the New Covenant – Ezekiel 36:26-27, Jeremiah 31:31-34) is something God gives you (Acts 15:9) because of what Jesus mercifully did for us.

5:9 Children take after their Father. See Psalm 29:11. Also, since Jesus used the “stringing pearls” technique to use shared words/themes to connect love of God and love of neighbor, we can note that the reward promised in Psalm 37:37 is the same as the reward for Exodus 20:12. The Son of God is our Peacemaker (Romans 5:1). Certain factions within Judaism back then were displeased with any non-stabby feelings toward the occupying Romans, so the next verse is about persecution.

5:10 This summarizes Psalm 37:12-29. See also Psalm 34:19, John 15:18-25, and 2 Timothy 3:12. Christians are collectively the Body of Christ in this world, and collectively we are persecuted. Especially in certain locations, individual Christians are being impoverished, imprisoned, tortured, killed, etc., and the rest of us can pray for them and provide for their needs. Also, believers experience pressures from the Accuser and from the world that don’t stress out unbelievers.

5:11 See Isaiah 66:5 and Isaiah 51:7-8.

5:12 See Acts 7:52. See also Genesis 15:1; Jesus is our reward in Heaven. Only He ever merited anything, and He’s gracious enough to share with us.

5:13 The presence of the righteous preserves the world; stuff like Noah’s Flood happens when you remove them. The Old Covenant practitioners failed in their mission, and the events of 70 AD occurred.

5:14 like in 1 Kings 11:36, Isaiah 2:2-5 and Isaiah 60:3. Jesus succeeds (John 8:12) where they failed.

5:15 Not only were they supposed to be a good example (Exodus 19:6), but this could also be a reference to John the Baptist being imprisoned (Matthew 4:12).

5:16 When someone prays that God’s Name be hallowed, this is what they mean. To hallow His Name, live with the kind of integrity that brings Him glory among those that don’t know Him or love Him yet. There is a difference between the observable behavior of someone with a living faith and the false piety of people doing things solely for the purpose of being seen (Matthew 6:5). Also, saying “your Father” or “our Father” to a Jewish audience wasn’t controversial (Exodus 4:22). Saying “My Father” (John 5:17-18) was a different matter.

5:17 Here’s a peek at Jesus’ personality. There was something about Him even then that made people question whether He was there to pitch the rulebook out the window. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). He was there to bring about the New (Luke 16:16, Romans 10:4, Ephesians 2:14-15 – the Old ended on my behalf). Over in John, we can see Him hanging out with people like Samaritans and women with bad reputations early in His ministry. Matthew 9:14-17 and Mark 2:27 don’t sound like the amplified John the Baptist rhetoric in the Sermon. To the critics that say my version of fulfilling the Law abolishes it, if He were there to abolish the Law, He could have just proclaimed it null right there, and we all could have partied without Him having to die. Likewise, if He were there to affirm the continued applicability of the Law, He could have preached the Sermon and ascended to Heaven right then without dying. See Galatians 2:21. He fulfilled the purpose of the Law for us by dying in our place. See Romans 8:3-4. We don’t fulfill the requirements of the Law, and He doesn’t help us fulfill the requirements of the Law. The requirements are met within us because of what He did. Believers have no relationship with the Law (Romans 7:4-6). There are plenty of unscriptural buzzwords like “3rd use of the Law” or “balancing Law and Grace” but the Law is all or nothing (James 2:10) and trying a little is cursed (Galatians 3:10). The point of obedience was to live (Leviticus 18:5); the Law did not impart life (Galatians 3:21-22), but Jesus does (John 10:10).

5:18 The Law didn’t go anywhere; we died to it (Romans 7:4). The Old Covenant was set aside (Hebrews 8:13). The Law remains to send us screaming to Grace instead; those He has made righteous have no relationship with it (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Timothy 1:8-11).

5:19 Who practices and teaches the Law perfectly? Only Jesus. Who is great in Heaven? Jesus. Who is blessed and fortunate to be there with Him, not that we deserve it? Us (Ephesians 2:4-9). So, instead of trying to make this about us, who was He talking about in context? The Pharisees and other religious experts of that time. See Mark 7:9-13. Don’t believe me? See the next verse.

5:20 I told you Matthew 5:19 was about the religious experts of that day. For more about this, see Mark 12:40 and Matthew 23. But, on the flip side of that, those were people who were generally committed to holiness. Jesus said his listeners had to compete in and win a holiness contest with the holiest holy rollers of their day to merit anything under the Law of Moses. I bet they felt poor in spirit, mournful at their chances, humble, and lacking righteousness, and that sent them right back to the first four Beatitudes.

5:21-22 Only God can rightly judge those He made in His Image (Isaiah 45:11). The commandment is against “murder” (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17) as in Exodus 21:14 and Deuteronomy 19:11-13, not defense of self or others, legally sanctioned killing like war (for example, compare 1 Samuel 18:7 and 1 Kings 15:5) or Exodus 22:2, or divinely prescribed execution (Genesis 9:6, Romans 13:4). See the Leviticus 18:5 note about pikuach nefesh if you need a refresher; the Jews were not pacifists and saw preserving the lives of others (or their own) from attempted murderers as a duty. John the Baptist did not even disarm those working as soldiers for Rome. Even the early Church praised a killing in Acts 7:24-25. Righteous indignation exists. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires (James 1:20), but Matthew 5:22 must contain the “without cause” exception to avoid accusing sinless Jesus of sinful anger in His Temple table-flipping or creating a contradiction with Paul’s advice in Ephesians 4:26-27 (in which he quotes Psalm 4:4), etc. There is a spectrum between anger/hatred without a cause and being provoked but refusing to sin/refusing to act in God’s stead/asking Him to recompense (Deuteronomy 32:35, Psalm 4:4, Psalm 37:8, Ephesians 4:26-27). You can defend, but you can’t avenge. Interestingly, Jesus said sinless God called someone a fool in Luke 12:20-21, and Paul gets in on the action in Galatians 3:1. What’s this really about then? Leviticus 19:17-18 prohibits hate and personal grudges and says to love your neighbor as yourself. Anger is further derided in Psalm 37:8 and Sirach 10:6-18. Additionally, calling them “raca” or worthless is an insult to their Maker. Calling them a godless fool with no relationship with God (Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1) is sitting on Father’s throne. Therefore, in the Luke story Jesus as God (He gets to do this) accurately described the man’s relationship with Him, and Paul was addressing people showing a lack of faith by choosing works. “In danger of” does not mean the hellfire’s guaranteed. The “court” is the Sanhedrin, a Jewish religious court from two millennia ago. That’s a clue that this was directed to a first century Jewish audience.

5:23-26 See Leviticus 19:5. Leviticus 6:4-6 has the principle of being reconciled with wronged humans before being reconciled to God. This verse is about sacrificing animals at an altar; this is still Old Testament material. For those trying to live this bit of the Sermon, can you list everyone who ever was or is mad at you? People in traffic count. Do you think you got them all? I bet you didn’t, and yet, I bet if you look hard enough you’ll see evidence that God has listened to you anyway.

5:27 is Exodus 20:14.

5:28 Please forgive the forthcoming wall of exposition. I’m going to address several issues of sexual morality here since this verse placed early in the New Testament traditionally influences the interpretation of other verses. Throughout the whole Bible, for problem passages, the NIV translation team followed the variant readings from the margins of the Masoretic Text instead of the text itself (without indicating it in the notes), they divided the consonants into different words, they checked their work with the Dead Sea Scrolls and (of all things) the Samaritan Pentateuch, they changed the Hebrew text themselves where they thought it might have been corrupted, they read some words using different vowels (without indicating it in the notes), etc. I’m not picking on them; translation teams commonly do things like this to get Bibles that can be understood by modern English readers to market. But, based on all of that, my suggestion that we read the same words in Exodus 20:17 and Matthew 5:28 the same way because it was illegal to add to the Law of Moses is a very mild one in comparison. The current plain English translation of Matthew 5:28 does not permit liking your own wife, and people that accept it at face value somehow also say that God’s plan for marriage is one man and one woman. In light of the modern Evangelical notions about “eyeballing”, isn’t it weird that most Bible heroines are described as hot? Righteous David (1 Kings 15:5) with his 18 wives/concubines would scratch his head at modern Christians. Before the Roman one-wife rule we started to obey (Romans 13) came about, the standard was one man with as many post-pubescent women (Song of Songs/Solomon 8:8-10) as he could financially support. Sometimes Job 31:1 is offered out of context (and Job later admitted in Job 42:3-6 that he was no expert) to say that mere lust/ogling is wrong (If Job did believe that, then why didn’t he leave it at that rather than bring up the adultery discussion in Job 31:9-11?) but we lack good Old Testament Law parallels to Matthew 5:28 compared to the rest of the Sermon. Jesus added nothing to the Law because it would have been a sin to do so; see Deuteronomy 4:2 and Deuteronomy 12:32. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament the New Testament writers quoted from repeatedly and therefore considered inspired. Jesus preferred its rendition of Psalm 8:2 in Matthew 21:16. Pastors in the early Church quoted from it just like your pastor reads Bible verses now in a language you understand. God’s standard for sexual morality is consistent throughout Scripture. The Greek Exodus 20:17 says “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife...” and without changing a word in the New Testament Greek manuscripts we can read in Matthew 5:28 "But I say to you that if you look at a married woman to covet her, you have committed adultery in your heart." This makes sense given the Old Testament's consistent treatment of adultery as involving another man's wife. The Greek word for “woman” in Matthew 5:28 gynika is also translated as “wife”, and the word for “lust” epithumeo (“to set the heart upon”, a very strong desire) was the closest approximation to “covet” Greeks could comprehend. According to the Jewish scholars Jesus said to listen to in Matthew 23:2-3, to covet is “to want to the point of seeking to take away and own something that belongs to another person”. Covet is frequently part of the phrase “covet and take”, whether explicit (Deuteronomy 7:25, Micah 2:2) or implicit (Exodus 34:24 for example). If David looked at Bathsheba with the intent of getting it out of his system alone without bothering anyone instead, he would have been seeking to not want Uriah’s wife. (There is a difference between wanting her and wanting to masturbate; the real question is whether you’d refuse a real advance from a known married woman, and the Holy Spirit readily tags in to help with that one.) Jesus used the “thoughtcrime” the audience was familiar with from the Ten Commandments to show the connection between other thoughts and actions, namely murder (Exodus 20:13) and extreme out-of-bounds anger (Leviticus 19:17-18). Jesus did not introduce a new “lust = adultery” to the already impossible standard of Sinai. Remember, He couldn't raise the bar without violating at least 2 of the 613 rules. The Enemy has Christians thinking mere horniness is sinful, resulting in lots of wasted time and effort and making most of us look like huge hypocrites. The real test is if you can send your neighbor’s wife away in a raincoat if she shows up naked on your doorstep, and the pent-up ascetics seem to have trouble with temptation if today’s headlines are any indication. Thinking that some of Eliezar’s 32 girls that God gave him in Numbers 31 or some of David’s that God gave him in 2 Samuel 12:8 (with more having been possible) look nice and that someone that looks like that might be a good addition to your household (in a world where identical twins exist) is one thing; plotting to chat someone up when their husband is away from his tent is completely different. Don’t plot evil against one another (Zechariah 7:10, Zechariah 8:17). It’s okay to see and think about what is not forbidden to have. Could a thought in your head even really belong to anyone else? Compare “something like that could be nice” to “I want exactly that and for him not to have it”. Also, since marital relations are encouraged in 1 Corinthians 7, it is not disrespectful to think of someone sexually. The notion that thinking of someone sexually is degrading comes from the Accuser and your HR department. I am not, however, endorsing depictions of sinful copulation or abuse. God’s consistent standard is in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 which contain behaviors that got the Canaanites, who were never under the Law of Moses, destroyed. These were the same things pagan kings in Genesis knew better than to get involved in, things done by people reduced to ash in Genesis 19 (see Jude 7), etc. John the Baptist's criticism of Herod Antipas taking his brother's wife, the man with his stepmother in 1 Corinthians 5, the adulterers in 1 Thessalonians 4:6, the active and passive participants in male homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, etc., are all accounted for. Even the fathers in the NASB's rendering of 1 Corinthians 7 that were advised to marry their daughters off if they felt inappropriately toward them are covered by this approach as well. If the modern idea that “your genitalia are bad and want bad things” were accurate, the Bible scribes could have saved much ink and spared themselves hand cramps. When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek, there was a problem communicating about sexual immorality. The word the translators went with was porneia which provides the root word for words like pornographic. It approximately means “things hookers do”, and here’s why: in Greco-Roman culture at the time, men were allowed one wife (it kept the inheritance simple) but the husbands could go out and get access to any orifice from any gender of slave, prostitute, temple prostitute, etc. There was no judgment baked into the word, it just meant “stuff not going on with the respected, noble-born mother of your children''. Now look at 1 Corinthians 5:1. Paul was concerned about the porneia reported among them, specifically that a man in their congregation was shacked up with his father’s wife. Did any of you ever read that verse and think he was paying her? Since it’s not about hookers, where does Paul derive his prohibition of their relationship? Leviticus 18:3,7-8,24-28. This discussion is also at work wherever English translators choose “fornication” to stand for porneia which was chosen as another placeholder word for the list of universal sexual rules. Some translations correctly speak of “inordinate lust” or “evil desires” (i.e. the off-the-Leviticus-menu stuff) in Colossians 3:5 where many others just say “lust” and create the perception of many Bible contradictions. Paul warned us in Colossians 2:8 "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition..." Predictably, the Church immediately started snorting big lines of Stoicism and Platonism. The Greek philosophical behavioral ideals (not to be confused with the over-the-top Greek behavior toward which the philosophies developed as a reaction) especially became the norm as the early Church distanced itself from its Jewish roots. Even so, Theophilus of Antioch (centuries earlier than Augustine) read Matthew 5:28 as a paraphrase of Exodus 20:17. I'm not saying that he's authoritative and that Augustine is not; I'm saying that the understanding that we have of the verse now was not always set in stone, and that we had centuries of interpretation baked into it by the time we got Bibles in English. The celibate desert fathers (ascetics whose separation from the world was more Essene than Christian, a separation that would have been criticized by Paul and was criticized by Luther) left an intellectual legacy that stewed along with lingering Greek philosophical ideas right up to the time of Augustine. Before he was a Christian, Augustine was a Manichean, and therefore it is no surprise that the "spirit good/matter bad" Gnostic tendency (that John wrote against in the Bible) lingered. Since identical percentages of believers and nonbelievers "struggle" with lust, might it suggest that, apart from forbidden matters like other dudes and barnyard fun, the Holy Spirit is helping us avoid that to the extent He's pitching in for shellfish avoidance and Saturday yard work? The “yen for concubines” aka concupiscence is not sinful, per se. Go ask Abraham (1 wife Sarah, 2 concubines Hagar and Keturah), about whom God says in Genesis 26:5 “obeyed and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions”, and see if he tells you that God’s expectations are any different. Anyone teaching biblical inerrancy and preaching about Abraham's "adultery" is contradicting themselves. Marriage is a symbol of Christ and the Church, Christ's love for me does not diminish his love for you, He can always add more followers, but we can’t have Him and Baal. Augustine had some notions worth keeping, but Matthew 5:28 meaning "mere lust = adultery” seems like an imaginary Yeti atop a mountain of Law-keeping that Christ already skied down for us before giving us the medal and telling us not to try it. God is portrayed as a polygamist in Ezekiel 23; would God depict himself as a sinner in the Bible? God only accepts good offerings, and in Numbers 31:25-47, the Lord calls dibs on 32 ladies and distributes more to His servants. Consider the size of Paul's abstraction when we get to the Epistles: If you can eat grocery store meat formerly sacrificed to idols, then merely looking at suggestive material cannot be a problem. God cares about the mechanism by which His Image is propagated. However, saying “fantasy” is wrong is a stretch; unless the fantasy involves driving away cackling about never calling her again, most men are in essence thinking about adding a hypothetical wife to the team (See the Genesis 24:67 note). Again, if having frequent relations isn't disrespectful to either party in 1 Corinthians 7, thinking about allowable behaviors isn't disrespectful to anyone either. Also, notice that because the Bible was written in a time when men had the agency to obtain spouses and women didn't, the Lord did not constrain what women think about in the Sermon. Yes, He cares about how we treat each other, and impure thoughts are of impure things. Would I rather you read the Bible than “50 Shades or whatever”? Yes, the Bible is more beneficial, but you are free. If the fictional characters are making your husband less valued by comparison or if he has an issue with it, then it is bad, but if it’s mindless relaxation and he’s benefiting from your increased libido or from quiet time to follow his own godly pursuits, then that’s between the two of you. As to vulgarity, Ezekiel 23:20 is a favorite verse of mischievous people in which the Jews’ infidelity to God (the Husband in this scenario) in international politics is portrayed as them lusting after lovers with genitals like that of donkeys (For readers who grew up in the city, just think of a big restaurant pepper mill); Ezekiel 16 and 23 in general are pretty risqué by modern sensibilities. Paul’s warnings about obscene stories must have a pretty high bar since they share a binding with Ezekiel, Song of Songs/Solomon, etc. James 1:13 says God tempts no one to sin, and God metaphorically strips women naked for public view in Jeremiah 13:26-27 and Hosea 2 (and Ezekiel 36, Isaiah 47, etc.; it’s a pattern), so that can’t be morally injurious to onlookers. If Isaiah can walk around naked (Isaiah 20) for three years to make a point (Micah and Saul also behaved similarly), nudity isn’t bad, then merely seeing or thinking about it isn’t bad. In conclusion, focus on the promises of John 10:28-30 instead of fleeing the supermarket because a woman left the house wearing yoga pants.

5:29-30 Don’t pick up a blade. He said if your body is being a bad shepherd, treat it like Zechariah 11:17 says to. I said don’t pick up a blade. You would still have another of each to be led into sin by; the offending organ is your heart (Mark 7:20-23). Put the knife down, God already did the procedure at salvation (Galatians 5:24 and Colossians 2:11). The New Covenant includes a new heart full of good stuff that God put into it (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Romans 5:5). Any thoughts that are out of character with your new identity in Christ aren’t coming from you, they’re coming from Sin, and you don’t have to obey them (Romans 6:6,11). Jewish cultural hyperbole is crucial to understanding what Jesus is saying here, too. They also say that gossip kills the subject, the hearer, and the speaker. They say to jump in a fire rather than embarrass someone. Jesus’ description of walking around with a roof beam in your eye while worried about the speck in another’s eye also qualifies as this (Matthew 7:4). The same hand/eye rhetoric is used in Mark 9:42-43 about the religious leaders that were keeping people away from Jesus (like in Luke 11:52). People who misinterpreted this teaching and castrated themselves overlooked the fact that Jesus the sinless teacher wouldn’t have countermanded Deuteronomy 23:1. Now that we’ve covered the important stuff, here's a little more for those interested in history: The Romans put out eyes (like in 1 Samuel 11:2, to ruin their ability to fight like in 2 Samuel 5:6) and cut off hands to punish rebels, and Jesus’ hearers would be familiar with this. Josephus, when he was still a military commander, made a rebel leader cut off one of his own hands to avoid losing both. Others who heard this hand/eye rhetoric would think of the total commitment to holiness shown by the martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6 through 2 Maccabees 7, the story from which we derived the word “macabre”.

We’ve got a lot of Sermon left to go. It’s time for a grace break. Look ahead to Matthew 10:32. Then, remind yourself of Romans 3:19-20, Romans 10:4, Ephesians 2:8-10, and Hebrews 8:13.

5:31 is Deuteronomy 24:1.

