Matthew 11:1-24

The Kingdom – Misunderstood and Opposed

Matthew made no further comment about the apostles’ mission.   Matthew’s concern had not been really the mission of the original twelve in Galilee.  His previous instruction had moved quickly to reflect on the experience of the Christian community on mission.  His focus would now turn more towards the crowds, and to Jesus’ interactions with them.  Foremost in his mind would be the relevance of the teachings and deeds of Jesus to the life of his own community.  The opposition that they encountered mirrored in many ways the resistance met earlier by Jesus.

Matthew 11:2-6     Queried by the Baptist - Messengers from John

(Lk 7:18-22)

John was put in prison precisely because of his fearless proclamation.  His fate embodied the fate awaiting disciples who would preach the word in an oppressive and oppressed world, which was unwilling to hear and to change.  Like John, and Jesus after him, they would have to take up their cross and follow him [10:38].

At first sight, Matthew’s comment may be confusing. While John personally had been quite clear about the identity and role of Jesus as Messiah, now he was uncertain.  At the Jordan, John had recognised the specialness of Jesus and had felt awkward about baptising him.  Yet he had expected Jesus to approach his mission in a more confrontational way:  “His threshing shovel is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean his threshing floor.  He will gather the grain into the silo, but the chaff he will burn up in unquenchable fire [3:12]”.  Was Jesus in fact the one who is coming? John’s faith had begun to waver.

Interestingly, the high point of Jesus’ activity was his teaching: the poor have the good news brought to them.  

Jesus’ answer to John was of crucial importance to Matthew.  Matthew had been careful, earlier in his narrative [chapters 8 & 9], to list examples of all the activities Isaiah had mentioned in a number of prophecies [26:19; 29:18-19; 35:5-6; 43:7; 61:1].  In the light, also, of his earlier quotation [8:17] of Isaiah’s comment on the Suffering Servant: he took our infirmities and bore our diseases, Matthew continued relentlessly to assert that Jesus was truly the one whose approach to the Law and the prophets embodied their genuine fulfilment.  Jesus’ way was the way of mercy, not of violence and retribution; his behaviour reflected his sense of the priorities of God, voiced by Hosea [6:6]: what I want is mercy not sacrifice (that Matthew had mentioned earlier in the narrative [9:13]).  This was not the Messiah anticipated and wanted by most contemporaries of Jesus, including, apparently, John.

The message was relevant not just to John and his disciples, but provided confirmation to Matthew’s own community, in the context of their debates with the Jewish synagogues from which they had separated.  It justified Matthew’s perception of Jesus as Messiah.

The literal translation of stumble would be “scandalise”, and carried perhaps the idea of being simultaneously attracted and resistant.  It referred to people’s losing the faith that they had formerly held.  The word would occur again in Jesus’ next discourse [13:21].

Matthew 11:7-19     Jesus Praises John the Baptist

(Lk 7:24-35)

After speaking to John’s disciples, Jesus turned his attention to the crowds. 

The Jordan, where John baptised, was lined with reeds. Ten years before, Herod had minted a coin bearing the symbol of reeds.  In the same district were no less than three of Herod’s fortresses and residences.  But the crowds had not gone out simply sightseeing or royal watching.  John had dressed like the prophet Elijah – the strong, determined prophet, the instrument of God and critic of kings.  Jesus claimed that John was more than another prophet.  His role had been to prepare the crowds for the imminent advent of God’s Kingdom and to introduce the Messiah, the one more powerful than he [3:11].  John stood in the space between the era of Israel and the era of Israel’s fulfilment in Jesus.  As John had refused to bow to the values of earthly kingdoms, so, too, Jesus would stand in stark opposition to all they embodied.

Jesus quoted substantially from Malachi, at the same time inserting another phrase from Exodus.

• Malachi had looked forward to the Day of the Lord, which would be initiated when Elijah returned:

• The Exodus text referred to Israel’s original liberation from the oppression of Egypt:

("Angel in front of you" can equally be translated "messenger ahead of you").

Both sources served to situate the relevance of Jesus: he would initiate the Day of the Lord, which would be an experience of liberation from oppression of every kind.

The comparison was not between the personal righteousness of John and of the Christian disciple.  It referred more to time and role.  John looked forward to the time of fulfilment; disciples lived in it.

Scholars discuss the meaning of the text, without reaching consensus.  The present wording, under attack, could equally be translated in the active voice as: “on the attack”.  In the passive sense, the attack would refer to the opposition encountered both by John and by Jesus.  In the active sense, it may have referred to the power of the Kingdom, exercised in the ministry of John and Jesus, already beginning to destabilise the kingdoms of the world and their splendour [4:8].

Jesus made explicit the connection he saw between John and Elijah.  With the coming of John, the prophetic ministry of Israel had reached its completion – and was realised definitively in Jesus.  However, to recognise Jesus as its fulfilment required discernment: Let those with ears take notice.  

The comment seems to indicate a degree of frustration on Jesus’ part.  People’s assessment of Jesus’ eating and drinking may have been little more than a generic label, reflecting simply his non-conformist behaviour [Deuteronomy 21:18-21].   

Jesus’ reference to wisdom came from a passage in the Book of Proverbs, which spoke of Wisdom’s table invitation to “you that are simple”.  

Matthew 11:20-24     Rejected by the Cities – Warnings for Unrepentance

(Lk 10:13-15)

Matthew continued his listing of negative reactions to Jesus and to the Kingdom.  He was more concerned about the opposition experienced by his own community in his day, than what Jesus had encountered fifty years or more previously.

No Gospel made any mention of Jesus’ ministry in Chorazin.  Likewise, Bethsaida missed out on being mentioned in Matthew’s Gospel (though it was referred to twice in Mark).  Possibly the names were held in the community’s oral memory.

A number of prophets had spoken of Tyre and Sidon and had forecast dire destruction for them (which was yet to happen!) because they had consistently opposed and oppressed Israel.  Sodom was usually mentioned along with Gomorrah, as cities that had sinned scandalously against hospitality, and had been wiped out by earthquake.  Jesus’ statements were rhetorical rather than theological!  He sought to encourage his hearers’ conversion by shocking them.  While Matthew, no doubt, had in the back of his mind those synagogues of Antioch that had turned their backs on the Christian message, his main preoccupation was to discourage any cooling of the faith and perseverance of the members of his own community.

Next >> Matthew 11:25-30