5:32 Please forgive me for this wall of text (Titus 3:9). Some denominations treat divorce as an unforgivable sin. Marriage is a union that God created, so splitting up is not to be done lightly. Marriage is a depiction of Christ’s relationship with the Church; our fidelity is worship of Him alone, and He provides for us (Philippians 4:19) and protects us (Hebrews 7:25). Ephesians 5:21-33 explains Christian marriage. Many husbands want the verse 22 submission without the verse 25 laying-down-his-life-for-her and vice versa. Let’s look ahead to the divorce discussion in Matthew 19:1-12 (and Mark 10:11-12 and Luke 16:18) for some context. The Gospels contain references to Jewish practices and phrases like “for any cause” that would have been unfamiliar to anyone outside the Holy Land in those days. Oddly, thanks to archaeological finds like the Dead Sea Scrolls and old divorce documents with rabbinic commentary, we have more background to understand what Jesus and Paul were talking about than the 2nd century Church“fathers”. There are well-meaning Christian educators that think Moses snuck Deuteronomy 24:1-4 into the Law. What do you think the God who allowed Miriam to contract leprosy for saying true but critical things about Moses, who prevented Moses from entering the Promised Land for the rock-bonking stunt, who is implicated in killing 14,700 people for complaining about the other people He was recently implicated in killing, and who threatened to add the plagues of Revelation to anyone who added to the text would have done to Moses for doing something like that? When Pharisees talked about Moses commanding divorce and Jesus talked about Moses permitting it, that was shorthand for its allowability under the Law of Moses given to Moses by God. When Jesus said that it was added due to their hardness of heart, He meant that divorce was not part of God’s plan before the Fall; hence, He quoted Genesis 2:24 regarding the true spirit of marriage to preface His comments about a particular divorce scenario. When Jesus was asked about whether it was okay to divorce a woman “for any reason”, he was being asked to pick a side in the Shammai/Hillel disagreement. Moreover, He was being asked to answer that question publicly in the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, who had taken his brother’s wife thusly. They were trying to set Jesus up to be killed like John the Baptist. Some background on the dispute: Famous Pharisee Shammai said Deuteronomy 24 divorces required serious grounds like sexual immorality such as not actually being a virgin when advertised as such (contract fraud), since adultery was a death penalty offense. Famous Pharisee Hillel interpreted it as being “for any reason”; this was meant to be a kindness since it wouldn’t require the airing of dirty laundry in front of a judge at the city gate that would make a crowd want to stone someone to death (and only the Romans’ say-so prevented that). It was this sort of quiet putting-away Joseph considered once regarding the unexpectedly pregnant Mary. Roman law permitted divorcing without even giving the certificate let alone a reason. Leaving a woman without a divorce certificate could allow a scoundrel to keep the dowry (Genesis 31:14-16 makes it clear that part of the bride price was intended to endow a wife financial security against widowhood) and prevent her from marrying again. The whole certificate business showed that a husband had quit his claim and would not come back later to try to get the wife back from the new husband; it basically said, “you are free to remarry any man you wish”. Jesus and Paul frequently sound like Hillel, but on this issue Jesus went with Shammai. When Jesus said in Matthew 19:9 “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery,” it was in regard to the correct application of Deuteronomy 24, not to the rest of biblical divorce law. Paul didn’t just invent desertion as grounds for divorce, and what Paul wrote does not contradict Jesus because that is rooted in the Exodus 21 grounds that Jesus did not object to (See Exodus 21:10-11 note). In context, Matthew 19:9 is more like, “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife using Deuteronomy 24:1-4, except for sexual immorality, like the Hillelites with their unbiblical “for any reason” divorce rule, and marries another woman commits adultery because the marriage with its associated responsibilities was still alive, therefore providing for this new heifer instead of the wife of his youth puts him in breach of contract.” There was a one-wife rule in the Greco-Roman culture; otherwise, adding wives like the patriarchs would have been fine. When Jesus said in Matthew 5:32, “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery,” no woman divorced a husband in the ancient world to go find herself. Women had few economic prospects apart from a man. Jesus saying marrying a divorced woman is adultery is in regard to the scenario of getting a woman to divorce for the purpose of marrying her like Herod did. Any cast-off victims are freed by their partners' breach of contract and can remarry. Modern churches that allow divorce with the possibility of remarriage (after applying Proverbs 18:17 “listen to both sides” first, and only proceeding after much careful consideration and counseling unless anyone’s safety is at risk) tend to use Ephesians 5 (“Are they treating you rightly?”) and 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (“Will they even listen to the Church when we tell them to straighten up and reconcile?”) to then apply Matthew 18:15-17 to declare the soon-to-be-former spouse an unbeliever, then use 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 based on Deuteronomy 7:3-4 to invoke 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 to say that an unbeliever has left the marriage by breaking the oath. Spouses blatantly behaving as unbelievers are treated as unbelievers, with unequal yoking being a form of "sexual immorality" and abandonment being derived from acting as if free from the marriage contract (the love and provision in Ephesians 5:21-33), whether still physically present or not. The assertions I made about Matthew 5:28 require far fewer backflips than that. As to the notion of “perpetual adultery” bandied about by jilted men on Christian talk radio, Jesus said that the act of remarrying under the wrong circumstances is adulterous. If God refused to recognize remarriage as legitimate, and a physical relationship between a remarried couple was essentially an affair, then dissolving the second marriage and returning to the original spouses would fix it. On the contrary, whether the second marriage began lawfully or not, it becomes as binding as the original marriage was supposed to be; in order to avoid more adultery, the remarried person needs to remain faithful to the new marriage (God expected Israel to be faithful to their treaty with the Gibeonites and even supported them in doing so with one of the greatest recorded miracles in Joshua 9 through Joshua 10. See also 2 Samuel 21. They were told not to “marry” them, but they were expected to keep their word once wed per Deuteronomy 7:1-4 and Genesis 2:24. I don’t think the mass divorces in the days of Ezra were what God’s heart wanted). Remember, Deuteronomy 24 also includes a prohibition of a first husband taking a woman back after a second marriage (This prevented wife-pimping and wife-swapping under legal pretext). The incest issue often doesn’t get enough attention here; the issue of Herod’s marriage was complicated by Herod “marrying” his living brother’s wife (Leviticus 18:16). The second-marriages-are-binding principle would have only worked if their pairing could have otherwise been legally approved per the Law of Moses. Many people have been encouraged to remain in abusive relationships because the Church traditionally only recognizes adultery and abandonment by an unbeliever as grounds for divorce. God takes care of the widows and orphans, so the divorce prohibition is in part against putting a woman in the street, and the adultery prohibition is in part against a child not being able to honor the right parents. Would Jesus, who said the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, wish continued harm upon women and children toward maintaining a symbol of His love for the Church? People have been told to “turn the other cheek” when beaten; in context, that meant to endure insults rather than retaliate because God avenges (Deuteronomy 32:35). Genesis 2:24 and Leviticus 19:18 prohibit abuse in marriage for everyone but masochists. The Law of Moses freed slaves who had been brutalized (Exodus 21:26-27). The first century Jewish religious authorities endorsed lesser-to-greater arguments (and Jesus did too with his comparison of circumcision on the Sabbath to healing on the Sabbath; He also said these authorities were authorized Torah interpreters in Matthew 23:2-3), so they reasoned that since a slave could expect that, then a wife was not to expect any worse. Regarding a spouse who won’t listen to you, to the Church, and to Jesus, and who instead insists on acting like an unbeliever, Matthew 18:15-17 says to treat them as an unbeliever. Marrying an unbeliever is “unequal yoking” and both Testaments discourage it (Deuteronomy 7:3, 2 Corinthians 6:14); Paul says you can let them go if they want out and you can remarry (1 Corinthians 7:15). Paul said “in such cases” rather than “in this instance”, so literal abandonment by an unbeliever is just one application of valid divorce and remarriage. Driving you away is abandoning you, and saying they want to stay married to continue to abuse you is semantics. If Paul would have to hide in a basket and get lowered over a wall to run away from potential converts that act like your “spouse” (Acts 9:23-25), they have already abandoned you and are in violation of the marriage contract. The paperwork is a formality. The party that leaves is not necessarily the party that broke the one-flesh relationship. God (after being good to people who were not good to Him for a long time, unilaterally keeping His part of the covenant as the best example for us) wrote the certificate of divorce in Jeremiah 3:8, but Ezekiel 16 lists the ways God’s people had already broken faith with Him. At the end of Ezekiel 16 (and in Jeremiah 3:14), God took His wayward wife back as in 1 Corinthians 7:11. By the way, 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 in context seems to address the Greek philosophy fans who had asked about being celibate for the Lord in verse 1 whom Paul placates in verses 5 and 29. Yes, God got a Deuteronomy 24 divorce, therefore Jesus did not disallow all of those. The subsequent remarriage is legal because of the truth of Isaiah 45:5: there is no other real god for them to marry, so there was no complication of a second marriage to prevent reconciliation. The God who hates divorce did not leave the Old Covenant peoples forever, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. He won’t divorce you for being divorced.

5:33-37 See Numbers 30:2-8, Deuteronomy 23:21-23, Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, and Zechariah 8:16-17. See Sirach 23:7-11 for bonus points. Jesus keeps His promises (Psalm 146:6). Deuteronomy 23:22 and Ecclesiastes 5:5 are the sources of Matthew 5:34 and James 5:12. While God as Father (and Christ as Husband) nullifies our rash vows, it’s still not a good idea to say “I’ll never do that again” or “I swear to God…” Trust Jesus living inside you for guidance and to help you live with such integrity that your “yes” and your “no” are believed without qualification. While some people had bad motives, the excessive oaths began with good intentions. Since Pharisees wanted to avoid lying, they invented a hierarchy of things to swear by in case plans fell through. Only God knows everything, so only God can speak with certainty.

5:38 Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21 are sentencing guidelines for courts to prevent disproportionate retribution, not recipes for personal revenge.

5:39-41 “resist” In context, the Hebrew thought behind this Greek is “be vexed by” like in Proverbs 24:19, Psalm 37:1. See Psalm 37:8-9. It seems that following the spirit of this Sermon toward the Romans would have prevented the events of 70 AD. A slap was culturally an insult rather than a physical assault meant to cause lasting harm. Slaps were given with the presumed dominant right hand, and a backhanded strike was for someone beneath you. Look at both cheeks. Being willing to accept a second insult without escalating came with a side of “strike me like an equal”, but I smell cultural hyperbole. Under the Law, defense from real physical threats was okay (1 Samuel 30, Luke 22:36) but revenge was not (Deuteronomy 32:35 says revenge is His, and Leviticus 19:18 literally starts with “do not seek revenge”); Jesus said to get naked in court (Matthew 5:40) before thinking of revenge, and I smell more cultural hyperbole. We can trust God to pay everything back; He’s known for paying double for trouble, so don’t get in His way. Jesus said in essence that when Zechariah 14:1 went down, they could Lamentations 3:30 because Isaiah 51:7-8. For those still insisting on total passivity, Acts 23:12-22 proves snitching is okay. See Paul’s objection to how false apostles were treating believers in 2 Corinthians 11:20. The Romans could compel someone under occupation to assist them for one mile, but could get in trouble for taking two. Again, this could be cultural hyperbole at work – “lose twice before even thinking of revenge”. Jesus’ audience expected Messiah to overthrow Rome, not walk extra. Also, it was “don’t be vexed by” an evildoer, but Matthew 18:15-17 allowed for asking each other for better treatment. Lawsuits among believers decided by pagan authorities that made the Church look bad (1 Corinthians 6), especially as a way to rip each other off like the nonbelievers (1 Corinthians 6, James 2:6) are a different matter. Finally, since holiness is acting like God, and God is known for paying double for trouble, then giving the extra mile is another way to look like Him.

5:42 is Deuteronomy 15:7-11 and in essence Leviticus 19:18; yet, this somehow did not automatically extend to believers freeing their slaves in 1 Timothy, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, etc. Fully keeping Deuteronomy 15:7-11 under Roman oppression would have bankrupted anyone under the Law. God used the Law to teach what we were like (Romans 3:19), dead without Christ (Ephesians 2:5). It’s an impossible standard (Acts 15:10) to end the lie of achieved righteousness that began in Eden (Genesis 3:5). However, a great mystery of our faith is that God came to us as a Man under the Law (Galatians 4:4-5) and yet is always the same forever (Hebrews 13:8). Thus, when He tells us to give to whoever asks, it’s not a test for us to fail (we will), but a promise that He grants salvation to whomever asks Him. Jesus loves me, this I know, for my Bible tells me so in Leviticus 19:18 that He fulfills (Matthew 5:17) because He is sinless (John 8:46), and the Cross is the biggest hint.

5:43-47 See Leviticus 19:18. To be fair to the Pharisees, we did read a lot of Jeremiah 48-style anti-enemy rhetoric between here and Leviticus. Children of God take after Him; consistency (Zechariah 10:1 and Joel 2:23) and slowness to anger are some of His attributes. Our respect for God overflows into respect for those He made in His Image. Jesus holds love for your neighbor as one of the top two commandments in the Law (as a part of a discussion of how to rank what to obey and when, as we saw with pikuach nefesh) in Matthew 22:39. “Love” is more like “behave loyally toward” than a fuzzy emotion here. Don’t cheat people; help them if you can (like you would want if you were in their shoes). Apart from not hating people, revenge belongs to God (Deuteronomy 32:35, Obadiah 15). Also, the word translated “pagan” is ethnikos. While the ethnikos were pagans back then, it means Gentiles. “Don’t be like the Gentiles” is a good clue that this sermon is for an exclusively Jewish audience.

Finally, I’ve seen lots of soldiers, police officers, etc., who have had to fight and kill in the line of duty struggle with verses about loving our enemies and praying for them. As far as it depends on us, we are to live peaceably with others (Romans 12:18), but if others are forcing your hand by threatening human lives or your leaders are exercising proper authority (Romans 13:4), your prayer for your enemy might have to be “May he rest in peace” (“Requiescat in pace”) after it’s all over. David killed a lot of people (1 Samuel 18:7) with God’s approval (1 Kings 15:5). For a more modern example than that, while I’m not endorsing all of the actions of all of the Crusaders, based on the Islamic conquests from 622 to 750 AD (taking land stretching from what is now Spain and Portugal all the way to India, the Caucasus mountains, and Central Asia, including what is now Sicily, North Africa, the Middle East), defensive efforts by men like Charles “The Hammer” Martel can be argued to be allowable.

5:48 See Leviticus 19:1-2 and Leviticus 19:37. Deuteronomy 10:12 said to walk in all His ways, which is what a child of His would do. Doing that perfectly was an already impossibly high bar that reveals our need for Christ’s grace. Luke 6:36 says to be as merciful as God. Some object to the word “perfect”; it can also mean holy, complete, whole, not a hypocrite, etc., but good luck matching God at any of that (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23, Psalm 14). Jesus did this for us (Hebrews 10:14, Hebrews 7:25-26).

6:1 This does not contradict Matthew 5:16 because there is a difference between a faith with visible effects and performing for the purpose of being seen.

6:2 “hypocrites” Literally, “actors” who are pious as a performance for other people. Because of poor visibility from the cheap seats, actors had their own musical leitmotif (nowadays, we’d say theme music) to identify them when they appeared on stage. The giving is assumed from Deuteronomy 15:4. Also, notice that Jesus assumed the audience knew what went on in theaters and did not prohibit their enjoyment of the performing arts.

6:4 See Jeremiah 17:10. The “your Father” does not signify a Christian audience (Isaiah 64:8).

6:5 Here’s another case of the “to be seen” motive; 1 Chronicles 29:10-20 suggests elaborate public prayers are okay (1 Kings 15:5).

6:6 See Psalm 139. Silent prayer is fine (Psalm 139:2). The loving Father waits for you in secret. Go talk.

6:7-8 Another dose of “don’t be like the Gentiles”. Repeated prayers are not problematic (Matthew 26:39-43, Luke 18:1-8) despite what Sirach 7:14 says, but remember the spirit of Ecclesiastes 5:1-7. Many words can also be like incantations or magic spells to control God by saying the right things and the random glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” seen in many religious groups around the world (which is always somehow a salad of sounds already present in the languages the speaker knows). Vainly repeating the same prayer an arbitrary number of times does not guarantee a response, but Psalms are timeless, etc. This does not discourage following Matthew 7:7, just know you don’t have to explain anything to Him; He knew what you were going to think even before you thought it.

6:9-13 This prayer summarizes what was already prayed three times daily in the synagogues (which became the “Amidah” or “18 Blessings”, and a “19th” was added in response to Christian “heretics”). The element that Jesus added to it was the part about conditional forgiveness that was already in contemporary Judaism via Sirach 28:2; it must be understood as part of the entire Sermon about how they couldn’t be as perfect/set-apart/holy as God.

6:9 God as Father was already a familiar element within Judaism (Exodus 4:22, Psalm 103, Isaiah 63:16, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 3:19, etc.). Asking that His Name be hallowed is wishing He were respected by everyone, as God should be. The audience had been exhorted to do good works and avoid sin their whole lives in hopes that they would not make Him look bad (Exodus 19:6); having read this far in the Bible, how do you think they did with that (Ezekiel 36:20-23)?

6:10 Jesus came to do the Father’s will (Hebrews 10:7). As for the coming of His kingdom, see Matthew 28:18 and, after a merciful intermission to spread the Good News before some unpleasantness, Revelation 21.

6:11 The notion of daily bread looks back to Proverbs 30:8-9 and being sustained in the wilderness learning Deuteronomy 8:3. The Word (John 1) is also the Bread (John 6:35), so believers in Christ are taken care of once for all.

6:12,14-15 See Matthew 5:7 note. This was not in the prayer they were used to reciting. Only Jesus forgives well enough to merit anything under the Law; the humility that not even being able to forgive correctly engenders is the point. Contrast this teaching with my favorite healing over in Matthew 9:2: No repentance, no plea; just free. Perfect forgiveness is not a standard that humans can meet; it’s what Jesus gives us. A conditional relationship with God always fails. Be poor in spirit and ask for grace. The need to reconcile first is not part of the gospel message that goes out after the Cross (Luke 24:46-47). When Jesus comes back, our sins are not going to be an issue (Romans 4:8, Hebrews 9:28). Christians are encouraged to forgive (Colossians 3, Ephesians 4) in light of our status as people that have already been totally forgiven; you don’t have room in your backpack for bitterness, anyway.

6:13 God tempts no one (James 1:13), but if the old heart (Jeremiah 17:9) gets near temptation, it will succumb to it. Therefore, they asked to be led elsewhere (Sirach 23:1-6). For us, see 1 Corinthians 10:13. The evil one cannot touch you (1 John 5:18), only lie to you about what you actually want to do (Romans 6, Romans 7). Some manuscripts just say “evil”, which is to say all harm (Psalm 121:7, Job 5:19 – Good thing there was that Psalm; we should be careful taking Job’s “friends” advice at face value).

Many people that pray this prayer (lifted out of the context of the Sermon) add a closing based on 1 Chronicles 29:11.

6:16-18 See Matthew 9:15. I’m sure people were sad and distracted when Jesus was in the tomb, but He is with us all the time now (Matthew 28:20). God doesn’t seem to be a fan of regularly scheduled fasting (Isaiah 58, Zechariah 7). Fasting is a symbolic near death that was thought to bring people closer to the “other side”, a voluntary state of weakness from which to ask for God’s help, and a commitment to focus (since dining was the primary form of entertainment). It may be helpful to some believers sometimes, but it is not a magic spell to control God. The Day of Atonement was the one day of fasting per year required in the Law of Moses. Pharisees started fasting twice a week for bonus points.

6:19-21 See Proverbs 19:17. Based on Isaiah 58:7-10, Ezekiel 18:7,22, the offer to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:27, Psalm 112:9, Proverbs 10:2, and Proverbs 11:4-8 regarding “righteousness” (tzedakah, charity, gifts for the poor) we see alms righteousness or “treasure in Heaven” further developed in Tobit 4 and Sirach 29 already in Judaism before Jesus’ teachings about the Law. Properly keeping Deuteronomy 15:7-11 amidst the poverty they experienced under occupation (“spending themselves”) would have taken everything they had. Only Jesus gave enough, and only Jesus had anything worth giving; we rely on Christ’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Here’s how that worked: God hears the righteous (Psalm 34:15) and Jesus prayed for us to be united with Him (John 17); treasure in heaven is credit with God (Proverbs 19:17), Jesus gave His life for us, God gave it back, and we share His eternal resurrection life. We’ve seen several honest wealthy people praised in the Old Testament (Sirach 13:24). There are wealthy New Testament Christians; see 1 Timothy 6:17-18. While you’re over there, see 1 Timothy 6:6-11. Money is a good servant and a bad master. Money isn’t evil, the love of money isn’t evil per se, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. When the desire for more escapes its proper boundaries, evil happens. Who loves money more, an honest miser or a poor man willing to commit robbery and violence? This world is going away (2 Peter 3:9-13) but believers own the universe (Galatians 4:7) because Jesus is the Treasure in Heaven. No one earns anything (Ecclesiastes 3:14); He is the Remnant, all 1 of them, and we are united with Him. Another treasure to work for is more souls for Christ (Philippians 4:1), but it all pays the same in Heaven (Matthew 20 notes).

6:22-23 To have a “good eye” is a Hebrew expression meaning generosity. Generous people trust God to provide more. People with an “evil eye” begrudge others and cling to what they have, not seeing more coming from Father.

6:24 Regarding “serve”, think “prioritize”. “Hate” and “despise” can be “not to prefer” with Jewish cultural hyperbole.

6:25-27 He counsels against anxiety, not against prudence. Both the Old and New Testaments say to be diligent. Remember Joseph’s savings in preparation for the famine. Paul had a job as a tentmaker, and he told believers in Thessaloniki that had become bums waiting for the end of the world to get back to work (2 Thessalonians 3). See Proverbs 6:6, Proverbs 27:23, Proverbs 30:25, and Psalm 104.

6:28-29 Those in the Jerusalem church that tried applying some of Jesus’ “do not labor” money advice at face value (also during the famine Agabus predicted in Acts 11:27-30) wound up being fed by Gentiles that were only under Galatians 2:10, 2 Corinthians 8, 2 Corinthians 9, etc., instead of the Law Jesus preached to those under Law, so He was still right. Plus, proclaiming Jesus as Messiah and calling for national repentance pre-Cross and pre-70 AD was a full time job for The Twelve who get special thrones (Matthew 19:28) and other perks (Revelation 21:14).

6:30 See Psalm 37:1-2 and Isaiah 40:6-8 (and read the rest of Isaiah 40 while you’re over there).

6:31 The first century Jewish Christian audience for Matthew was encouraged to choose trust in Jesus rather than quitting the Way in order to go back to the Temple/synagogue system for more stable employment and a safety net.

6:32 This is another admonition against being like the Gentiles. This Sermon had a specific audience.

6:33 See Psalm 37:4-6, Psalm 37:15-29, Psalm 62:10, Psalm 73, Psalm 127:2, 2 Corinthians 9:8, and best of all, John 6:27-29. Remember that “righteousness” and “charity” are related Hebrew words, so seek God’s generosity first by accepting the free gift of righteousness found in Jesus Christ. If you are saved, you have done so. Now, Christ is your life; money, food, amusements, etc., will not fulfill you apart from Him. Also, this is one of the verses in Matthew that uses “Kingdom of God” in the Greek instead of the more Hebraic “Kingdom of Heaven” (a euphemism employed to avoid casual use of the Name) also used more frequently in Matthew. Things like that and using the Septuagint for Old Testament quotes support my assertion that the Gospel of Matthew was pieced together from multiple sources.

6:34 We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but we know Who holds tomorrow. Avoiding the inordinate love of money, not worrying about tomorrow, and trusting God financially are all ways of saying things like "use honest weights" and "don't stand by the blood of your brother" from the Old Covenant. Working an honest job honestly (doing it His way) was commended, even if it benefitted immoral men; in other conversations John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, etc., didn't say “quit working for the Romans”.

7:1-5 This prevents breaking Leviticus 19:15-16. See also Matthew 6:15. To “judge” here means to “condemn”. We are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 5:1), and discernment is valid (Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 5:11-12, Revelation 2:2) as long as we don’t lose sight of the fact that we need grace,too.

7:6 See Matthew 15:26 for the context that “dogs” are Gentiles. This is a restatement of Proverbs 9:7, Proverbs 23:9, etc.

7:7-8 This could be written “keep asking”, “keep seeking”, and “keep knocking”, informing our thoughts about Matthew 6:7-8. This was an assurance that those under the Old Covenant praying Matthew 6:9-13 that they ultimately (thanks to what Jesus did for us) would be fed (John 6:35) and forgiven (Colossians 2:13-14, Hebrews 10:14), that God’s Name would be hallowed (Gentiles all over the world worship the God of the Hebrews now), that His will would be done (Hebrews 10:9), deliverance was coming (1 John 5:18), etc. The door they were to knock on was to the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14).

7:9-11 “how much more” This Hebrew line of reasoning will come up again a lot in our discussions of Jesus’ parables. If x leads to y from fallible humans, then our perfect God will surely go out of His way to be good to us. Matthew’s use of this seems to be a generalization of Luke 11:13, which would be a pre-Pentecost Old Covenant-style request for the Spirit to help them resist temptation as in Matthew 6:13. In the Old Testament, sin made the Holy Spirit leave people, resulting in much begging in Psalms to keep or regain His presence (Psalm 51). Even then, they only had the Spirit on them for a time for a specific task. Jesus took all our sin away and God remembers it no more, so we have the Holy Spirit always (John 14:16-20, emphasis on “forever”). As for other “good gifts”, there is the caveat that it has to be in His will for you (See 1 John 5:14).

7:12 See Obadiah 15. This is like a positive version of “an eye for an eye”. What is the most logical thing to do if what goes around comes around? The audience already had this principle from Tobit 4:15. As for this summing up the Old Covenant, Jesus still reaffirms the Ten Commandments later with the rich young ruler because that interaction and this Sermon were both still part of His ministry to those under the Law.

I think it might be time for another grace break. See Joel 2:32, Matthew 10:32, Luke 12:8, and Romans 10:9-11. For anyone assembling a do-this-not-that list from the Sermon for some flesh-powered rule keeping, remember that sort of thing ends badly (Romans 5:20, Romans 7:5, Romans 7:8, 2 Corinthians 3:7). See Romans 10:4.

7:13-14 See Proverbs 15:10. The narrow gate is exactly the width of one Jesus (John 10:9). If you ask Him to save you, He will (Matthew 7:8). Gentiles seem to be better at finding Him now; see Paul’s reasoning for that in Romans 9 through Romans 11. Only a few people find Jesus, so we point Him out.

7:15-16 See what Paul said about the false apostles in 2 Corinthians 11:19-20.

7:17-19 Here’s another place Christians look at their own imperfect performance (James 3:2) and freak out. Unbelievers have no good fruit (Isaiah 64:6); their “good” deeds all tainted and fall short of Matthew 5:48. Believers have no bad fruit because Jesus took it all away (John 1:29, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 10:14). God is trustworthy, and He promised to remember our sins no more (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus made salvation a group project in John 17, and we’re carrying His resumé (2 Corinthians 5:21) of good fruit. Moreover, anything God likes (Matthew 10:42) is evidence that Jesus is at work within us (Philippians 2:13) and is worth celebrating forever. Note that the burned trees are selected for not bearing good fruit, not for bearing bad fruit at any time.

7:20 See 1 Samuel 24:12-13 and Sirach 27:6.

7:21-23 A common interpretation sees these people as lacking sufficient spiritual poverty (Matthew 5:3, Luke 18:9-14, Galatians 6:14) since they are expecting to get into Heaven based on their works. There’s an even deeper truth that I don’t see being taught enough, and understanding it is the key to the rest of the Sermon. See Romans 10:1-3 and John 8:19. Up until now in Matthew (Matthew 1:20, Matthew 1:22, Matthew 4:7, etc), Lord or Kyrie meant God (the Father). They’re not saying “Jesus, Jesus…”; they thought they had the Father without the Son (1 John 2:23). The last judgment wasn’t a surprise to them, but seeing Jesus on the throne for it was. Jesus was even permissive of those outside the “official” group using His Name to cast out demons, etc. (Mark 9:38-41, Luke 9:50), because He’s kind to sick/suffering people, but a relationship with Him is vital. The Jews were doing exorcisms, too (Matthew 12:27, Acts 19:13-16) without knowing Him (John 8:54-55, Matthew 15:12-14). Believer, Galatians 4:9 says that He knows you. Also, He doesn’t lie. He said He never knew the people in verse 23, He didn’t say that He knew them but they messed up too much. He knew everything you’re ever going to say and do, and He forgave you anyway. He is trustworthy and therefore can’t call a Christian an “evildoer” (Hebrews 8:12, Hebrews 10:14, 2 Corinthians 5:21). God is omniscient, but Christ-deniers get denied (John 3:36). That’s a lifelong thing rather than some regrettable years; Paul was an enemy of the faith before conversion, and Peter came back after denying Him repeatedly. See John 6:29 (the will of the Father in Matthew 7:21), John 6:37, Luke 12:8-9, Luke 13:28-30, Matthew 8:11-12, Matthew 10:32-33, and 2 Timothy 2:12. Finally, believers are ruled by Christ as citizens of Heaven; we have the “Law of the Spirit” (Romans 8:2) because we are born again (John 3) while Christ-deniers are not. Our freedom from the Law of Moses is not the “lawlessness” here.

7:24 How do you put these words of His into practice? Know Him. He keeps Matthew 5:48, and we cannot; He keeps Matthew 5:42, so salvation is free for the asking. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus has the authority to forgive (Matthew 9:1-6).

7:25-27 The language about water sweeping their dwelling away as if it were built in a flood plain that becomes a river in the desert when it rains (rather than on the rock, a cliff) looks back to Isaiah 28:2,17; Jesus implied Isaiah 29 as well along with this reference. The bad shepherds lacked faith in the Good Shepherd so Rome knocked their Temple down (just like what happened after Isaiah spoke). See Proverbs 10:25 and Proverbs 14:11. The whole point of the Sermon was that we can’t save ourselves (Matthew 19:25-26). Also, Gentiles weren’t/aren’t under the Law of Moses (Acts 15:10 and Acts 21:20,25). Still worried about your “house”? See John 14:1-3 and Galatians 4:7; we’ll be sharing His place.

7:28-29 The religious authorities of that day heaped on extra rules and provided no help (Luke 11:46). The Law was already too heavy (Acts 15:10). Jesus is not like that (Matthew 11:28-30); He pointed out that it was impossible for us but unlike the other teachers, He helped us.

Keep going, the Sermon continues through Matthew 8:4.

8:1-2 Jesus was still close enough to that mountain for this to be part of the lesson. The same story is related in Mark 1 and Luke 5; it was placed here for a reason. A leper (possibly missing enough pieces to remind someone of Matthew 5:30) believed the promise of Isaiah 33:24. Jews understood disease to be a result of sin, so healing involved forgiveness (2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 41:4, Psalm 103:3, Jeremiah 17:14, Matthew 9:6). The leper recognized Jesus as the Lord (2 Kings 5:7). If obedience were everything, Jesus could have ascended to Heaven after preaching (Galatians 2:21), but He stayed to heal us. We can’t do the Sermon; we’re the leper.

8:3 Jesus has that Exodus 29:37 kind of holiness. You can’t defile Him; unclean things become holy upon contact with Him.

8:4 like we talked about in Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14.

Remember, the Sermon is not part of the New Covenant because the New replaces the Old (Hebrews 10:9), and the New did not take effect until the death of Jesus (Hebrews 9:17). The first of the five extended discourses in Matthew sounded like our New Moses’ rendition of Deuteronomy; we’ll try to compare the other four to other parts of the Torah. After the Sermon on the Mount, we see a bunch of miracles instead of a bunch of plagues (continuing the Moses-Jesus comparison).

8:5 Taxman Matthew likes to emphasize that the Romans and the Way don’t have to be enemies.

8:6 Luke 7:1-6 includes Jewish intermediaries asking for this healing. Matthew edited this anecdote for brevity and saved his Psalm 34:15-17 moment for later in Matthew 15:23.

8:8 Jews assumed Gentiles had idols in their houses, so entering a Gentile home caused ritual uncleanliness.

8:10-11 Therefore, the “many” are smelly Gentiles like us (Matthew 19:30).

8:12 In context, these would be those among the Jews lacking faith in Jesus; see Romans 9 through Romans 11 for Paul’s explanation of this. Still nervous about this verse? Jesus approved of the Roman centurion’s faith, not any sort of law-keeping. See Romans 4:4-5.

8:13 This is the kind of healing with speech seen in Psalm 107:20.

8:14 Peter, who is said to be the first Pope, had a wife, as did plenty of other big-name clergymen (1 Corinthians 9:5). We’ll discuss the concept of human “priests” later, but even if there were such a thing, celibacy would not be commanded for them.

8:15 This is evidence of the extent of her healing more than a callous expectation of “get back to work, woman!” Also, before anyone spins this one verse into another sermon about how we’d better get busy working for Him after He saves us, see Romans 4:4-5 again.

8:16 “all the sick” He’s not handing out diseases today. Mental illness also counts; depression and anxiety are not sins that He somehow forgot to forgive. In case anyone’s anxiously reading any of the instances of “Fear not!” as a commandment to fail at instead of a comfort, He has a reputation for cleansing lepers outside the camp of the stereotypical Bible-thumpers.

8:19-20 Mary, Martha, Lazarus, John the Baptist, etc., did not go on the road with Jesus. Jesus didn’t reject this man (John 6:37); he had asked to join in a special course of study and ministry like The Twelve (Luke 4:38-44 has more exposition). This anecdote and the disciples’ marching orders are both found in Luke 9 for comparison. Luke 9:51-58 puts this exchange into context; Jesus was already on His way back to Heaven because He was headed to Jerusalem to die.

8:21-22 Jesus affirmed honoring parents in Matthew 15:5-6. According to Jewish custom, the man might not have been dead yet or this may have taken place in the year between death and the placement of the bones in an ossuary. Jesus’ cryptic statement is a hint that Christianity would not be about making bad people good through another list of rules like every religion men invented; Christianity is about making spiritually dead people (and later, physically dead people) alive (John 10:10).

8:24 This stormy story is in Mark 4 and Luke 8. It reminds me of Psalm 107:28-30.

8:25 Sleeping during the storm reminds me of Jonah, which means (spoiler alert) ministry to someone reminiscent of “Nineveh” is around the corner.

8:26 Faith is a rest (Hebrews 4). God’s got this.

8:27 See Psalm 89:8-9. Even the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) must obey Him.

8:28 “tombs” hint at Isaiah 65:4 evil activities. John the Baptist was a good strange man in the wilderness; these guys, not so much. It’s like the demoniac from Mark 5 and the demoniac from Luke 8 both showed up. Having two witnesses comes up repeatedly in Matthew’s Hebrew-think. This story is set near the Jabbok, as seen in Genesis 32 where Jacob had his wrestling match, so it’s time for a fight scene. David contended with a demon in 1 Samuel 16:14-23, and the first century Jews did exorcisms (Matthew 12:27), so naturally the Messiah got to perform the “Goliath”/”Final Boss” of Exorcisms (an event like Judges 3:31, Judges 15:15, or 2 Samuel 23:8, if you will).

8:29 See Matthew 13:40-43.

8:31 Even though the name “Legion” wasn’t mentioned in this account, the herd is indicative of how many demons were vanquished. Why are there so many demons here? Between the pagan soldiers’ false gods (1 Corinthians 10:20), the idolatry of the old kingdoms (throughout history, but especially after 1 Kings 12), and the resettlement of the area in 2 Kings 17 with even more imported idolaters, this region was ideal for Jesus to be seen as Messiah defeating all false gods and fulfilling the spirit of Exodus 34:13 and Deuteronomy 12:2-3 all at once (before His final victory at the Cross, that is).

8:32 The fact that Jesus didn’t even have to ask for the names of the demons in the account of this exorcism to have power over them would have been very impressive to a first century audience (Compare Mark 5:9 with Genesis 32:29). Geographically (Mark 5:20 – near the Decapolis), the pigs might have been supplies for the Roman army, making this similar to Exodus 9:6 (plague against livestock) and/or a political reference to Exodus 15:1 (drowning the Egyptian army). Mark 9:22 and John 10:10 suggest that the demons would have killed the men, too, if allowed.

8:33 Innocent animals died and the guilty lived to hear the Gospel; this sounds very much like the Old Covenant sacrificial system.

8:34 He accomplished one thing on this trip. He crossed a lake to help these two men, and He will meet you where you are.

As seen in Mark 5:19-20, a cleansed former demoniac Gentile that knew no Sermon on the Mount, no Torah, and none of Jesus’ teachings about ethics was sent to tell others what Jesus had done for him. This is why we are all qualified to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ as His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) because it’s all about what He did for us. In the Gentile Greek cities, there was no worry of the former demoniac being killed by the Pharisees for evangelism (John 12:9-11), being kicked out of the synagogue, spoiling any “Messianic Secret”, etc.

I sometimes hear Christians worried about being possessed by demons, but we have the best Exorcist ever living inside us, and He’s not interested in having demons as roommates (1 John 5:18).

9:2 Jesus continued his Isaiah 35:5-6 miracles-as-Messiah-proof tour. This is my favorite healing, but Matthew edited out the bit about the hole in the roof (Mark 2:4 Luke 5:19). It’s my favorite because there is no repentance nor plea; it’s just free. He saw the friends’ faith in bringing the sick man to Him; faith is credited as righteousness (Genesis 15:6), and the prayer of the righteous was heard (Psalm 34:15, James 5:16). I know we’re told we can’t pray people into Heaven, but how about we Christians (2 Corinthians 5:21) keep praying that God will save everyone anyway and see what happens?

9:9 It seems that Levi (Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27) has a new name: Matthew or “gift of YHWH” similar to Simon being redubbed Peter. By the Acts 1:22 rule, he had been a John the Baptist disciple.

9:10 Notice that he still has a swanky house for dinner parties, etc., which will inform our discussion of what giving up “everything” actually means.

9:11 Not only did eating with someone imply the guest/host bond we discussed often in the Old Testament, but approval. Tax collectors paid a fee to Rome up front for the right to collect taxes for a region under Roman occupation and kept the difference. The Pharisees saw Jesus’ dinner invitation as accepting stolen goods from a traitor to their people.

9:12-13 See 1 Samuel 15:22 and Hosea 6:6. There are none righteous (Psalm 14:3, Ecclesiastes 7:20), so He calls everyone (John 12:32).

9:14 That oil (Matthew 6:16-18) must have done the trick. I’m kidding; keep going. John’s disciples mourned because he was in jail. The Pharisees fasted twice a week for bonus points (see our discussion of Zechariah 7).

9:15 “bridegroom” as in Hosea 2:19. The only required fast under the Old Covenant was the Day of Atonement. Even during other fasts, the Jews ate during Sabbaths and festivals as described here. I’m sure the disciples probably lost their appetite while Jesus was in the tomb, but He is with us all the time now (Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5). Fasting may help some believers focus on praying sometimes, and I’m not throwing stones at it (Colossians 2:16), but you are free to celebrate Him always.

9:16-17 Don’t mix the Old Covenant with the New Covenant (which is actually older and better – Galatians 3:17).

9:18 Matthew says the girl is already dead. Mark 5 and Luke 8 say she was dying. Instead of the gospels contradicting each other, this could be down to just an awkwardness in translating Matthew into Greek. (There are other examples of this sort of thing; when we discuss Hebrews 12:6, we’ll consider the possibility that the letter to the Hebrews was written first in Hebrew and that we have a Greek translation.) Remember, some manuscripts of the Book of Matthew have Jesus riding two animals into Jerusalem in Matthew 21, presumably standing on their backs like a rodeo cowboy, and Matthew 5:32 has a man causing his wife to commit adultery by leaving her in several translations. Matthew’s version of this story is tighter than in the other Synoptics, supporting the hypothesis that he was a compiler/editor.

9:21 See Malachi 4:2 note for why she was expecting to be healed; grabbing the hem was a sign of submission (Zechariah 8:23). Jesus is Exodus 29:37 holy, causing holiness rather than contracting uncleanness.

9:22-26 There are a few ways to look at this story. As a standalone bit in the middle of another miracle narrative, she can remind us of Haggai 2:14 and show us Jesus, cleanser of Israel. However, think of Amos 5:2 in relation to the dying/dead girl’s age. The number 12 is frequently associated with Israel (12 tribes, etc.). Faced with “no one to lift her up”, Jesus accepted the challenge. (Any delay caused by this interlude is not a problem for a dead girl, but the audience might take issue with it for a dying girl. This is Jesus’ 1 Kings 17:17-24 moment, since this gospel is showing Him to be greater than Moses and the rest of the prophets.) Like we Gentiles, the woman was unclean until He fixed us. Like Israel, the girl is dead until He quickens them. Gentiles had been unclean as long as Israel had existed by definition. The girl was raised after the woman was healed, and Romans 11:25-26 shows us what this object lesson taught. Paul’s argument in Romans 9 through Romans 11 explains many things.

9:27-31 is repeated in Matthew 20:29-34. Matthew likes two witnesses.

9:28 See Isaiah 35:5.

9:29 See John 3:16.

9:30 Here’s a whiff of the “Messianic Secret” seen so often in Mark. The simplest explanations for that are that the Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus (John 12:9-11), so silence protected miracle recipients, and drawing massive crowds sometimes got in the way (Mark 1:45); Jesus’ mission included some healings as Messiah proof, but was ultimately about more than that.

9:32-34 is repeated in Matthew 12:22-24. Matthew likes two witnesses. See Isaiah 35:6.

9:36 See Ezekiel 34 and Zechariah 10:2.

9:38 gets granted in the next verse.

10:1 Yes, even Judas was empowered with this Old Testament-style Holy Spirit “on” him in order to perform these tasks during this season despite being an unbeliever (John 6:64), although how he still wasn’t on board after this is mind-boggling. Being born again with the Holy Spirit within believers was only possible after Pentecost.

10:2-4 Simon is a version of the name Simeon. Peter means “Rock” and we’ll discuss that in Matthew 16:17-18. John is a version of the name Jonah. Andrew and Philip are Hellenized names. James is a version of the name Jacob and was a very common name. Bartholomew or “Son of Talmai (derived from Ptolemy)” likely refers to Nathaniel as seen in other lists of the apostles. Matthew “gift of YHWH” is called Levi in other lists. Thaddeus is Judas son of James, but there’s a more famous Judas in this list. Saying that Simon the Zealot was one of the apostles would read in today’s news as, “Jesus was a known associate of Simon the Terrorist.” Judas Iscariot, like many boys, was likely named in honor of Judas Maccabeus (the Romanized name of Judah Maccabee, the national hero we covered after the Old Testament books). Throw in Mary Magdalene and we see twelve “sons” and a “daughter”, like Jacob and Ishmael both had. Given the friction between the factions with which they identified, the disciples all getting along with no recorded stabbings among them is miraculous.

10:5-6 The mission of Jesus under the Old Covenant so far, with the Sermon on the Mount included, is still unsurprisingly focused on the Jewish people. No wonder Matthew left out the Good Samaritan story from Luke 10, the woman at the well in John 4, etc., for clarity. Matthew took the proclamation from Luke 9:1-6 and made it explicitly exclusive. The second of Matthew’s five big discourses is about the disciples’ mission in which they went for a walk like in Numbers; it seems we’re referencing books in reverse order to send fans of chiasms on a hunt.

10:10 See Mark 6:8 and Luke 9:3. Maybe some of these items were more like “no extra” sandals, etc.

10:11 Some of these became lasting house church locations similar to those seen elsewhere in the New Testament like Acts 16:40.

10:15 The context here is lack of hospitality for the Good News of King Jesus.

10:16 Do not do evil for the purpose of doing good, but in general lives are more valuable than laws; pikuach nefesh was not a new principle for them.

10:17-23 This reads like a preview of what Paul went through in Acts.

10:20 like Exodus 4:12.

10:21 Remember, Jesus gave this speech to the twelve disciples to prepare them for the mission they were about to start walking down the road to do. Wouldn’t it be weird if I sent you to pick up dinner and my instructions to you about that task were actually about the ”end times” that were at least a few thousand years away? I do not wish to anger brothers and sisters in Christ with elaborate wall charts and a hobby comparing news articles to prophecies, of course. I’m not saying He said nothing on the subject, just that what He said to the twelve disciples was applicable by them. In the early days of Christianity, households were divided (Micah 7:5-6) over belief in Jesus. Think of the time of persecution seen in Acts 8:1-3 and Acts 9:1-2.

10:22-23 Look at these two verses together. The “one who stands firm to the end” is the one that flees persecution. You died with Christ already, so you don’t have to get killed in the line of duty to get saved. There are good reasons to be a martyr, and there are a lot of bad reasons to be a martyr, too. Jesus told these twelve men that they personally would not finish preaching in and/or being thrown out of the towns of Israel (a large enough place, but manageable for a group of that size, like New Jersey) before the “Son of Man comes”. Instead of thinking “second coming”, see Daniel 7:13-14 (a direct quote), Matthew 28:18, and Acts 1:8-9. The Jesus that they knew ascended to His full glory again not long after this discussion in Matthew 10.

10:28 Somewhere out there, there is a believer that is afraid of this verse. Keep going, by verse 31 it’s apparent that God is rather fond of you, and the scary stuff is for your enemies. See 1 Peter 5:7; don’t be afraid to talk to Him. If it matters to you, it matters to Him.

10:32 “Whoever” means whoever. Jesus is trustworthy; He will acknowledge those who acknowledge Him. See Romans 10:9.

10:33 Paul was a notorious enemy of the faith before conversion, and Peter came back after repeatedly denying Jesus. This verse is about an entire life rather than some regrettable seasons.

10:34 Well, there’s the Luke 2:14 peace that comes from His eventual realized reign over all mankind and the goodwill from Heaven to the remainder of humanity, but here He meant that there would be harsh disagreement about Him as Messiah among people. Families split up. See Deuteronomy 33:9.

10:35-36 See Micah 7:6 (and the rest of Micah 7 which includes resurrection, forgiveness, and world domination) and Isaiah 66:5.

10:37 This explains the Jewish cultural hyperbole in the expression “hate” (i.e. not prefer) seen in Luke 14:26. Matthew 19:19 still affirms honoring parents, but Jesus is God and is above all. This verse is about defying the pressure to stay in the Temple/synagogue system from family, peers, and career rather than confessing Jesus as Messiah.

10:38-39 Have you realized that Jesus died the death that sinners deserve, even you (Luke 23:41-43), and asked Him to save you? If you have, you have already lost your life for His sake and therefore found it. See Galatians 2:20. We already followed Him to our execution. Mark 8:35 explains the colloquialism for a Gentile audience: if you try to save your own life (if you try to be your own savior), you will fail. Remember the slow march to the grave and increasing debilitation showcased in Ecclesiastes 12? There are people that seem to skip that. There are people that the world thinks have life figured out. It looks good until they die, but everybody dies. Jesus’ life is eternal; eternal life has no beginning and no end. You need His life (Colossians 3:4, John 14:6, John 11:25-26).

10:40 like Sirach 12:2.

10:41 The widow in 1 Kings 17 got fed for feeding a prophet, and Rahab in Joshua 2 got spared for saving the spies.

10:42 like Psalm 112:3. As for counting heavenly cups of water, our Father is pleased to give you everything (Luke 12:32, Romans 8:17, and Matthew 20).

11:3 John wanted a jailbreak (Isaiah 61:1).

11:4-5 See Isaiah 29:18-19, Isaiah 35:5-6, and Isaiah 61:1 for starters.

11:6 See (Jude 24).

11:7 John the Baptist was the type of prophet with integrity that didn’t bend.

11:10 See Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 40:3, and Exodus 23:20 (for the pattern).

11:11 John the Baptist had the Old Covenant relationship with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15-17) and seems to have done as well with Matthew 5:19 as any normal human. Notice the options being “born of women” and “in the kingdom of Heaven” or more simply flesh vs. Spirit. John 3:5-6 has this dichotomy, with “water” referring to the womb (“My water broke!”). Being born of the Spirit became an option after Pentecost. Hebrews 11:39-40 says your situation/relationship with God is better than that of any human in the Old Testament.

11:12 This smells like maybe Micah 2:12-13 got run through the Hebrew-Greek translation machine a few times.

11:14 John the Baptist denied personally being Elijah (John 1:21) but he fulfilled the role (Luke 1:17) in this scenario according to Jesus. This does not affect any future fulfillment of anyone’s favorite end times theories nor is it contradictory.

11:19 The Son of God partied enough before the Cross to be considered “a glutton and a drunkard” by His critics, which is reminiscent of Deuteronomy 21:20 about a son to be executed. Judges 9:13 says wine cheers God and man. Jesus was invited to many dinners with many sinners. Depending on how Hellenized the hosts were, attending Greek symposia could get you a reputation as a glutton and a drunkard. Entertainment like dancers wouldn’t have been out of the question at gatherings in that culture back then either, as we’ll see in Matthew 14.

11:20 Remember how the Pharisees and Zealots moved north to distance themselves from Hellenistic corruption? Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum were three of the most “holy roller” towns. Therefore, Jesus told them to “repent” as in to change their minds (like in Hebrews 7:21) or turn toward belief in Jesus Christ as Messiah; to believe Luke 4:18-21. Come to Him, like He said to in verse 28.

11:21 “Tyre and Sidon'' like in Ezekiel 26 through Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 23. Later, Jesus actually found a believer there in Matthew 15:21-28. Jesus said that these Gentiles would fare better than the people trying to win the holiness Olympics.

11:22 Compare Amos 1:9 to Matthew 23:23. It’s not like these Gentiles had justice, mercy, and faithfulness that the Pharisees lacked, so the issue is rejecting Christ.

11:24 Compare Ezekiel 16:49-50 to Matthew 23:23. Sodom lacked justice, mercy, and faithfulness too, so the issue is rejecting Christ.

11:25 See Matthew 21:31 and Paul’s argument in Romans 9 through Romans 11, especially Romans 11:25.

11:27 See John 6:44. Thankfully, everyone’s invited. See the next verse or John 12:32.

11:28-30 Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Jesus Christ! Read these verses over and over until you believe them. The rest spoken of in Isaiah 28:12 and Hebrews 4 is ours; see Acts 15:10 to understand the yoke we’re not under now. The Truth (John 14:6) that sets you free (John 8:32) is not putting a bunch of pressure on you. He is way better at being our Savior than many people think He is. When He said “It is finished”, He meant it (John 19:30). People dismiss this as “easy believism” but that doesn’t go far enough. Yes, “whosoever” really means “whosoever” believes in Him shares His everlasting life (John 3:16), but you don’t have to get busy with a bunch of religious “works” after salvation either. It’s grace all the way. (Admittedly, God’s grace will inspire you, and you’ll want to do many things; see 1 Corinthians 15:10.) It’s Easy and Light Believism straight from Jesus’ mouth. “Wisdom” says things like Matthew 11:28-30 about itself in Sirach 6:28-30 and Sirach 51:23-26.

12:1-2 Fittingly, we go from some nice “do nothing” verses to trouble about doing things on do-nothing day. A teacher’s “yoke” is their interpretation of the Law; what to do, what not to do, etc. By the Pharisees’ yoke, the disciples had committed four crimes: reaping on the Sabbath, threshing on the Sabbath, winnowing on the Sabbath, and preparing food on the Sabbath. Deuteronomy 23:25 says taking the grain was fine, at least. Jesus’ yoke was demonstrably lighter even for His students under the Law.

12:3-4 See Leviticus 24:9, 1 Samuel 21:1-6, and 1 Kings 15:5. Uzziah got leprosy for trying to blend the duties of king and priest, and David was a prototypical prophet/priest/king, but David’s men were none of the above. They weren’t bought as slaves or born as slaves in David’s household per Leviticus 22:11, either. Jesus set a fine precedent for cherry-picking a Law that we’re not even under. How is this Jesus, the consistent eye-healer, the proponent of the eye-gouging levels of Torah observance in Matthew 5, you ask? His intent in the Sermon must have been to teach the truth of Romans 3:19-20 (or Mark 10:18, if you prefer) just like Paul would have (1 Corinthians 11:1).

12:5 Believers are “royal priests” (1 Peter 2:9) and the Temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) now, and Jesus is our Sabbath (Hebrews 4), not that I’m telling you what to do with your time (Colossians 2:16).

12:7 See Hosea 6:6 (and notice the bit about being resurrected a few verses back from it, too). Also, note we are “innocent” because He says so.

12:8 See Mark 2:27 for the icing on the cake.

12:9-14 This is part of Jesus’ I Can Do Anything the Old Testament Prophets Can Do and More Tour. See 1 Kings 13:6. See also Luke 13:10-17.

12:16 The “Messianic Secret” appears again. (It’s a big theme in Mark, which I think the author of this gospel used as a building block.) Jesus already claimed Godhood in Matthew 12:8; commanding silence protected people from the Pharisees (Matthew 12:14, John 12:9-11).

12:18-21 See Isaiah 42:1-4. Put your hope “in His Name” (John 6:28-29).

12:27 The answer is “the LORD”. Inconveniently for them (given their denial), that’s also Jesus (Matthew 7:22, Romans 10:9).

12:28 Another rare mention of the Kingdom of God instead of the euphemistic Kingdom of Heaven.

12:30 Compare this with Mark 9:38-41. They say different things. The people in Mark were not opposed to Jesus, they were just not with the official group signified by the “us”. See Numbers 11:26-29. The Pharisees in Matthew 12:30 and Luke 11:23 were opposed to Jesus. You will likely disagree with your brothers and sisters in Christ about many things (pet doctrines, worship styles, etc.); accepting them with “they’re a little confused, but they have the Spirit” is better than the factionalism of Galatians 5:20. Faith in Christ is paramount.

12:32 Jesus is cool and very patient with people like Saul, Peter, and myself. However, these unbelievers attributed His miracles to Satan (Isaiah 5:20). See 1 John 5:6 and John 16:8-14; the Spirit lets unbelievers know that they are sinners in need of a Savior and believers that they are righteous because of what He did (so act like it). You won’t listen to what “good” is telling you if you think good is evil. Successfully talking yourself out of what the Holy Spirit tells you about Jesus, the only option for salvation, for your whole life does not end well. If you’ve already accepted Christ, you are incapable of committing the unforgivable sin. See 2 Timothy 2:13.

12:34-35 “brood of vipers” like Isaiah 59:5 and Matthew 3:7. For more about the mouth and the heart, see Mark 7:1-23.

12:36-37. Don’t freak out; “everyone” means all humanity. Those acquitted by their speech confess that Jesus is Lord from a believing heart (Romans 10:9). We have no empty words to give account for because Jesus took all our sins away (John 1:29, Colossians 2:13-14); we’re “faultless and innocent” (Colossians 1:22). Besides, He was in a forgiving mood anyway in verse 32. Those condemned by their speech are unbelievers still on the hook for their whole ledger (John 3:36).

12:38 Jesus had been working publicly for some time. They wanted an Exodus 4:29-31 moment to affirm their own legitimacy as religious leaders. They wanted His ministry to be subject to their approval. They tried this again in Matthew 16:1.

12:39-40 Kudos to them for remembering this even when His disciples forgot He was to die and rise.

12:41-42 See 1 Kings 10. Wacky Gentiles like us understand who He is (See Romans 9 through Romans 11 if you’re not sick of those three chapters yet). The New Covenant is greater than the Old Covenant repentance deal (Ezekiel 18:21-32) that Nineveh tried briefly between Jonah and Nahum; that’s just one way Jesus is greater than Jonah.

12:43-44 This is not about believers. When Jesus moved into your heart, all the evil spirits left. I don’t like their chances against the greatest Exorcist ever (1 John 5:18).

12:45 Matthew clarified Luke 11:26. While 2 Peter 2:22 is worth looking at, Jesus was speaking of that “generation”. There had been a popular but ultimately shallow response to the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus which was destined to end with a crucified Messiah. The years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple were marked by infighting, murder, theft, rape and other sex crimes, etc., per Josephus’ “The War of the Jews” (or The Jewish War, depending on your public domain text source) Book 4, Chapter 9, Section 10.

12:47 Matthew left out the part where Jesus’ earthly family thought He was crazy (Mark 3:21). The disciples kept forgetting that He would die and rise. Maybe the conversations with angels in Luke weren’t the first thing on Jesus’ family members’ minds when He was provoking religious leaders that eventually killed Him?

12:50 See John 6:28-29.

The third of five extended discourses in Matthew (mirroring the five books of Moses, perhaps in reverse order for narrative bookends) speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven. Leviticus addresses things like atonement and holiness under the Old Covenant matter-of-factly, but this generation was under a form of Isaiah 6:9-10, so it’s time for parables. Parables are not allegories, so every detail (farmer, seed, path, bird, rock, soil, sun, root, thorn, ears, etc.) does not have to be a new lesson. They simply lay one thing against another thing for comparison. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” Rabbis loved parables because figuring things out encouraged deeper learning. The first century Jewish audience thought the Kingdom of God/Heaven would arrive all at once when a victorious military Messiah got rid of the Romans.

13:3 The Parable of the Sower uses imagery familiar to the audience similar to Sirach 40:15-17, Jeremiah 4:3, and Hosea 10:12. See Jeremiah 17:7-8 and the associated notes (and Hebrews 11:6, while we’re at it). The seed is the word of God as in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9. Jesus explains this parable (about understanding parables) Himself in this chapter.

13:8 See Isaiah 55:10-11. This is a Genesis 26:12-sized crop of knowledge. See Matthew 13:11-12.

13:10 He taught openly (John 18:20), whether they understood Him or not.

13:11 Jesus is the King and the Kingdom (Luke 17:21, Romans 14:17).

13:12 “more” knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven, as in verse 11; “abundance” like in verse 8. If you have Him, you have everything. Those that lack Him will lose everything.

13:13 See Isaiah 6:9-10. The Righteous King fixes that in Isaiah 32:1-5.

13:15 See Romans 11:7,11,25. This obfuscation is for your benefit.

13:16 Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12), so we don’t walk in the darkness that His opponents did.

13:17 “what you see” and “what you hear” – Jesus.

13:19 Those resisting the Spirit can miss the truth they need to be saved (Luke 8:12). The saved can fail to grasp important aspects of their new life in Christ like Galatians 2:20, 2 Peter 1:1-9, etc.

13:20-22 There are many obstacles to Christian maturity in this world. For the first hearers, persecution and fear of unemployment connected to being kicked out of the synagogue were the big obstacles to confessing Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9-11, Matthew 10:32) and to continuing to live out their faith publicly. Even among the saved, it is easy to forget that this world is temporary.

13:23 Great things happen if you know who He is, know who you are because of what He did for you, and refuse to be distracted by the myriad of things that want you to forget about that (because our enemies will settle for being saved-but-ineffective if they have to). Keep listening to Him instead. He is the Vine, and we are merely branches (John 15:5, Galatians 5:22-23).

13:24 Jesus also explains this one starting at verse 37.

13:27-28 See Matthew 15:12-14 and John 8:44.

13:29 See Isaiah 65:8. Rather than ending human history as suddenly as the audience expected, God mercifully allows the weeds' continued existence in order to save as many people as possible.

13:30 See Psalm 92:7, Malachi 4:1, Sirach 21:9, Revelation 20 through Revelation 21, and 1 Corinthians 15:24. I will attempt to appease as many readers as possible. Despite jokes and debate on Christian radio about whether it’s better to be “left behind” or raptured, removing the righteous ahead of time would be one way of “bundling” the wicked in the old universe that is passing away and leaving the righteous to meet that shiny new “barn” at the end of the Bible. Everybody happy?

13:31-32 See Ezekiel 17:23. This is a Messiah claim. Compare Ezekiel 31:6 and Daniel 4:20-22. The greatest world empire began with one temporarily dead carpenter. We Christians are a weed (from their point of view; we say John 15:5) that the world doesn’t want and cannot kill. Focusing on whether the birds are evil based on their role in the Parable of the Sower might be taking it too far. For what planting the mustard seed means at the individual level, see John 12:24, John 11:25, Galatians 2:20, and 1 Corinthians 15:35-58. He is the Resurrection and the Life.

13:33 This is the other part of Galatians 2:20. His eternal life is in us. A little yeast (like a little mustard seed) goes a long way: this is the same amount of flour as in the Genesis 18:6 feast. That’s enough to feed a village; the Kingdom invites everyone. You may have seen Lucille Ball’s sitcom character use too much yeast and get attacked by a giant loaf of bread; Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35) who feeds us forever. Culturally, it is unexpected to see yeast (traditionally a symbol of uncleanliness/fermentation/decay and therefore death) used positively in this parable; the key to that is that our new life comes from His death (and ours with him – Galatians 2:20).

13:35 See Psalm 78:2.

13:37-38 See Isaiah 60:21, 1 Peter 1:23, Genesis 3:15, John 8:44, and Genesis 6:4. Now see John 3:16 and John 12:32. Rather than speculating who Satan’s children are currently, focus on the new heart, new human spirit, and the Holy Spirit available to any human (Revelation 7:9) who comes to faith in Christ. He is the Door (John 10:9) and all who enter via Him are saved.

13:41-42 God’s pretty forgiving (Matthew 12:31) and nice (Matthew 10:32 and Matthew 11:28-30). The bad place is designed for the devil and his angels (Matthew 8:29, Matthew 25:41, Ephesians 6:12) so don’t forget the non-human evildoers when reading things like this and Malachi 4:1-3.

13:43 Christians are righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). See Daniel 12:3.

13:44-46 Found in a field, you say? See Ezekiel 16:5-6 and think about the Bride of Christ. Now, see John 3:16. Rather than wondering if you’ve paid enough yet to the God that needs nothing, appreciate that Jesus gave up everything for you (Philippians 2:6-8). You are the treasure; You are the pearl. God is not just in love with some future cleaned-up version of you, either. Our attitudes and actions are changing to become more like we really are now on the inside (because He hid the good stuff in there), but He likes you right now (Ephesians 1:6).

13:47-52 At first glance, this may seem to be a restatement of the Parable of the Weeds. However, the audience knew Habakkuk 1:12-17. That’s how Rome (and all evil powers, human or otherwise) acted, but the Kingdom of Heaven will make it right in the end.

13:52 “treasure” More knowledge of the kingdom of Heaven; more knowledge of Jesus. This is a clue to understanding Matthew 25:14-30.

In summary, the Kingdom of God/Heaven, destined to be greater than any world empire, grows from its humble beginnings alongside weeds but there will be a final reckoning. The Kingdom is a matter of our internal death and rebirth; our King lives through us. He loves us and came to save us; buried treasure and pearls can’t walk around and look for Him.

Another Kingdom parable can be found in Matthew 20:1-16.

13:55 “James” and “Judas” are traditionally thought to be the human writers of the books of James and Jude. Joseph’s sons did not believe Jesus is the Messiah until after He rose from the dead.

13:58 This is not a “clap for Tinkerbell” moment; Jesus’ power is not limited by their lack of faith as if He were some phony psychic. There were few miracles because of their lack of faith because the people lacked the faith to go to Him to be healed. Think of the great faith of the men lowering their paralyzed friend through a hole in the roof.

14:3-4 from Leviticus 18:16 and Leviticus 20:21. This couple is reminiscent of Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings which adds to the Elijah parallel for John the Baptist.

14:6-7 “pleased Herod” This girl that you may know as Salome or Herodias would have likely been about twelve to fourteen years old depending on the timeline you prefer. The dance of the seven veils is an artistic speculation, but given the Hellenistic culture and the reputations of the rulers something like that is plausible. Promising a gift that big sounds less like polite applause for a stepdaughter’s dance recital and more like making it rain at the strip club. Possible witnesses to the story to account for its inclusion in the text can be seen in Luke 8:3 and Acts 13:1.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand is in all four of our gospels: Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6. The risen Christ was recognized in Luke 24 by the way He gave thanks, broke bread, and gave it to them.

14:16 “Since we’re in the wilderness, why don’t you feed them some manna?” We can’t. Jesus can. He is God (Exodus 16), and I am not.

14:17 John 6:9 specifies that this was one boy’s lunch: some rolls and dried fish. The price of a combo meal is a fine donation when offered to Him in faith. See 2 Corinthians 8 through 2 Corinthians 9 to read about how Christians are free to give what they want to as led by the Spirit. The feeding of the five thousand is another installment in the continuing story of Jesus is Better Than the Earlier Prophets. See 1 Kings 17:8-16 and 2 Kings 4:42-44.

14:19 “grass” See Psalm 23 and Isaiah 49:9. Jesus’ prayer of thanks may have resembled the traditional “Blessed art Thou, Lord God, King of the Universe, Who brings bread forth from the earth.”

14:20-21 God is a more-than-enough God.

14:25 An ax head floated in 2 Kings 6; Jesus took it up a notch. See Genesis 1:2 and Job 9:8.

14:26 The “vast chasm” of Luke 16:26 suggests that “ghosts” are demons playing tricks. The original audience of Hamlet would have interpreted Hamlet’s “father” thusly even at that late date. Also, if ghosts could harm people, wouldn’t a bunch of slave owners, etc., have died from odd causes?

14:27 “It is I” sure sounds like “I am” (Exodus 3:14). “Don’t be afraid” of Jesus; there is no punishment waiting for believers (1 John 4:18).

14:28 Disciples traditionally followed their rabbis (Matthew 4:19) and tried to do what they did (John 14:12). Peter already had Matthew 10:1 powers, so expecting this upgrade wasn’t reaching too far.

14:31 Foreshadows Peter’s denial.

Before we move on, even though many pastors use this story to try to coax their congregations out of the boat into miraculous new ministries, let’s take another look. Jesus told them to ride the boat. They freaked out due to an imagined ghost because they forgot their power (Matthew 10:1); it was not only Peter who lacked faith in this story. Jesus graciously let Pete get out of the boat per his request. Jesus led him back to the same boat. No matter what Pete accomplished, he failed and was just as saved by Jesus as the disciples whose names are not mentioned in this story. Pastors praise Pete for getting his name mentioned in the Bible here, but concerns for our ministries having “relevancy”, fame, and praise from humans all come to naught. What does a person of faith do? Amidst the storms of life, Jesus napped (Matthew 8:24). See Psalm 4:8. Be on the boat where you’re supposed to be (which is in Christ) and trust Him.

14:36 See Malachi 4:2 note.

15:2 This was long before the germ theory of disease. This was about made-up rules for ritual “cleanliness” rather than health. See Mark 7:3-4. The marketplace might have had an “unclean” Gentile, etc., so they removed the dust that might have touched someone.

15:3-4 provides necessary balance and contrast to Matthew 8:21-22.

15:5-6 See Leviticus 27:28. Promising to devote something later is different from devoting it now. Think of the billionaires that have publicly declared that their wealth will go to a charity when they die; devoting one’s wealth to God posthumously while still living like this was called korban. There were vows of korban that allowed pretty liberal use of the funds while the owner was still alive. So far, no problem. However, since they were free to use it, Jesus basically said that they were free to use some to support their elderly non-working parents in a society with no safety net like someone with a conscience and an understanding of the ten commandments would have done. See Proverbs 28:24.

15:7 The children of the Accuser (John 8:44) like to invent rules.

15:13 See Matthew 13:24-30.

15:14 See Isaiah 3:12.

15:17 See Mark 7:19 note.

15:18 reminiscent of Miriam in Numbers 12. See Proverbs 4:23-24, Jeremiah 17:9, and Ezekiel 18:30-32. To get the new heart they needed, believe in Jesus.

15:19 Mark 7:21-22 also includes greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, arrogance, and folly. Since the meaning of words can creep over time, let’s slow down and look at a few. Greed and envy/”evil eye” (Deuteronomy 15:9) involve coveting what another person has and wanting them not to have it; there is a desire to disobey God’s prohibitions of theft, false weights, etc., baked into those concepts. Aselgeia or “lewdness” in a first century context signifies being utterly amoral, feeling no shame while sinning, participating in pagan orgies, disregarding the boundaries established in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, etc., rather than mere horniness. Arrogance is putting yourself on God’s throne (Proverbs 22:4) rather than simply being overconfident. Folly is godlessness (Psalm 14:1). We’ll do more of this kind of word study in the New Testament letters written primarily to former pagans having trouble being formerly pagan.

An illustration: It's like an adopted child came home from school to a note saying, "Clean your room. Love, Dad." She saved it, and it became a treasured object because of what it says and because of who wrote it. After all, it's written proof that she is loved and that someone calls her his daughter. Eventually, the note is passed down to the next generation. Imagine the grandchild who reads it in an orderly house and doesn't quite get the original significance of why it was kept. Then, this child begins retrofitting their bedroom into an ISO Class 5 cleanroom more suitable for bio-technical research than for human habitation. Satan loves legalism. By building a fence six inches inside our yard, the Accuser can get countless believers thinking something is wrong and yet doing it anyway, which is sinful (Romans 14:23) and makes us smell like a bunch of hypocrites, ruining our witness. Some believers are better at this version of the-floor-is-lava than others, turning churches into behavior-improvement country clubs. Even though tax collectors and whores beat Pharisees into the Kingdom (Matthew 21:31), Pharisees still have an audience. Jesus said that theirs was a heavy yoke, and that they weren't helping (Matthew 23:4). His yoke is easy. His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). He is the Truth (John 14:6) who sets us free (John 8:32). Life did not get worse under grace than it was under the Old Covenant.

15:20 Pharisees debated whether to clean dust that may have touched a Gentile at some point from the inside of a cup or the outside of a cup first. Jesus pointed out that you can’t be clean with dirty insides. No amount of rule-keeping helps someone who is still dead to God. Jesus “cleans the inside” by giving you a new heart, a new human spirit, and the ever-present Holy Spirit at salvation (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

15:21 See Matthew 11:21-22 (and the notes), 1 Kings 17:7-24 (which shares a setting), and John 10:16. Mark 7:24 clarifies that this was an escape, not a preaching tour.

15:22 See Mark 7:26. The Phoenicians were Canaanites that had escaped genocide when the Hebrews conquered the Promised Land.

15:23 See Psalm 34:15-17. James and Peter reference that song in their letters, too. Remember, the Old Covenant had not yet been set aside at this point in the story. Acts 10:28 was still in the future. Matthew does not show Jesus acknowledging her voice until someone righteous (John 15:3 says He had already cleaned the apostles) interceded.

15:24 See Galatians 4:4-7. He was still preaching Law to those under Law then. This is more evidence that the Sermon on the Mount was for a Jewish audience.

15:25 similar to the centurion in Matthew 8.

15:26 Dogs were not pets in that culture; they roamed around eating dead/unclean things and spreading ritual uncleanliness wherever they went, like Gentiles. Jesus is the Bread (John 6:35), the feast that the Jews declined that is now open to all (Luke 14:15-24).

15:27 She has called Jesus Lord and Master (See Genesis 15:6, Psalm 34:15, and John 9:31). About the crumbs, I think she knew the Widow of Zarephath story (1 Kings 17).

15:28 “great faith” See Romans 9:30. She argued with God about how good He is. Abraham (Genesis 18:23) and Moses (Numbers 14:19) did the same thing. She was persistent (Luke 18:1-8), like Jacob who wrestled until dawn (Genesis 32). Jesus is a persistent intercessor for us (Hebrews 7:25).

15:29-31 “went up on a mountainside and sat down” as one would if you planned to start teaching. See Matthew 5:1. This area included Gentiles (Matthew 4:15). There is no mention of any Sermon on this mountain. He skipped straight to showing compassion, and they praised the God of Israel (another hint at Gentiles). He only taught us love.

15:34-39 Back in Matthew 14, He fed 5,000 men (and their uncounted families) with five loaves and two fish and there were twelve baskets of leftovers. Here, He fed 4,000 men (and their uncounted families) with seven loaves and a few small fish and there were seven baskets of leftovers. He did more with less. What you have to offer, when led by the Spirit, is more than adequate with Him (2 Corinthians 8:12).

16:1-3 This repeats Matthew 12:38. They faithlessly tried to catch Him unable to provide proof that He is the Messiah. What did Jesus mean by the “signs of the times” in Matthew 16:1-3? Many believe He referred to His miracles as evidence of His identity, which is partly true. Just as smoke indicates fire, the miracles were signs enough (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). Anyone who understood the Messianic prophecies knew to expect someone (John 1:19). For example, because of Malachi 4:5-6, John the Baptist was asked if he were the Messiah or Elijah (John 1:21). Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would arrive 483 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25). This decree was issued in 457 BC (Ezra 7:11-26), leading to 27 AD (there is no Year Zero) as the anticipated year for the Messiah’s appearance, coinciding with the start of Jesus’ ministry. “After” 483 years, Jesus was crucified, appearing to have failed (Daniel 9:26), as many expected a conquering Messiah rather than a suffering one. His death and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in 70 AD (also Daniel 9:26) fulfilled Daniel's prophecy. Thus, prophecy requires the Messiah to be on Earth at some point between 27 and 70 AD. Consciously acting out the prophecies is one thing, but how could He control the timing of His birth if He were merely human? The odds of any one person fulfilling all of the Messianic prophecies are astronomically low. Jesus is the answer.

16:6 In one sense, verse 6 follows verse 5. There’s a difference between stepping out in faith and stepping out on stupid; if you see their breadlessness as a demand for a sign like in Matthew 16:1, then the nuances we went over in Matthew 6 apply. There are plenty of people that have “believed for'' something (unbiblical) like 100% guaranteed immediate physical healing that they didn’t get and wound up disappointed, poisoning themselves and others in their lives against the gospel. However, He wasn’t talking about bread (Matthew 16:11). He already emphasized that He can provide back in Matthew 6. I think verse 6 is because of verses 2 through 4 and the aside about bread illustrates why the disciples misunderstood Him. He said to beware the faithlessness and corruption (fermentation/decay/”yeast”) of the religious establishment that would eventually swallow Him.

16:12 Ironically, their “teaching” to avoid is that He doesn’t provide all and that works are necessary. He will address this in Matthew 16:13-19.

16:13 An old Baal worship town had become a worship center for Pan. A watery cave there was thought to be the Gate to Hades. The Pan festival “pandemonium” involved temple prostitution (like for Baal the Underworld Tourist) and, depending on the source, sex with goats.

16:14 Jeremiah was thought to be a possibility due to his parallels with the prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18.

16:16 The Gospel of John lists many people who got to this realization earlier. John making Peter seem less special is a running gag in that book.

16:17-18 Simon’s name change was like the special callings of Abram and Jacob. The confession that Jesus is LORD is the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11). We don’t use the straw of our own flesh-powered works to start building; anything He likes, the Carpenter did (Philippians 2:13). It’s Jesus all the way. Peter’s sermon that led to 3,000 conversions was a big pile of living stones (1 Peter 2:4-8) to stack on that foundation.

16:19 Matthew 23:13 keys (like Isaiah 22:22) go to new under-Shepherds. As we’ll see around Matthew 18:18, “you” applies to any Christian. We have the keys because we have the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), inviting the world to meet Christ. The kingdom opened up to more Samaritans in Acts 8, Gentiles in Acts 10, etc. The rabbinic concept of binding and loosing is deciding what is forbidden and permitted through interpreting Scripture. Therefore, the fact that the Epistles sound much more lenient than the Sermon on the Mount isn’t an issue. The Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 was authorized. Where we end up later in the New Testament amounts to 1. Believe in Jesus Christ 2. Love 3. Some behavior instructions seemingly derived from pre-Sinai principles applicable to all humanity applied as specifically as possible. Paul basically said that even secondhand meat sacrificed to idols bought at the market was fine as long as everyone eating was in agreement that gods other than God are false and they didn’t consume it at a pagan temple.

16:20 We’re in the home stretch. The Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus (John 12:9-11) because of this message, so Jesus muzzled the disciples temporarily to protect them (John 17:12).

16:21 He explained this to them many times. We are sheep. Sheep are not famous for being bright animals.

16:22-23 From a rock to a stumbling block in five verses. Jesus called Peter Satan because this was (unintentionally) the same kind of skip-the-Cross temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness (Matthew 4).

16:24-25 Our co-crucifixion with Jesus happened at salvation (Romans 6:3-9, Galatians 2:20). We took up our cross and followed Him to the place of execution. Your old self died. You now share his indestructible life. There’s a brand of Christianity out there that tries to “die to self” (unbiblical) and “die daily” (an out of context quote about the dangers Paul faced in Ephesus), but God is about building up the new self, not killing you off (Romans 6:8-9).

16:26-27 “each person…what they have done” applies to all humanity. Christians acknowledge Him (Matthew 10:32), so He acknowledges us. He took all our sins away (Hebrews 10:14). You have nothing left to punish (1 John 4:18).

16:28 Everyone but Judas was around for Acts 2:33. Peter, James, and John even got to see Him in His Son of Man form in the next chapter.

17:1 Peter (2 Peter 1:16-18), James, and John got a mountaintop experience with God like Moses in Exodus 24 and Elijah in 1 Kings 19.

17:2 This brief description doesn’t sound as otherworldly as He looks in Daniel 7:9 and Revelation 1. This is reminiscent of Moses’ glow in Exodus 34:29-35.

17:3 Yay Moe! Moses finally set foot in the Promised Land, and law-keeping didn’t get him there. Stick with Jesus.

17:4 Don’t equate Him with human religious leaders. Pete just said stuff sometimes (Mark 9:6). I’m kidding (a little); Pete knew the Torah. Moses’s glow was in Exodus 34 and the building materials for the Tabernacle are in Exodus 35. However, the New is not a rehash of the Old. Our brother Pete and the Jerusalem Church held onto a deep reverence for the Law of Moses to the extent that Paul had to dial him back (Galatians 2:11-16). The various lessons in Matthew like the Sermon on the Mount, walking on water, “Hey, you feed them”, “Why can’t you heal him?”, etc., are summarized in The Transfiguration. He is God, and I am not.

17:5-7 See Psalm 2:7, Isaiah 42:1, and Deuteronomy 18:15. Also, Father’s as pleased with us (John 17:23) as He is with Jesus. “Listen to Him!” The next thing He said to them as they cowered on the ground were words of reassurance. Get up (Colossians 1:22, Ephesians 3:12). Don’t be afraid (1 John 4:18).

17:8 Symbolically, out of the Law, the Prophets, and Jesus, Jesus remains (Luke 16:16).

17:10 in Malachi 4:5-6.

17:15 Typical evil spirit behavior like in Matthew 8:32. We treat idols like this (Exodus 32:20), so the devil tries to do the same thing to those made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6).

17:16 His subordinates were given authority, but He is better (like in 2 Kings 4:31-37). Why? Because Jesus is God. He also exhibited a deeper dependance on the Father; God’s power is perfected in weakness.

17:17 See Deuteronomy 32:5 (which references Exodus 32:9) about when Moses came down the mountain like Jesus just did. Moses’ death prediction followed that. Jesus’ next death prediction follows this.

17:18 A “mute spirit” screams upon being cast out in Mark 9:26. Just because the spirit causes muteness doesn’t mean it is itself disabled, but people look for contradictions. Muteness is omitted in Luke 9; Matthew sidesteps the mute/screaming issue.

17:19 In Mark 9:29 in Mark’s version of this story, Jesus said that prayer was the missing ingredient. Let’s unpack this: Salvation comes through knowing Christ, not performing works. God is kind, so healing can happen sometimes even if the healer is not right with Him. Some things like exorcisms, prophecies like John 11:51, or miracles can happen through an office or through mere use of the Name. Others require prayer (a relationship). The Jews in Matthew 7:22 did the first kind and the Acts 19 Scevites attempted the second kind without apostolic authority (Matthew 10:1, Mark 3:15) or the protection He gives us (1 John 5:18).

17:20 “faith” Psalm 34:15 plus Genesis 15:6. This also looks like an application of Psalm 115:16. Regarding mountain-moving faith, as we have seen Matthew liked to repeat things. When this comes up again in Matthew 21:21 (like in Mark 11:23), the mountain in question was the Temple Mount itself; with faith, the Old Covenant is set aside (Hebrews 8:13). Another mountain He may have pointed to in this chapter was the Herodium. Herod was very rich, and remodeling the Second Temple (from the humble Ezra 5:2 version) was not his only project. He had a palace built on an artificial hill. The Messiah may have implied that with enough faith, the corrupt rulers and Roman occupiers could be removed. The phrase may have been inspired by Jeremiah 51:25,42 about the promised destruction of Babylon.

17:22-23 He told them again.

17:24 The census tax in Exodus 30:13 had become a regular occurrence after centuries of legal interpretation.

17:25-26 Pete just said stuff sometimes (Mark 9:6). Members of God’s royal family don’t pay taxes to Father (1 Samuel 17:25). This story was like a big neon sign saying, “Hey Jewish Christians! The Temple tax, sacrifices, etc., are now optional!”

17:27 See Romans 14:19. Jesus also humbled Himself by living under human rules and paid my debt for me, too.

The fourth of five extended discourses in Matthew is largely about rules for how to treat each other and a focus on the children of God (Exodus 4:22), which both make this sound like Exodus.

18:1 Jesus is the greatest born of woman in Heaven (Matthew 5:19, Matthew 11:11). The rest of us are just blessed to be able to go there because of Him.

18:3 Matthew 18:4 will explain what He means.

18:4 “lowly” A state of humility and trust described in Psalm 131. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:6-7 additionally equates being a child with lacking authority. I can’t save myself and I trust Jesus to do it instead.

18:5 “child” in this statement means any disciple of Jesus, as in verses 3 and 4. Born-again Christians began to exist after Pentecost. The following discussion of apostasy makes sense in a context before becoming permanently fused to the Lord (John 17:23, 1 Corinthians 6:17) was a possibility.

18:6 This “stumble” is not the “sin” of Matthew 18:15 but the “fall away” of Matthew 26:31, so this was a warning to Judas (Matthew 26:24), the religious leaders that kept people away from Jesus (Matthew 23:13-15, Matthew 21:16, Malachi 2:8), and our too-easily forgotten demonic enemies (Matthew 25:41, Ephesians 6:12). The people who got Christians’ Jewish emperor worship exemption revoked and the False Prophet in Revelation likely face similar charges. (Regarding the imperial cult, the Jews had an exception wherein they could pray for the ruler instead of to the ruler. Up to a point, Christianity was considered a Jewish sect and benefited from this mercy.)

18:7-9 The offending organ is the heart as seen in Mark 7, and the New Covenant replaces it (Ezekiel 36:26-27). See the Matthew 5:29-30 note if you’ve forgotten the context of the hand/eye rhetoric.

18:11 God’s not mad at the sheep (Psalm 23, Ezekiel 34:11). The sheep don’t have to find the Shepherd, either (Luke 19:10, John 12:32); Jesus came here to save us.

18:12-14 This does not mean 99% of humanity is righteous. See Ecclesiastes 7:20. This is another “how much more” argument. Jesus values you more than a rancher values 1% of a big flock, so of course He came to save you.

18:15 “sins” would be “sins against you”, or no one would have gone to the synagogue (James 3:2). Cheek-turning (Matthew 5:39) was for those God will recompense later. We can discuss things among ourselves as a family. Jesus was teaching Leviticus 19:17. For Christians, Jesus lives in us and is with us when we gather, so this strategy keeps the party aware of the disagreement as small as possible, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that He was still teaching Judaism to Jews. It’s easy to assume Christianity when you see “brother”, but that was an existing phraseology; expanding it to include all of God’s people including Gentiles later was the innovation. Exodus 2:11 regarding Moses’ “own people” literally says “brothers”. As of Exodus 4:22, the Israelites were already considered children of God. Deuteronomy 17:15 in Hebrew distinguishes between “brothers” and foreigners. See John 8:39 about being children of Abraham. This is still an in-group discussion before Pentecost. (Still not convinced, Brother? The Hulkster says to see Isaiah 66:20, Exodus 4:18, Deuteronomy 15:12, Deuteronomy 17:15, etc., in Hebrew, dudes.)

18:16 like Deuteronomy 19:15, because He was still teaching the Old Covenant.

18:17 “pagan” literally “Gentile”; another huge clue that this is about Judaism. Also Matthew, the human writer this gospel is attributed to, was a tax collector whom the Lord treated quite well. Nevertheless even after Pentecost, you can completely shun someone and still be right with God about it (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15, Titus 3:10).

18:19 if it is His will for you, that is (1 John 5:14). God wants to save everyone (1 Timothy 2:4), so let’s get in agreement with Him and pray that He saves everyone anyway. I’m writing and you’re reading, so we’re together on this page.

Father, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of David, please have mercy. All things are possible for you. We believe; please help our unbelief. Please save everyone; Your will be done. Amen.

18:20 Even on this side of the Cross, two people can be a denomination.

18:21 See the Matthew 5:7 note to understand this section. Peter’s guess of sevenfold was influenced by Scriptures like Leviticus 26:18. The Jubilee, etc., was to teach us what it means for God to let us off the hook. Be humble enough to see that only God can forgive perfectly, so Jesus fulfills the Law by forgiving us, His killers (Isaiah 53:5-6, Luke 23:34), perfectly. Notice that in the following section (a lesson in Leviticus 19:17’s lack of hate for a fellow Jew), the party to be forgiven at least says that they want to reconcile. Expecting blanket goodwill from us would be like expecting Universalism from God. Christians are encouraged to forgive others because we have been totally forgiven forever already (Hebrews 10:14 – “perfect forever” cannot be taken back, because it would neither be perfect nor forever) and we take after our Father now. To forgive, understand that we all need grace, admit that vengeance is His and not ours, focus on God’s good future for you, respond to evil with good, and give yourself some slack because it’s about not throwing a contrite person into the Hell you have available. Even Jesus got mad enough to flip furniture over in church.

18:22 amplifies Luke 17:3-4.

18:24 This amount of money was basically the Temple treasury.

18:25 Jesus paid a debt He did not owe on behalf of me, who could not pay. Colossians 2:13-14 says that I don’t owe Him anything, as if I thought I could even begin to repay Him. That’s Christianity. This verse is still part of an illustration of the Jewish exile.

18:26-27 sounds like squandering Solomon’s Temple and then returning from exile.

18:28 This sounds like the behavior reminiscent of Amos 2:6 and James 2:6 that was going on before 70 AD. See 2 Chronicles 28:10; we all need grace.

18:29 This amount of money was achievable with patience.

18:30-31 However, he refused the offer from the contrite person and locked him up. Since he was a fellow servant, the king in this story would have been out even more money with the loss of his worker. This is shockingly petty behavior, not mentally licking old wounds from childhood.

18:33 who had even pleaded.

18:34 Sounds like that guy needed an Advocate (Hebrews 7:25) and was a character in an illustration of Luke 21:24

18:35 The contrite, in this case. Note the seeming contrast with Matthew 18:17. God’s gift and calling are irrevocable (Romans 11:29, Genesis 27:33), but those who do God’s will are Jesus’ brothers and sisters (Matthew 12:50), so it’s like the sinner has opted out of being family, but God’s will is mere belief in Christ (John 6:28-29) and we love believers (1 John 5:1). We can either thank God for 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 and Titus 3:10, or declare the Law impossible (Romans 3:20) and thank God for Hebrews 7:25 and Hebrews 10:14. Actually, we should do both. Remember, He was still teaching Jews about Judaism. See how easy it is to slip back into the “brothers and sisters in Christ” assumption we’re programmed to read into this even though that was an expansion of the existing use of “brother” for fellow Jews only?

19:1 Geographically, in Herod Antipas’ land. Herod Antipas had married his living brother’s wife resulting in two divorces, John the Baptist called foul based on Leviticus 20:21, and John the Baptist got killed.

19:3 “for any and every reason” meant they were asking Jesus to weigh in on the Hillel vs Shammai debate. They hoped He would say something that would get Him killed like John the Baptist. We covered the divorce topic in the Matthew 5:32 note; any of these “best Torah authority ever” chats are recorded as proof that He is the Messiah. Christians are dead to the Law (Romans 7:4, Romans 10:4, Titus 3:9).

19:4-6 For those who say Jesus never mentioned homosexuality, He quoted the verses from which the principles of Romans 1:27 and 1 Timothy 1:10 were derived without so much as a “But I tell you…”. Also, given the righteous Bible characters portrayed as polygamists such as Abraham (Genesis 26:5), David (1 Kings 15:5, 2 Samuel 12:8 – more could have been possible), and God Himself (Ezekiel 23), the permanence of the union rather than monogamy is emphasized.

19:8 He emphasized that Genesis 2 was pre-Fall. He didn’t change anything (Deuteronomy 4:2, Deuteronomy 12:32).

19:9 God got a Deuteronomy 24:1-4 divorce in Jeremiah 3:8. See Mark 10:11-12 for even more about the Herod Antipas situation. In Matthew 5:32, divorcing a wife made her the victim of (or made her commit, depending on your translation) adultery and marrying a divorcee was forbidden. Here, it’s divorce and subsequent remarriage together that accomplished adultery rather than merely splitting. Have I mentioned lately that I think Matthew may have been compiled and translated?

19:10 See 1 Timothy 4:1-3. Jesus and the disciples did not forbid marriage. See 1 Corinthians 7:1,7. Paul did not forbid marriage; he endorsed a preference for singleness and conceded that former pagans that he’d rather see paired up just to be safe weren’t sinning by remaining single. Jeremiah 16’s prohibition of marriage was with regard to impending doom, much like Matthew 24:19. The 1 Timothy 4:1-3 teachers were at the extreme end of the “your genitals are bad and want bad things” Greek philosophy pool. I’ll be pointing out their influence in the early centuries of church history when we get to the do-this-don’t-do-that verses later in the New Testament.

19:12 Eunuchs could serve in high offices for royalty because of their lack of family concerns (the lack of threat to the purity of the royal bloodline was a big motivator for the practice, too) like we discussed in Isaiah 56 and that we’ll see in Acts 8. Note the “live like” (unmarried, not castrated) because of Deuteronomy 23:1 and Matthew 5:18; He was endorsing the 1 Corinthians 7:32 view. Incidentally, looking at this verse praising eunuchs, since Christians are dead to the Law and there is no corresponding instruction in the Epistles nor Noahide parallel, I don’t have grounds to criticize anyone’s genital surgery choices for themselves.

19:13-15 This was like the blessings in Genesis 48. Jesus is not creepy. The disciples forgot Matthew 18:2-5. They also forgot the message of “Jesus Loves Me”: “...little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong…” This is the childlike weakness/lowliness/humility He said is necessary. The New Covenant depends on His obedience; not mine. Give up and trust Him.

19:16 Based on his attributes in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18, this man is often called the Rich Young Ruler. Notice the wording: a) “Teacher” like a human you can study to be like, b) “what good thing” assumes the works-based Ezekiel 18 Old Covenant approach (perhaps asking for clarification Ezekiel 18:21), c) “must I do” puts the onus on the asker to produce, d) “to get eternal life” which was already anticipated in Judaism (Daniel 12:2) even before Christianity. Psalm 49:8-9 already said you cannot buy eternal life. Maxing out Daniel 4:27 is not enough. It’s like the man saw Jesus as a person who was going to Heaven and wanted to emulate Him – he wanted to walk through the pearly gates on his own merit like a co-Jesus, which smells a lot like the “thank you for forgiving my past sins, but now I have to keep short accounts with God and crank out corporal works of mercy with my own strength” crowd now. If he had asked “How do I get eternal life?” the answer would have been more like John 6:28-29, Romans 10:9, Acts 16:31, etc. See Romans 10:1-4.

19:17 If you want to enter life, keep the commandments, but there’s a whole Sermon on the Mount about how you can’t, which is why only God is good (Romans 3:19-20, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Psalm 14, Psalm 53). Works don’t work (Isaiah 57:12, Isaiah 64:6).

19:18-19 The flowery principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” is stated succinctly for a Gentile audience in Mark 10’s account of this story as “don’t cheat people”.

19:20 While his wealth is also pointed out, the man was rich in good works. Some Pharisees even applied some priest rules to themselves for bonus points, but Deuteronomy 10:9 called their bluff. See our discussion of Isaiah 58:10. Paul dismissed this approach entirely in Philippians 3:4-9.

19:21 “perfect” Need some Matthew 5:48? Have some Hebrews 10:14. Based on Isaiah 58:7-10, Ezekiel 18:7,22, the offer to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:27, Psalm 112:9, Proverbs 10:2, and Proverbs 11:4-8 regarding “righteousness” (tzedakah, charity, gifts for the poor) we see alms righteousness or “treasure in Heaven” further developed in Tobit 4 and Sirach 29 on its way to Jesus’ teachings about the Law. Properly keeping Deuteronomy 15:7-11 amidst the poverty they experienced under occupation (Isaiah’s “spending themselves”) would have taken everything they had. Only Jesus gave enough (Philippians 2:6-8), and only Jesus had anything worth giving; we rely on Christ’s righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Instead of obsessing over how many child-sized winter coats you’ll get back in Heaven based on what you did at the clothing drive, focus on Galatians 4:7 – we co-own the universe with Jesus. You don’t get an inheritance by working; you get it because Someone died. Also, any works He likes, He did through you (Ecclesiastes 3:14). However, even the commandment to “sell your possessions” seen here is nuanced. Compared with verses 27 and 28, this was a special leave-it-all-behind mission like Genesis 12:1 and 1 Kings 19:21. Becoming the thirteenth member of the Twelve Apostles came with a side of walking away from the business world for a season, because the apostles’ calling was just an issue of focus: they still had houses to throw dinner parties in (Matthew 9:10), fishing businesses to resume (John 21:3), etc. No one actually gave up everything but Jesus (2 Corinthians 8:9). There are people that insist they are followers of Jesus Christ, but being carried by Him is the only way to go.

19:22 Since a Jewish “ruler” interested in eternal life would have logically been a Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin, I propose that this was not the end of this man’s story. A disciple of Jesus fitting this profile appears abruptly in the story in Matthew 27:57: Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph gave his grave to Jesus, as do all Christians (John 11:25-26, Romans 5:6-8) in a way.

19:23-25 People were accustomed to thinking of the rich as righteous since God had chosen to bless them. That’s why the disciples asked who can be saved instead of assuming that the poor could. Also, notice both “kingdom of Heaven” and “kingdom of God” are used synonymously with “Again” being a clue.

19:26 Jesus admitted that following Him is impossible. Instead, trust Him (Romans 4:5) to save you. The only way to Heaven is attached to Him (John 17:20-23). Nothing is too hard for Him (Genesis 18:14).

19:28 See Daniel 7:18 and Revelation 21:14.

19:29 Even a cup of water (Matthew 10:42) gets rewarded, after all. But again, instead of hundreds of cups of water, it’s just simplified to co-owning the universe with Jesus (Galatians 4:7).

19:30 Remember Matthew 8:11-12? The next parable will make it even clearer.

20:1-2 Day laborers were plentiful because heavy taxation under Roman occupation, and corrupt rulers had driven many to landlessness. A denarius was enough to feed an average family for a day.

20:3-14 “whatever is right” It seems the landowner had Deuteronomy 24:14 in mind. An hour’s pay wouldn’t have kept those families alive. Only God’s grace is enough; nothing less will do. Verse 8 is explained in the verse 16 note.

20:15 There’s the begrudging “evil eye” (Proverbs 22:9) again.

20:16 There had been Jewish heroes of the faith for millennia (Hebrews 11:39-40) when Jesus spoke this parable; Gentiles, not so much (Ephesians 2:12), but that was about to change. See Colossians 3:24. People speak of plural rewards, but it’s a reward, and it’s an unearned inheritance. It all pays the same. Moreover, like in verse 8, the “last” (we stinky, stinky, basically-talking-animals-by-Hebrew-reckoning Gentiles) received Him before the “first” (Romans 11:25-26).

20:17-19 And now, for a third time, Jesus told the disciples what would happen to Him.

20:20 The sons asked on their own behalf in Mark 10. On the whole, the apostles’ reputations are shinier in Matthew.

20:21 Second-in-command like 1 Samuel 23:17 and 2 Chronicles 28:7.

20:22 “cup” Martyrdom.

20:23 “My cup” Communion. Spoiler alert: this foreshadows Jesus being crucified between two criminals.

20:26-27 Jesus taught this as an object lesson in John 13. See Ezekiel 21:25-26.

20:28 See Isaiah 53.

20:29-34 I guess Mark only saw Bartimaeus in this story in Mark 10:46-52, and Luke heard about the other guy when he was researching Luke 18:35-43 and omitted Bart, and the editors of Matthew included them both? I’m kidding a little.

20:32 What do you want Him to do? “Save me, Lord, please! Save everyone.”

21:2 “them” There’s a donkey and a colt.

21:3 “them…them” Again, there’s a donkey and a colt. This will pay off in verse 7.

21:5 Matthew reads “even” of many translations as “and” to check the Zechariah 9:9 box. I could see bringing the mother to keep the young one calm for its first ride, perhaps.

21:7 “on them” It seems that Jesus rode both animals like a rodeo trick in this gospel. I suspect unique things like this might be due to Hebrew/Greek translation, etc.

21:8-9 like in 2 Kings 9:13. The people saw a reference to Zechariah 9, so they expected to see judgment on their enemies coming posthaste. Most of the crowd probably didn’t comprehend the expression of praise “Hosanna” or “Save” in terms of eternal salvation from sin and death; “Save us from the Romans” would have been a popular sentiment.

21:11 They only took Him to be a prophet. See Matthew 2:2, Matthew 16:16, and Matthew 27:54.

21:12 See Zechariah 14:21. The family of (Sadducee) High Priests Annas and Caiphas owned this operation. The “money changers” exchanged the approved sanctuary shekel (Numbers 3:47) for currency with faces of emperors on it. After all, those guys claimed to be gods so the coins were considered graven images. There was a hefty mark-up for this service, as well as for fulfilling Deuteronomy 14:24-26. Doves were the approved offering for the poor (Leviticus 5:7), and that was a source of profit as well. Remember how God felt about ripping off the poor in the books of the minor prophets right before Matthew in your Bible? The events of 70 AD rhymed with the events of 586 BC.

21:13 Isaiah 56:7 plus Jeremiah 7:11. Mark kept the “for all nations” bit from Isaiah 56:7 in.

21:14 Leviticus 21:16-23 would have prohibited people that were afflicted thusly from serving as priests. Pharisee fence-builders disapproved of these people being near the Temple at all.

21:16 The Septuagint rendition of Psalm 8:2 is: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise, because of thine enemies…” in case you’re wondering why your verse looks different. Conveniently, the next passage is about our Lord’s enemies, the bad shepherds.

21:18 The material recorded from here to Judas agreeing to betray Jesus in Chapter 26 all happened on the same day.

21:19 Here’s what I call another “sign of Jonah”. Remember God killing a plant in Jonah 4 to teach a lesson? Jesus didn’t find the Jeremiah 24 good figs in Jerusalem (Micah 7:1-2, Hosea 9:10) much like the scenario in Jeremiah 8:4-13 which preceded the fall of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC. This is not surprising, because the Law made no one perfect (Hebrews 7:19); the Old had to be set aside (Hebrews 8:13). The withering of the tree that symbolized the religious establishment of the day is immediate in Matthew so no one mistakes the slower process in Mark 11 (that sandwiches the Temple cleansing, emphasizing the meaning) for weakness.

21:21 “this mountain” was the Temple Mount. See Matthew 17:20 note.

21:22 If it’s His will, that is (1 John 5:14). Mark 11:24-25 seems to emphasize what we talked about in 2 Chronicles 6: the “whatever” people were asking for in connection to the Temple was probably forgiveness.

21:23 “the chief priests and the elders of the people” were bad shepherds. They asked Him about “authority” because rabbis could only re-interpret Scripture with the support of sponsoring rabbis that had been granted that authority themselves.

21:24-25 It was their turn to field the same kind of question with which they’d been trying to trap Jesus.

21:30 The allegedly most holy members of the allegedly holy nation that had promised to obey the Law (Exodus 19:8) allowed Deuteronomy 18:15 to slip by them. The Law was a shadow (Hebrews 10:1) of Christ; Christ is the point of it all (Romans 10:4).

21:31 Another “kingdom of God” sighting. You will meet Roman sell-out tax collectors and (He did not say former) prostitutes in Heaven, and they beat the chief priests and elders of the chosen people to it.

21:32 Since they caved to the crowd’s opinion of John the Baptist in verse 27, Jesus invoked his endorsement. Jesus won the question game. As for “the way” John showed them, see John 14:16 and John 1:29. The “repent” here is a change of mind (like in Hebrews 7:21) toward faith in Jesus.

21:33 For context, please read Isaiah 5. Yes, all of it. It’s short. The first seven verses said that the events of 586 BC were coming, and the rest of it explained why. The events of 70 AD rhymed with the events of 586 BC. Also, if landlording was evil by default, Jesus would have picked a different example.

21:35 See Matthew 23:29-32.

21:39 This verse and Luke 20:15 reflect Jesus being crucified outside the city (Hebrews 13:11-13). Mark 12:8 reverses the order to show the “tenants” rejecting the Body of Christ, us.

21:41 “crop” Things like the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and gratitude (Hebrews 13:15-16 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

21:42 “Have you never read…” He asked what should have been the most learned men in that religion of that day if they’d ever read Psalm 118:22-23 when the crowd had been quoting Psalm 118:25-26 when He came to town. Ouch.

21:43 Another kingdom of God sighting; Gentile phraseology in a sentence about (mostly) Gentiles taking the baton.

21:44 See Isaiah 8:14-15 and Daniel 2:44-45.

21:45 Again, these guys are in focus and within earshot through the material that follows right up to Judas’ decision to betray Jesus in Matthew 26.

22:1 “them” is the “them” in Matthew 21:45, the chief priests and the Pharisees. Matthew’s version of this story spices up Luke 14. Instead of just a man, there’s a king; there’s a royal wedding feast, references to killing the early church, the events of 70 AD, and more drama in verses 11 through 13.

22:4 Culturally, they had already RSVP’d “yes”.

22:5 These aren’t emergencies.

22:6 See Matthew 23:29-32.

22:7 Within one biblical generation (Numbers 32:13) of Jesus saying this, in 70 AD, the Romans did this.

22:8-10 The “whosoever” in John 3:16 means “whosoever”. See Revelation 7:9.

22:11 Let’s look at the “wedding clothes”. For audiences with a king (Genesis 41:14) such as a royal wedding, a king provided wedding garments to guests to maintain a tasteful, matching aesthetic. See Isaiah 61:3. (Also, the Church is the Bride of Christ. See Isaiah 61:10.) In this story, there are plural “bad” guests that have wedding garments. Wear Christ’s righteousness (Zechariah 3:4, Galatians 3:27), not your own works (Isaiah 64:6). See Romans 4:4-5. Christlike attributes (Colossians 3:9-14) are logical accessories given the fact that you were clothed with Christ at salvation (Galatians 3:27).

22:12 There are plenty of reasons unbelievers attend church: business and social contacts, a fig leaf of respectability, appeasing family members, habit. Not everyone who sits on a pew every week is saved. I say that at the risk of making believers panic, wondering if they’re “saved enough” because the Accuser loves to do that to you. You wouldn’t have asked Him to save you if you didn’t believe in Him or didn’t think He could, so see Romans 10:9-13. Also, 1 John 5:13 says you can know you have eternal life, rather than having to worry and wonder. Hebrews 6:16-20 says we are beneficiaries of a promise God keeps to Himself. You can’t mess it up if you tried to (His grace just keeps getting bigger – Romans 5:20), and you don’t even want to because you are new now. Hebrews 7:25 says He can save you completely; believers are safe as long as Jesus lives, and He’s done dying (Romans 6:9). The improperly dressed wedding guest never accepted the free gift of righteousness. See Hebrews 10:14.

22:13 See Zephaniah 1 and its notes to see how many ways the parable you just read seems to reference that prophecy.

22:14 Don’t panic about predestination. That narrow gate is exactly the width of one Jesus (Matthew 7:13-14, John 14:6). Paradoxically, the “chosen” (aka The Elect or the favorites) are those who choose to believe; God chose to be very nice to us. See Ephesians 1:4-14, more than once if necessary. Jesus died for the whole world (John 3:16-17), and everyone’s invited (John 12:32), but only believers are guaranteed the happy ending (John 3:16) and proportionally there are few of us. This is not some audition to show up for and fail; He keeps everyone who comes to Him (John 6:37). If people were assigned to Heaven and Hell without having an actual choice, all evangelism including the evangelistic appeals in the Bible like “today is the day of salvation” and “don’t harden your hearts” would be playacting, dishonest, and a waste of time. Also, on this side of completing the plan Paul explains in Romans 9 through Romans 11, it seems that relatively few of the saved right now are from the “chosen” people (Exodus 4:22), which would have been particularly relevant to Jesus’ original hearers.

22:15 They knew He was mostly barking at them and not trying to scare you.

22:17 They gave Him an opportunity to get killed by either Rome or the Zealots. See Romans 13:1-7 and notes.

22:19-21 The coin looked like Caesar, but Caesar (like all humanity) was made in the Image of God (Genesis 1:27), to Whom we owe everything (1 Corinthians 4:7). He already owns everything (Exodus 19:5, Deuteronomy 10:14), so we have nothing to give Him except gratitude (Hebrews 13:15-16) and living unto Him (Romans 12:1), which is the only fulfilling way of life for a saint anyway.

22:23 “same day” See Matthew 21:18 note. Sadducees were the wealthy Temple Establishment types. They were well-educated. They knew what Isaiah 26:19 said, they just didn’t believe it.

22:24 in Deuteronomy 25:5.

22:25-26 This plot resembles one in Tobit.

22:30 See Daniel 12:2-3, Isaiah 26:19, Ezekiel 37, Psalm 16:10-11, Psalm 6:5, Psalm 115:17, Job 19:25-27…(and 1 Enoch 50:4 for bonus points. Just because He said something that happens to agree with a deuterocanonical book does not mean that the whole book is inspired; I’m just pointing out what the first century audience might have had on their minds when they heard Him.) Also, see the Luke 20:34-36 note.

22:31 They claimed that only the first five books of the Bible were canonical, so He used an example (Exodus 3:6) from those books to instruct them. He meets us where we are.

22:32 like “I am still the God…” as opposed to “I was the God…”. Rabbis continued this line of thinking to prove the existence of the afterlife. For example, Exodus 6:3-4 says that God has a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them the land of Canaan. It does not say it would be given to their descendants in that passage. God keeps His word; all the saints will rule this world with Christ for a thousand years when He returns (Revelation 20).

22:35-36 They asked him whether Shammai or Hillel was right. Luke 10:25-28 records an incident earlier in Jesus’ ministry in which he approved the Hillel position reiterated in Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus’ innovation was teaching that everyone (Luke 10:36-37) can be a “neighbor”, even the hated Samaritans (2 Kings 17:29-39), Roman centurions begging for a miracle, etc. Jesus sat at the feet of neither teacher; when teaching Judaism to Jews, He frequently took a Hillelite stance but notably agreed with Shammai on Deuteronomy 24:1-4 divorces.

22:37 This would have prevented Adam’s sin.

22:39 This would have prevented Cain’s sin.

22:40 Unchanging Jesus (Hebrews 13:8) voluntarily placed Himself under the Law (Galatians 4:4-5) that includes Leviticus 19:18; on my worst day Jesus loves me, this I know. He can’t help it.

22:42 See Isaiah 11, Jeremiah 23:5, and Jeremiah 33:15.

22:44 Psalm 110:1.

22:45 The answer to the question is by Jesus being fully God and fully human born as a descendant of David. See Isaiah 9:6, 2 Samuel 7:16, Isaiah 11:1, and Jeremiah 23:5. Knowing that Jesus is God and Jesus is a fully human descendant of David defeats the heresies we’ll see addressed tangentially in the Epistles. Adoptionism denied the pre-existence of Christ; it said that Jesus was born merely human but was later "adopted" or chosen by God to become the Son of God at some point in his life, usually during his baptism. That is false, because He wouldn’t have been around for David to call Him Lord. Docetism taught that Jesus only appeared to be human rather than wear filthy flesh and that his physical body was an illusion. Docetism was a precursor to Gnosticism and is a logical result of Platonism’s spirit-good-matter-bad outlook. Why would a hologram of a descendant of David be different from any other phantom? Real Jesus (that has really existed since before the universe we live in was created) really bled real blood and really died for a few days. See 1 John 1:1, Leviticus 17:11, and Hebrews 9:22.

Genesis was about the beginning; the fifth big discourse in Matthew is about the end, both the events of 70 AD and beyond. It all goes together, but what is known as the Olivet Discourse (because it was given on the Mount of Olives) begins at Matthew 24:3. I see things from a partial preterist perspective which is fancy-end-times-wall-chart-people-talk for believing that some prophecies already came true while others await fulfillment. It’s usually attacked by people slandering it as full preterism (which would say that all the prophecies happened already, which is false and easy to attack).

23:1 “the crowds” include the Pharisees and Sadducees that have been on His case for two chapters. Jesus is about to lecture the bad shepherds (Jeremiah 23:1, Jeremiah 25:34, Jeremiah 25:36, Hosea 5:1, and so forth).

23:2-4 In their capacity per Deuteronomy 17:8-13, abiding by their rulings would be obeying the Law. However, they added even more rules to a Law that humans can’t keep (Acts 15:10). Jesus therefore affirmed the legal system of Exodus 18 while criticizing their teachings (Matthew 5:21-48, Matthew 15:1-20, Matthew 16:5-12, Matthew 19:3-9, and coming soon in Matthew 23:16-22).

23:5 “phylacteries” Deuteronomy 6:8 accessories; “tassels” Numbers 15:37-41.

23:8-10 This is about thinking teachers, pastors, “priests”, etc., were somehow better than them as children of God. Think of prideful thoughts of superiority to others that sound like Isaiah 65:5, then see the egalitarianism of Matthew 12:49-50. It’s in reference to the “Sister Bertha BetterThanYou” bad shepherds. Jesus affirmed honoring earthly parents in Matthew 19:19. “Teacher”, “father” (spiritual mentor), and “master” (literal boss) are used freely in the Epistles to describe those respective roles; Jesus was saying that the verses 6 and 7 people were no better in the eyes of God. Paul used more words to describe Jesus’ concept in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.

23:12 Jesus fulfilled this (Philippians 2:6-9) and we’re blessed He takes us with Him.

23:13 The “woes” are in the style of Isaiah 5:8-30. Jesus is the door (John 10:9).

23:14 Some manuscripts include this verse similar to Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47. If you don’t have it, Jesus was not fond of their lengthy prayers that were like performances or the way they would rip off widows. If someone on a gold couch, wearing a Rolex, etc., on television asks you for money, do not send them your rent. See Proverbs 30:11-14.

23:15 They seem to have kept this up (Galatians 2:4). Paul was a Pharisee who became a Christian who traveled over land and sea to win converts, but he opened the door (John 10:9) that Jesus’ Pharisee opponents were shutting. God has a sense of humor.

23:16 While some people using this technique had bad motives, the excessive oaths began with good intentions. Since Pharisees wanted to avoid lying, they invented a hierarchy of things to swear by in case plans fell through. Only God knows everything so only God can speak with certainty.

23:17 “fools” Matthew 5:22 makes this dangerous ground, but He had cause, and He judged accurately what would be presumptuous for us.

23:23 “tithe…matters of the law” Justice, mercy, and faithfulness are great for everyone. Tithing is a part of the Law of Moses that Christians are dead to. We are free to give from the heart as the Spirit leads without pressure or percentages (2 Corinthians 9:7). See the Deuteronomy 14:22-29 note for a refresher if needed.

23:24 Both creatures were prohibited for them to eat in Leviticus 11.

23:25-26 Jesus used an existing debate among Pharisees about whether to clean the possibly-touched-an-unclean-Gentile dust from the inside or outside of a cup first to teach them that they needed new hearts under the New Covenant.

23:32 by killing Jesus.

23:33 “snakes” See Isaiah 59:5; “condemned to Hell” is literally translated “the sentence of Gehenna” See Jeremiah 19:11-15. While Gehenna/Topheth is a fine symbol for Hell and there are other verses about Hell, Jesus told the political and religious leaders of His people in Matthew 23:33 that Rome would wreck everything just like Jeremiah had warned the people of his day about the Babylonians. Within one biblical generation, 40 years, it happened. Jesus prophesied what Josephus called The Jewish Wars with Rome culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and He did so during an unprecedented period of stability, the “Pax Romana”.

23:34 God sends them in Luke 11:49-51. Here, Jesus speaks in the first person.

23:35-36 God patiently waited for the Amorites to get it together, too (Genesis 15:16). See Isaiah 65:6-7 and Luke 13:4-5. Because the Jews organized the Old Testament with Chronicles at the rear, Abel and Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24:20-22) were the first and last martyrs in the book as well as alphabetically.

23:37 like Psalm 91:4.

23:39 Psalm 118:26. See Romans 11:25-26.

24:2 like Leviticus 26:31-32, 1 Kings 9:8, and Zechariah 5:4.

24:3 Regarding the Mount of Olives, David followed this route when he left Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 15:23-30. See also Ezekiel 11:23 and Zechariah 14:4. Jesus ascended to Heaven from it in Luke and Acts. He’s coming back to it when He returns ( Acts 1:9-12). Regarding Jesus “coming”, it seems the disciples still didn’t comprehend His death and resurrection, so they meant coming to power and ruling openly. They had seen Zechariah 9:9 and they wanted to know when they would see the rest of Zechariah 9. There is debate as to whether what they asked amounts to three questions, two questions, or if all of this describes one event: 1) When will the Temple be destroyed? 2 or 2a) What will be the sign of your coming? 3 or 2b) What will be the sign of the end of the age?

There are futurists who make this about a future rebuilt Temple and give the disciples nothing immediately relevant to hear. There are some partial preterists who separate the events of 70 AD from the future “Second Coming” of Christ and the end of time. There are partial and full preterists who note that “coming” could be like in Isaiah 19:1-2 (and Malachi 3:2 can sound fairly ominous); they say He came in judgment as He has throughout history and ended that age by destroying the Temple in 70 AD, ushering in a new epoch. Since Jesus had already made the sacrificial system obsolete, there are some who note that Jesus “came” on the clouds of Heaven to His enthronement (Daniel 7:13-14) with the end of the Old Covenant age after the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, and after all that the Temple was just a building that got destroyed later. Jesus and the new life available through Him is what matters, and our mission (living quiet lives of faith, gratitude, supporting evangelism and meeting urgent needs, etc., while bearing the Fruit of the Spirit) while we wait for all this to make perfect sense after the end of time does not change no matter what interpretation you like, so let’s all be nice to each other.

24:5 There were many Jewish insurrections against the Romans, and more than a few involved Messiah claimants (Acts 5:36-38). About a hundred years after Jesus said this, a man that rabbis claimed was the Messiah named Simon bar Kokhba led a failed revolt against the Roman Empire. Jews were banished from Jerusalem, and the region was renamed for their ancestral enemies the Philistines: “Palestine”. The early Church had maintained a closer relationship with Judaism to utilize their exemption from worshiping the emperor, but Christianity started forgetting its roots after the Bar Kokhba revolt; distance from Judaism became politically expedient. Eventually, Christianity got legalized and then later became the state religion of the Roman Empire. Rome stopped a full uprising, but they couldn’t stop a dozen men and a few women armed with the Gospel.

24:6 See Jeremiah 51:46 and Ezekiel 7:26.

24:7 See Acts 11:28 and Acts 16:26. Luke 21:11 includes “pestilences” like the plague in Rome in 65 AD and “great signs from Heaven” like Halley’s Comet (described as a sword in the sky) in 66 AD.

24:8 Birth pangs increase in frequency and severity. He said the birth pangs were beginning. We’ve been in the end times since the advent of Jesus. More people died of famine and war in the 20th century than were alive on Earth when He gave the Olivet Discourse.

24:9-10 This is still going on in parts of the world today, but there was also the Roman persecution of 64 AD under Nero (likely when Peter was crucified and Paul was beheaded). Some people panicked and ratted out other Christians.

24:11 See 2 Thessalonians 2.

24:12-13 In Matthew 10:22-23, standing firm to the end involved fleeing persecution. No one doubts the faith of martyrs, but other people might need reassuring.

24:14 There are admirable believers translating the Bible into every human language and missionaries reaching the last few people groups who haven’t heard of Jesus yet. It is anticipated that they are likely to meet those goals within about twenty years of this writing. There is also Colossians 1:23 that sounds like this got done well enough already for the purposes of prophecy fulfillment. The early evangelists could speak different languages (Acts 2:6) and teleport (Acts 8:26-40).

24:15 See 2 Chronicles 33:7, Daniel 9:27, Daniel 11:31, Daniel 12:11, and Ecclesiastes 1:9. Prophecies can be reused, like the sign child during Isaiah’s lifetime and our Immanuel, Jesus. Jesus is a new David, so Paul’s “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2 having historical antecedents should surprise few. Jesus referenced events Daniel described (that line up with the reign of Antiochus IV “Epiphanes”) that were familiar to His Jewish audience to teach by comparison, much like a parable. Luke 21:20 identifies this abomination as armies surrounding Jerusalem. They carried graven images of eagles (aquila) and served a government that had looted the Temple treasury.

24:16 He told them to flee (like Jeremiah 51:45) to the mountains (Ezekiel 7:16) because Rome had the other ways blocked. Merely saying this many things that sounded like the prophets that predicted the events of 586 BC would have been a big hint that something similar was coming. People that believed what Jesus had said bugged out to Pella in 66 AD before the internecine infighting, siege, and eventual destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple that we covered in the historical material before we started Matthew.

24:19 A sentiment similar to Jeremiah 16:1-4.

24:20 “Winter” would have meant a rough trip; Jews that didn’t believe Jesus would have had the gates closed on “the Sabbath” (Nehemiah 13:19-22).

24:21 This never-before-never-again stuff is a colloquialism like “you ain’t seen nothing yet”; see Daniel 12:1 and Joel 2:2. In 64 AD, the Roman governor released many prisoners, swelling the ranks of Zealot factions. Then, various factions fought over Jerusalem. The years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple were marked by infighting, murder, theft, rape and other sex crimes, etc., per Josephus’ “The War of the Jews” (or The Jewish War, depending on your public domain text source) Book 4, Chapter 9, Section 10 (4.9.10 is another citation style). Subsequently, Rome intervened to restore order. Passover pilgrims and Zealots/refugees from Galilee got stuck in Jerusalem during the siege (like Ezekiel 22:19-22), so about 1.1 million Jews died. It was also never equaled again because the Temple was gone and the Old Covenant was already over, despite debate about kill totals closer to our time.

24:22 Abe’s progeny (Deuteronomy 7:6) still exist. The elect in this instance are the chosen people.

24:24 Josephus mentioned false prophets hired by the leaders to fool the Jews to prevent desertion.

24:25 Thank you, Jesus.

24:26 See Acts 21:38.

24:27-28 Christ’s return will be as obvious and fast as a bolt of lightning across the sky, and it will be too late to do anything about it then as seen in Revelation. However, His choice of words is interesting. Please allow me some conjecture in the next few verses. The “lightning” brings to mind the Roman Legion XII Fulminata (“Thunderbolt Twelfth Legion”), which was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels. Six thousand Roman soldiers died and the Legion's aquila (metal eagle standard) was lost. Vespasian and Titus showed up with four legions (with four more metal birds – sounds like “vultures” gathering) for revenge.

24:29 What do Babylon in Isaiah 13:9-13, Egypt in Ezekiel 32:7-8, and the nations of the world in Isaiah 34:4 have in common? See also Joel 2:31 and Joel 3:15. Besides this rhetoric signifying The Day of the Lord with accompanying judgment and destruction and sharav (dust cloud that turns the skies red/dark) suggesting a new season, Genesis 1:16-18 makes these heavenly bodies a handy metaphor for government. Keep going…

24:30 There’s a new star in the sky in this story, much like at Jesus’ birth, so to speak. The old Temple authorities were no more. The bad shepherds were out, and the Good Shepherd was the only option. To see Him coming on the clouds of heaven is to realize that Jesus is the Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords, as seen in Daniel 7:13-14. He told them what would happen, and it did, supporting His claim to the throne. For the mourning, see Acts 2:36-37. We all killed Him with sin.

24:31 “angels” means “messengers”; make of that what you will regarding the Great Commission. Think of Deuteronomy 30:4 plus Isaiah 27:13. The sending is the point of the verse; the gathering is in the future relative to that, so it still slides in within the “this generation” of verse 34. Thankfully for us Gentiles, this gathering takes a while to complete (Romans 11:25-26).

24:34 There are mental backflips out of this, but it sure sounds like roughly a forty year window from the early thirties AD. The word “generation” is the same as in the genealogy verses like Matthew 1:17, not races or people groups. Futurists who dispute this have to make the “you” from verse 4 onward Christians in general or a subset thereof and not the disciples He was addressing. I think He would have phrased verse 25 differently (perhaps with a whiff of Daniel 12:4) if that were the case.

24:35 See Isaiah 40:8.

24:36 “that day” God submitting Himself to human limitations (Philippians 2:6-8, Hebrews 4:15) before the Resurrection is the miracle we celebrate at Christmas. Jesus got thirsty and tired (John 4:6), He slept (Matthew 8:24), and He learned things (Luke 2:52). God is all-knowing, and each divine Person in the Trinity has a different role; the Son is naturally deferential to the Father (Acts 1:7). At this point in Jesus’ speech, some people see a dividing line from the other material with the return of Christ happening when people are blissfully unaware in their normal lives as opposed to the clearly predicted accompanying disasters and turmoil. Others see the parallel with the days before the flood as a picture of unbelievers’ lack of readiness rather than favorable conditions.

24:40-41 The same fifty percent ratio as Zechariah 14:2.

24:37-44 He hints at Daniel 9:26. The people that believed what Noah knew were ready, and the rest of humanity wasn’t. The “knew nothing” is what the common element is. The mention of marriage reminds me of Jeremiah 7:34, which reminds me of the rest of Jeremiah 7 concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.

24:45 This next bit has been traditionally used to frighten/intimidate/motivate Christians. Your explanation has to account for believers being already perfected (Colossians 1:22, Hebrews 10:10,14), always safe in His hands (John 6:37, Hebrews 7:25), and awaiting no punishment (1 John 4:18) because our sins are all gone and forgotten (John 1:29, Hebrews 8:12).

Who then is the faithful (Revelation 19:11) and wise (1 Corinthians 1:24,30) Servant (Ezekiel 34:23, Isaiah 42:1-7) whom the Master has put in charge (Matthew 28:18) of the servants (Romans 13:1) and is the best at feeding people (John 6:35)? It’s Jesus. I mentioned a verse in Ezekiel 34; please go read that whole chapter. We are His sheep, and the King of kings will conduct a performance review (Zechariah 10:3) of the bad shepherds. Remember, He was saying all this within earshot of the political and religious leadership of the first century Jews.

24:48-49 like Matthew 21:33-45 (especially Matthew 21:45) and Mark 12:1-12 (especially Mark 12:12). See the Isaiah 5 notes again about religious and political leaders that ripped off their flock so they could stay drunk all day. Remember, teetotallers, Luke 13:24-30 is just one passage that lets us know Jesus partied with the sinners.

24:50-51 We know He is coming back. These unbelievers (John 3:36) had/have a surprise coming. The hypocrites were defined in Matthew 23:13. The Jesus we know from Matthew 10:32 and Matthew 11:28-30 didn’t suddenly turn on us. The Pharisees and Sadducees did nothing to help the sinners among their own people let alone the Gentiles. Jesus barks on our behalf, not at us. We’re ready for His return (1 John 4:17, Ephesians 3:12) because He’s already here with us (Matthew 28:20, 1 Corinthians 6:17, 2 John 2). You will be as safe as Jesus on Judgment Day (Hebrews 7:25).

25:1 Israel as the Bride of God is not a new image (Isaiah 62:4-5, Hosea 2:19-20, etc.) The Jews, for the most part, expected immediate fulfillment of all Messianic promises by a military leader. Some scholars divided the material into a suffering “Son of Joseph” and a ruling “Son of David”, but one Son of God fulfilling both roles with a long, merciful intermission for evangelism didn’t seem to be on many people’s Bingo cards.

25:5 See 2 Peter 3:3-13. It is said that in that culture, after a couple became engaged, the groom would build an addition onto his father’s house for the couple to live in after the wedding. This made marriage customs a handy symbol for waiting. Jesus is a carpenter, and Christians are the Bride of Christ. If you think He is taking a while to come back, imagine how nice our accommodations will be when He returns for us (John 14:2-3).

25:8-10 The Holy Spirit is a divine Person, not a liquid that can be had in differing amounts, or bought, or generated, etc. This is a parable, not an allegory, so each story element is not a new concept. This is about readiness and unreadiness. Believers are ready (John 6:28-29).

25:12 See Matthew 7:21-23 note.

25:13 Be a believer, because He is coming.

25:14 Compare Luke 19:11-27. In particular, Luke 19:12-15,27 mirrors how Archelaus, son of Herod, went to Rome to have his succession confirmed while a delegation of his subjects expressed their objections. If Archelaus was to be obeyed, “how much more” ought God? The parable is also reminiscent of 2 Kings 22 in which contractor honesty (Jesus is a carpenter) needed no accounting but priests did have to give accounts. 2 Kings 22 includes a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem.

25:15 He gave them the money to invest. Investments are fine, or He would have told a different story. The Torah prohibited interest (verse 27) on personal loans to fellow Jews, the helpless, etc., but creative minds have invented many scenarios that involve absorbing risk for a premium among business entities. Investments aren’t just surplus to be given as tzedakah; rather, they are opportunities to buy into businesses to help you get free (1 Corinthians 7:21). Energetic retirees are great food bank volunteers, evangelists, etc. Also, lumping seed and crop into a nebulous concept of “money” has led to some brothers and sisters in Christ attempting to give percentages far in excess of what was required under the Old Covenant (which you’re free from, by the way). Finally, it’s all a ship at sea until it’s realized spendable/disposable income.

25:16-18 At this point, He has railed against scribes (legal experts, official copiers of Torah), Pharisees, and Sadducees. He had aimed parables at some of those groups, and now it was the scribes’ turn. See 2 Timothy 3:15, John 5:37-47, and Matthew 13:52. There are commentators that allegorize five books of Torah, two tablets of stone, etc., but obedience or disobedience to their calling to feed the people words from God (Matthew 24:45, Deuteronomy 8:3) is enough to understand this.

25:20 Was he a “shrewd” manager like in Luke 16? Even better, a finder of “lost coins” like in Luke 15? In light of Matthew 13:12,52, he kept his charge to study Scripture and found Jesus.

25:25 Worse yet, the religious leaders tried to cover up the truth about Jesus Christ (Luke 11:52, Matthew 28:12-15).

25:26 This is still the same day as the Matthew 21:18 note; He was still firing shots at the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and other legal experts of that time and place. The events of 70 AD happened, and Christians, while reigning with Him now in spirit, will inherit the universe like an amped-up Deuteronomy 6:10-11 scenario. He won’t call any believer a “wicked, lazy servant” because Christians are His friends instead of His servants (John 15:15) and more than this, His family (John 1:12, Hebrews 2:11). Still not convinced? Are being wicked, being lazy, dereliction of duty, etc., sins with punishment waiting at the end of this parable? Did Jesus not do a good enough job taking away your sins? Was God lying when He said He would not remember your sins anymore?

25:27 Note “interest” was an option.

25:28 Human effort accomplishes nothing (John 6:63). See Romans 4:4-5.

25:29 like Matthew 13:12 and Mark 4:25, understanding Him is the key. If you have Him, you have everything.

25:30 like in Matthew 8:11-12, where we stinky, uncouth Gentiles were invited to dinner instead, and Matthew 22:13. Matthew 22 reminded me of Zephaniah 1 which speaks of the destruction of the world but also of Jerusalem, making this yet another hint at the events of 70 AD.

25:31 “angels” Zechariah 14:5 says “holy ones” or “saints”. We ride in with Him. This next one hits the Roman occupiers, historical enemy states, and evil spirits in addition to the religious and political leaders Jesus has been upbraiding for a few chapters now (Psalm 110:5-6). Sheep follow their Shepherd’s voice; goats make their own way. Sheep eat the “just enough” patches of grass; goats eat most everything. Those traditional agriculture notions have been applied to this parable for a long time, but there’s more going on. The bad shepherds are out, and the Good Shepherd is in.

25:32 The Good Shepherd (John 10:11) will sit in judgment (Joel 3:14) to bring about the promises of good things for His people and bad things for the nations (Psalm 9:17-20) that oppressed them/us as seen in Ezekiel 34 and Isaiah 40. The goats in Ezekiel 34:17 are identified as bad shepherds/leaders in Zechariah 10:3 in many translations. Jeremiah 50:8 also depicts goats as leaders. The fire waiting for them, which was intended for the devil and his angels, reminds me of Leviticus 4:27-31. Be warned, rulers of Earth (Psalm 2:10, Isaiah 40:23) whether demonic (Ephesians 6:12, 1 John 5:19) or otherwise. While there are no hybrid animals in this story (as Andrew Farley puts it “no shoats and no geep”), and everyone’s last judgment is black and white (believers up, unbelievers down), this does not seem to be merely an illustration for that. There are sheep, goats, and Jesus’ brethren (Hebrews 2:11) in this story. Christians are done being judged (John 5:24, Hebrews 9:28) for sins.

25:34 Christians are blessed by God the Father and have an inheritance prepared for us. The kingdom prepared since the creation of the world is, well, the world. The meek shall inherit the earth. It also seems that living through Revelation 19 to be ruled by us Christians for a thousand years in Revelation 20 is a reward for being nice to us because…

25:35-36 …Christ is in us; how people treat us is how they treat Him (Matthew 10:40-42). If you insist on rounding down to just sheep (Christians) and goats, then any kindness by the “sheep” (like Mark 9:41, although that is kindness to the sheep) is rewarded, and there are no sins to pay back (John 1:29). Unbelievers’ attempts at good deeds are like filthy rags (specifically, bloody menstrual pads) as in Isaiah 64:6. You must have His life to be righteous (John 3:3, Galatians 3:21). These behaviors sound like Isaiah 58, Isaiah 61:1, etc., but specifically they seem to emulate God. Some translations of Deuteronomy 10:12 say to “walk in all His ways”. Feeding the hungry is acting like God giving manna in the wilderness. Thirsty? Water from a rock. Need a place to stay? Promised Land. Naked? Adam and Eve’s animal skins in Genesis 3:21. Visiting the sick? Going to see Abe after his surgery in Genesis 17:23 through Genesis 18:1. Visiting prisoners? Communication with Joseph and the exiled prophets.

25:37-38 They didn’t emulate God and they denied access to His righteousness to people made in God’s Image that they had judged to be scum. If you use this to spur someone on to good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), don’t forget that we’re already like Him (1 John 4:17) and as safe as He is on Judgment Day (Hebrews 7:25, 1 John 2:2). We do good because He made us good (Ephesians 2:10); we like being good now.

25:40 See Hebrews 2:11 and 1 Corinthians 6:17.

25:41 “fire” See Isaiah 30:33 and Isaiah 66:24.

25:45 See Isaiah 60:1-12, especially verse 12. Also the “one” is like the “even one” in Matthew 5:36. It’s not like they missed one magical needle-in-a-haystack homeless guy that would have fulfilled Matthew 25:40; they missed all Christians (Matthew 20:25).

25:46 “the righteous” See 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 4:4-5. While kindness to the poor is part of the Law (Deuteronomy 15:7-11), the rest of the Law was not an issue in this parable.

26:2 A fourth prediction of Jesus dying.

26:3 In those days, the chief priests were members of about seven extremely wealthy Sadducee families (who could buy appointments to offices from the Romans). Some of them even intermarried with Herod’s family. One of their “houses” in Jerusalem was the length of one of the main streets (this can still be seen on tour at the time of this writing) and its cellar had what would be like $10,000 bottles of wine (inflation adjusted). These were the “God Wants You to Send Me Your Money” guys of their day.

26:4 Looking at how Jerusalem descended into factional civil war in the months leading up to the end, this probably wasn’t the first time that the wealthy and powerful religious people met secretly to get stuff done like a criminal organization, and it probably wasn’t the last time, either.

26:6 Anointing a guest with oil was thought to counteract the effects of the sun (and it was scented to smell nice). Did you ever have to sit near a classmate that, for whatever reason, was inadequately showered? Imagine them walking everywhere they went in a desert wearing the same clothes all the time and then coming over for dinner. The Messiah or the Christ means The Anointed One. Rulers smelled royal and rich (Psalm 45:7-8). The holy anointing oil was used for new beginnings like commissioning a prophet (1 Kings 19:16), priest (Leviticus 4:3), or king (1 Samuel 10:1, 1 Samuel 16:13). David was recorded as anointed three times (as future king in 1 Samuel 16:13, King of Judah in 2 Samuel 2:4, and King of all Israel in 2 Samuel 5:3). Likewise, Jesus was anointed three times; there is no need to reconcile these accounts into one event. Jesus’ head (Matthew, Mark) or feet (Luke, John) were anointed by an unknown sinful woman up in Galilee (Luke 7) at a Pharisee’s house, another sinful woman in Bethany at Simon the leper’s house (Matthew 26, Mark 14), and Mary (John 12) at Lazarus’ house.

26:8-9 I grew up in a Wesleyan denomination, so this attitude (attributed to the disciples here and specifically Judas in John) was had by some well-meaning people toward all disposable income, hobbies, etc. If they all radiated joy from the Holy Spirit while doing that, it might have been attractive to the unbelievers, but the consensus was that we were dour. Jesus condemned Pharisees for performing religion for the purpose of being seen like actors, but never said “don’t go to plays” to a crowd that knew what the trumpets meant (See Matthew 6:2 note). Additionally, Paul’s frequent use of sports metaphors (including brutal ancient Greek boxing) without any accompanying “don’t go to games” is notable, too. We’ve already talked about all the dinner parties Jesus was invited to. Jesus had a few Hellenized guys in the disciples instead of all Pharisee and Zealot hardliners. Jesus didn’t say the Essenes had the right idea. Be yourself and be the aroma of Christ in the places you go while doing the things you do; Paul was a chameleon that tried to be all things to all people in hopes of saving some of them (1 Corinthians 9:20-22). Knowing a genuinely happy (not fakely syrupy), seemingly normal Christian and seeing them deal with life with Jesus’ strength is a powerful generator of “I’ll have what she’s having”.

26:11 This is a quote of Deuteronomy 15:11 rather than callous disregard for their plight. You can help them because you want to (2 Corinthians 9:7).

26:13 but not this one’s name.

26:14-16 Finally, one of the disciples believed He would die (verse 12). Judas, a thief according to John 12:6, had even experienced the supernatural power of Matthew 10:1. I’m sure Judas was looking forward to being one of Jesus’ viceroys (Matthew 19:28), especially since the triumphal entry to Jerusalem. When it looked like he wouldn’t be ruling the world alongside the Messiah, he looked toward his own interests.

26:17 The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread are described in Exodus 12:12-28. Sometimes, these get lumped together and called “Passover”. Numbers 28:16-24 and Luke 22:1 are examples. This is how Jesus and His disciples ate “Passover” (or eretz Peshach, depending on whom you ask) together, and yet Jesus died as the Passover lambs were being slain (John 19:14-16) and the Jewish leaders were anxious about being able to eat the Passover (John 18:28).

26:20 The faithful disciples called Him “Lord”. See verse 25.

26:23 similar to Psalm 41:9.

26:25 Judas, among people who called Him Lord, only called Him “Teacher”. “You have said so” is an idiom. Perhaps you have heard “You said it” or “Word!” expressed in agreement with something before?

26:26-28 Jesus’ prayer of thanks may have resembled the traditional “Blessed art Thou, Lord God, King of the Universe, Who brings bread forth from the earth.” See 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, and Luke 22:19-20. Here and in Mark’s gospel, the bread “is” His body and the cup “is” His blood. In Luke, the bread is eaten “in remembrance” (like the Passover) and the cup is the new covenant in His blood (compared to Exodus 24:8). In 1 Corinthians 10, eating and drinking is participation in His body and blood. In 1 Corinthians 11, both bread and cup are “in remembrance”, and eating and drinking is a proclamation of His death that we make until His return. The criminal on the cross next to Jesus was promised Paradise for belief, not for any rituals with water (baptism) or with snacks (Luke 23:41-43). What to make of all this? The Last Supper repurposed food and drink that were already used as symbols to symbolize His death for us. Many grain plants are ground to be mixed into one loaf, which is broken to feed many Christians. Many grapes are crushed to fill a cup with liquid. We are united with Him in the Body of Christ because He prayed for that unity for all believers in John 17 after the Last Supper would have happened. Belief in the Good News of Jesus Christ is what matters. Paul witnessed wherever he could, but he didn’t baptize many people and didn’t make an issue of the Eucharist other than to address abuse of it. Specifically, some Corinthians were showing up early to eat all the food and drink all the wine, so poor believers weren’t getting any of it. The sad music and introspection in some church services prior to Communion doesn’t fit the meaning Jesus gave to this celebration. You don’t have to get qualified to eat a meal that celebrates that you are qualified because of what He did. People who ate the Passover meal weren’t freed from Egypt again every year or a little more and more progressively every time they ate some more of it. Jesus isn’t up there dying over and over again to supply more wafers and grapey liquid (Hebrews 9:12,25-28). John 6:53-58 says we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to live. John 3:16, John 5:24, John 6:28-29 say we must believe in Him. This is not a contradiction. John’s writings are in opposition to docetists, proto-Gnostics, etc., that say Jesus did not come to Earth in a real human body. We believe that He physically died the death that our sins merit, we live because He died just like the prophets said He would, and therefore we feed on Him. A Host must protect His guests according to the expectations of Middle Eastern hospitality. Eating with someone is having peace with them; Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper or Communion is also a proclamation of our peace with God (Romans 5:1-11). The first sin was eating from that tree in the Garden of Eden, so of course we eat. Since the Greek word for bread artos is also used to signify “staple food”, we are invited to remember what He did for us as often as we eat or drink. If you want to serve grape juice to be respectful of someone’s struggle with alcoholism or if all you have to celebrate with the tribe you just converted is yams and water, see Ephesians 2:8-9. That also applies to any discussion of what elements to use, how much to eat, how often to celebrate, whether to lump it in with a potluck like the early Church, etc.

26:29 See Isaiah 25:6. Given Jesus’ habits so far and the timing of this statement, this is more of another death prediction than an impromptu Nazirite vow. He is with us (Matthew 18:20) as well as united with us, and we are raised and seated in Heaven with Him even now (Ephesians 2:6), so you may have had a few drinks with Him at Communion or otherwise already.

26:30 “Hallel” is Psalm 113 through Psalm 118 recited on holidays. These six songs were likely the hymn sung at the Lord’s Supper (including the hints at death and resurrection in Psalm 116:3,8). Regarding the Mount of Olives, see 1 Kings 11:7. The Son of God’s betrayal happened at the old child sacrifice site.

26:31 Peter publicly denied Him, but all the disciples ran away after swearing otherwise (verse 35). John came back to Him at the Cross. See Zechariah 13:7 and Isaiah 53:6.

26:32 The Luke/Acts version involves staying in Jerusalem. To keep things in Galilee, like Mark, Matthew omits other resurrection appearances seen in Luke.

26:33-35 He told them not to vow things. Making promises you might not be able to keep warrants similar caution (verse 41, verse 75).

26:36 “Gethsemane” or “oil press” for the olives.

26:37-38 The Three (analogous to David’s Three) also witnessed the Transfiguration. Taking a few special people here, then going further alone looks like the priests in the Holy Place in the Temple and the High Priest in the Holy of Holies.

26:39 The cup is one of judgment and death, as in Isaiah 51:17-23 and Jeremiah 25:15-38. In this Garden, the new Adam obeyed (Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15). See Matthew 6:10. God’s will refers to Isaiah 53:10. Also, Jesus asks for this three times between here and verse 44, in case anyone is superstitious about praying for the same thing more than once.

26:41 “temptation” to break their word from verse 35. See Luke 22:31-32; He prays for us too (Hebrews 7:25).

26:43 Luke 22:45 says they were exhausted from sorrow.

26:45 The KJV’s “Sleep on now and take your rest” sounds like the irritated Jesus seen often in Mark.

26:49 like betrayal with a kiss in 2 Samuel 20:9-10 and identification of a king in 1 Samuel 10:1.

26:50 Jesus knew (John 13:27) Judas was betraying Him, and He still called Judas a friend. We all betray Him (James 3:2), and there is no “brood of vipers” talk for us. He is Grace personified.

26:51-52 It was Peter (John 18:10-11). Based on Luke 22:36, verse 52 was not meant to be an out of context pacifism quote, but “Chill, Pete. I’m keeping you safe from them. Stick with the plan.”

26:53 That would be more than 72,000 angels. One “angel” slew 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35). “The destroyer” in Exodus 12:23 killed all the Egyptian firstborn.

26:56 See Matthew 26:35.

26:57 Having such a trial during Passover, night trials, and holding a single session for a capital offense were all forbidden in their legal system.

26:59 The Sanhedrin was a Jewish religious court consisting of the chief priests and the “elders”/legal experts. It had Sadducee and Pharisee members. They were considered the successors of men like Moses’ seventy elders. See Exodus 18:21-22, Numbers 11:16-17, and Deuteronomy 17:8-13. Rome took away the subjugated Jews’ legal right to impose the death penalty.

26:60 See Deuteronomy 19:18-20.

26:61 They related their memory of John 2:19-21.

26:63 like Isaiah 53:7.

26:64 See Matthew 26:25 note. They went on to witness evidence that He is who He says He is and that therefore He fulfilled Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13-14. Everyone will see when Daniel 12:2 comes to pass.

26:65 despite Leviticus 21:10.

26:66 They thought they were dealing with a case like Leviticus 24:10-23.

26:67-68 like Isaiah 50:6.

26:69-70 “servant girl” She was, unwittingly or not, another temptress like Eve, Jezebel, Job’s wife, etc. There was no Sanhedrin beating Pete to get him to deny Christ; only a girl talking.

26:74 See Matthew 5:33.

26:75 “Reportedly, pastors have been eating them snitchin’ chickens ever since.”

27:1 In addition to lacking the authority, the Jewish leadership wanted Rome to be the scapegoat. Getting Jesus crucified instead of throwing rocks at Him avoided blame for any possible uprising. See John 11:45-53. Jesus ended up having five trials: Annas (John 18:19), Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57), Pilate (Luke 23:1), Herod (Luke 23:7), and Pilate again (John 18:28).

27:3 See Zechariah 11:12. Remorse and restitution do not save a person.

27:4 See Deuteronomy 27:25. Judas knew he was cursed, which led to the next verse. Helping sinners atone for their sins was literally the job description of the men he addressed.

27:5 See Deuteronomy 21:23 and the fate of another betrayer in 2 Samuel 18:9-15.

27:7 See Zechariah 11:13.

27:9-10 “Jeremiah” See Zechariah 11:12-13 and the Matthew 3:3 note. Your Bible’s notes may mention Jeremiah 19:1-13 about buying a jar (but not a field) from a potter for a different price and then breaking it to symbolize the impending destruction of Jerusalem. Your Bible’s notes may mention Jeremiah 32:6-9 about buying a field with no mention of a potter, also for a different price. Scripture is inspired (2 Timothy 3:16-17), but Jesus is the Word (John 1); He is perfect, and our manuscript for Matthew may have been translated/compiled.

27:11 as in Matthew 26:25,64.

27:12 like Isaiah 53:7.

27:16 “Barabbas” means “son of the father”; he was charged with participating in an insurrection (Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19) similar to what Jesus’ accusers pinned on Him (John 19:12). Jesus died for my sins, and I walk free.

27:24 like Deuteronomy 21:6-7.

27:25 like 1 Kings 2:33, Acts 3:15, Acts 10:39, and John 19:11.

27:26 See Isaiah 53:5-6. Flogging meant being stripped and beaten with a many-tailed-whip-like “scourge” that would “inquire deeply” into your flesh with metal barbs. There was no 39 or 40 lash limit for the Romans; some people died from the beating or bled out later. Crucifixion displayed how helpless anyone opposing Rome (or God) is. Think you’re powerful? A nude mocked public spectacle tied up or nailed up incapable of fighting the birds, dogs, and insects eating their flesh and, eventually, controlling their own bladder and bowels disagreed with any previously-held pride. It is really hard to crucify yourself. After you got one hand/wrist nailed, how would you do the other one? Thankfully, this was already done to us and for us. God didn’t recruit us because He needs us (Acts 17:25) or because He thought we’d be good at fixing the world (Ephesians 2:4-9). We realized we couldn’t save ourselves, and we asked Him to do it for us. We are crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6, Galatians 2:20); this is our Declaration of Helplessness. You already died. Believers are said to “sleep” until He returns (1 Thessalonians 4), but you are done with dying (Hebrews 7:25, Hebrews 9:27, Luke 20:36).

He died for your sins, yes, but look past the accounting and see that He died for you. God loves you and wants to spend eternity with you, and He was willing to do whatever it took for that to happen.

27:27 Elements of this next bit were meant as a parody of an enthronement ceremony or triumph for an emperor.

27:28 It looks like Matthew squinted at Mark and John’s purple robe to emphasize a connection between Isaiah 53:6,12, Isaiah 1:18, and Matthew 28:3. He took our sins and the punishment for them. There are discussions about whether a Roman soldier’s faded red garment would look purple, but wealthy Herod had already put a fancy robe (purple and red, perhaps) on Jesus in Luke 23:11 that could have been put back on after the beating.

27:29 See the Genesis 3:6 note and Exodus 4:2.

27:30 driving the thorns in.

27:32 This would have been after Jesus, fully human, was too exhausted to carry it anymore. Tiring the convict out so they were easier to nail down was part of the punishment. The Romans (and other cultures before them they had learned from) crucified thousands of people, sometimes lining major roads with victims. They were proficient at the procedure by then.

27:34 See Psalm 69:21. This beverage was also meant to make nailing Him to a cross easier for the Romans.

27:35-41 See Psalm 22:16-18. “Above His head” suggests the classic “t” shape. “X” and “T” were other cross shape options. The presence of the chief priests at the sacrifice of the Lamb at the time of Passover is apropos.

27:42 One more temptation to skip the Cross, similar to what we discussed in the Matthew 4:3-4 note.

27:43 See Psalm 22:7-8.

27:44 One of them notably repented, as seen in Luke’s account of the Crucifixion.

27:45 Sacrifices were at nine in the morning and three in the afternoon. This Jeremiah 15:9-like darkness was not an eclipse; those are eight minutes at the most around a New Moon. Passover is celebrated on a Full Moon. This was Exodus 10:22 spookiness. See Amos 8:9 and Jeremiah 33:21; the Levites are set aside, as we’ll discuss in Hebrews.

27:46 Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1. That Psalm hints about His crucifixion and His later world domination. God doesn’t abandon us (Hebrews 13:5), and He didn’t abandon Jesus (John 8:28-29); Jesus called God Father elsewhere, but on the Cross Jesus voluntarily became Sin for us so that we became the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

27:48 See Psalm 69:21.

27:50 See Hebrews 9:16-28. The same word was used for “will”, “testament, and “covenant”. The Old Covenant began with animal sacrifices and sprinkling blood on the people. The New Covenant began at Jesus’ death. The fancy mostly-blank piece of paper saying “The New Testament” belongs at this point in the story in all four gospels. We’re going right back into the Old again when we get to Mark, etc.

27:51 See Isaiah 25:7. The curtain kept humanity’s unholiness away from God; after Jesus finished His work (John 1:29, John 19:30) there was no need for it. Also, fathers would tear their garments upon hearing of the deaths of their children (Job 1:20).

27:52-53 We’re still waiting on the General Resurrection for our new bodies. This Lazarus-style resuscitation is more of Him outdoing Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 13:21) like we saw with the food multiplication, etc.

27:54 The Gentile believed more easily than His own people (verse 43).

27:56 Comparing this with John 19:25 (and deciding where to put the punctuation, which is lacking in the manuscripts), John the Apostle may be Jesus’ first cousin.

27:57-60 A rich guy with the ability to approach Pilate and get what he asks for appears suddenly in the story. Rather than viewing him as a cynical attempt by the author to fulfill Isaiah 53:9, I think he was the rich young ruler that received a lesson about salvation being impossible for humans. He didn’t give everything, but he gave Jesus his own grave, like all Christians do (because He died for us). See Deuteronomy 21:22-23 and Galatians 3:13. Emphasizing the “new” tomb means the one known occupant of that tomb rose from the dead, and there wasn’t a switcheroo with Joseph’s grandpa or something.

27:62-66 They remembered He said He was coming back from the dead better than the Eleven Disciples, who had heard it repeatedly, directly or indirectly: Matthew 12:40, Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:23, Matthew 20:19, Matthew 26:54-56, etc. They ended up seeing Matthew 27:43 fulfilled.

28:1 The number of women mentioned and their identities vary across the gospels. They’re allegedly just here to look at the tomb in this gospel instead of coming to anoint Him (Mark 16:1, Luke 24:1) because here He’s under guard. If you want to interpret this as them casing the joint to bust in and anoint Him anyway, be my guest. (I’d like to send a shout-out to all the real ones.)

Matthew 28 – Many people know that Jesus died for their sins. If being forgiven were all that was needed, His death would have been enough. Few people know that believers already died with Christ (Galatians 2:20, Romans 6). You died with Him, and you were resurrected with Him (Colossians 2:11-12, Ephesians 2:5). Christ is your life (Colossians 3:4). This is how the promised New Covenant happened; this is how you have all that new good stuff inside you. He is not dying ever again, and neither are you (Hebrews 7:25, Hebrews 9:27, Luke 20:36). You are not auditioning or waiting around to see if you get eternal life (1 John 5:13); it has no beginning and no end – if you could lose it, it would not be eternal. Salvation is not a set of keys that can be misplaced; Salvation is a Person named Jesus Christ who holds you securely. He’s not going to leave you (Matthew 28:20). He’s got this all figured out.

28:2-7 Despite Matthew’s two demoniacs, two blind guys, etc., there’s only one angel mentioned here as in Mark 16. There are two angels that speak to the women in Luke and John, where the stone was also already rolled away as in Mark (Luke 24:1-6, John 20:1,11-12). I’m just brainstorming here, but: 1) The women around Jesus were a close-knit group (Matthew 27:55, John 19:25). 2) Luke likely interviewed Jesus’ mother Mary, who lived with John, to get his birth narrative backstory. Luke and John may have spoken to Mary Magdalene more than Matthew and Peter did when she came to visit Jesus’ mother. 3) Even without Luke and John directly interviewing Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ mother Mary might have understood Mary Magdalene’s story better after several visits than men that immediately scattered on mission trips. 4) Matthew and Peter’s (which Mark recorded) understanding of what the women who saw Jesus told them is still adequate for the big truth here, that He is risen. Post-resurrection appearances of Jesus include, but are not limited to: women near the tomb, women returning from the tomb, Peter, the men walking to Emmaus, a large number of people in Jerusalem, the disciples without Thomas, the disciples with Thomas, at the Sea of Tiberias, on a mountain in Galilee, eating fish with the disciples, and the Ascension. 1 Corinthians 15 adds James, son of Joseph and therefore brother of Jesus, all of the apostles, and Paul (finally).

28:9 “clasped” Jesus has a physical body (2 John 7); “worshiped” See Matthew 4:10. Jesus is God.

28:10 “brothers” The disciples. See Matthew 12:49.

28:13 The governor had a chance to ask, “All the guards slept through them moving the big stone? Well, then how do they know what happened and who did it?”

28:15 We see that some first century Jews admitted that a real physical person named Jesus died, was buried, and that His known tomb was empty. Modern proponents of the “Christ myth” slander don’t even go that far.

28:16 To harmonize with the other gospels, part of the 40 days of post-resurrection instruction seems to have been a week-long walk to the Mount of Transfiguration to receive the Great Commission and a return trip to Jerusalem for the Ascension, similar to how they walked with Him during His earlier ministry.

28:17 “but some doubted” seems like a punchline after all the missed death and resurrection predictions, but faith can have doubts. See Matthew 14:30-33 and John 20:24-29.

28:18 See Psalm 2 and Daniel 7:14. Christ has always been God, but Him reclaiming His position as a resurrected human is the new and notable bit. He lives, He reigns, and He has things like physical hands and feet.

28:19 “go” Before you get on a raft headed for a hostile nation, let’s cover a few things. John 15:27 clarifies that this commission was for the apostles, and Colossians 1:23 says they succeeded. The events around Acts 2:5 put a big dent in it. The Body of Christ as a whole witnesses; evangelists are one part of the body (Ephesians 4:11-12, 1 Corinthians 12). “Sending” those with that spiritual gift out with financial support (Romans 10:14-15, 3 John 6-8) is more common than having it. 1 Peter 3:15 covers things for the average Christian: being willing to tell your story gently and respectfully to those who ask about it. Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ is successful evangelism. The outcome is between them and God. The postman’s job is to deliver the message. We’re all qualified as ministers of the New Covenant in this way, because it’s all about what He did for us (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). The Gentile inclusion here was not shocking to anyone paying attention (Isaiah 66:18). About “baptizing” in this verse, the word here means dunked, like dying a piece of fabric, but please keep reading. How does one get submerged into the Name and therefore the character/nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? By believing, as Jesus prayed for in John 17:20-23. To dunk them in the Name, share the Gospel. If the people that elevate Acts 2:38 over John 3:16 and many other sola fides verses were right, Paul’s mission would have looked very different (1 Corinthians 1:14-17). By the time of Christ, a mikveh was a nude (derived from Leviticus 15’s “bathe his whole body with water”) full immersion for converts, ritual cleansing, priest consecration, etc. John the Baptist offered a baptism/immersion of repentance analogous to the Essenes’ which was a public declaration of a commitment to follow God’s rules. Jesus required no repentance, but “fulfilled all righteousness” by undergoing John’s baptism to be consecrated as our High Priest and washed as our sacrifice. Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11). The Holy Spirit is received by believing what you heard about Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 10:9; Galatians 3:2,5). The spiritual “dunk” is the one that matters (1 Corinthians 12:13 like Colossians 2:11), regardless of what method, outfit, location, age (the old Christening/Confirmation two-step), etc., a person was moistened. Gentiles in Acts 10:44-48 received the Holy Spirit and therefore salvation (Ephesians 4:30) while still dry. “Do you have Jesus Christ living in you?” is the test (2 Corinthians 13:5, Romans 8:16).

28:20 “obey everything I have commanded you” to teach. The teachings He imparted during the forty days before His ascension (Acts 1:1-3) are not documented at the end of Matthew because the audience already had the Epistles and pastors who taught them that material regularly when they finally got access to written gospels. The Epistles are the fruit of the apostles’ obedience. They’re largely summarized by Colossians 2:6-7: You received Jesus by faith and grace, and you live by faith and grace. The Epistles do not contain stump care tips. Bad fruit came from our old hearts (Mark 7), but we received new obedient hearts, new human spirits, and the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Romans 5:5, Romans 6:17) when we believed in Him. We are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) given perfection as a gift (Romans 5:17, Hebrews 10:14). See Galatians 3. The various lessons in Matthew like the Sermon on the Mount, walking on water, “Hey, you feed them”, “Why can’t you heal him?”, etc., are summarized in The Transfiguration: Jesus is God, and I am not. He sent the apostles to go teach that. He is always with you (John 17:20-23).

I ended up mentioning something from or referencing every other book in the Bible in our discussion of Matthew, which took as much typing as explaining from Genesis 1 to Numbers 16. Christians are dead to the Law of Moses, but all of the Old Covenant material is valuable to understand the New Covenant, which began at the end of the book without much elaboration. Mark starts before the Cross, so we're going back to the Old:

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