Matthew 1
Genealogy and Joseph's dream
Matthew opens not with a dramatic scene but with a list — forty-two generations from Abraham to Jesus, arranged in three groups of fourteen: from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian exile, from the exile to Christ. The list is not incidental. It is a theological argument: Jesus is the son of David (Davidic king) and the son of Abraham (heir to the promise given to the patriarch). Four women appear in the genealogy — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba — all of them Gentiles or figures of irregular unions, and the inclusion signals that the line God works through is not the line of smooth succession but of surprising choice. The genealogy ends with the birth account: Mary is found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit, Joseph resolves to divorce her quietly, and an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream with the command to take Mary as his wife and name the child Jesus — for he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus (Yeshua, 'God saves') is given its interpretation; and the birth is placed within the quotation from Isaiah 7:14, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. Joseph wakes, obeys, and the child is born.
Matthew 2
Magi, Herod, and the flight to Egypt
Chapter 2 is a sequence of five scenes, each organized around a fulfillment quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures and each moving the child from danger to safety. The Magi follow a star to Jerusalem, where their question — where is he who has been born king of the Jews? — alarms Herod and all Jerusalem with him. Herod consults his chief priests and scribes; they answer from Micah 5:2 that the ruler will come from Bethlehem. Herod sends the Magi ahead, asking them to report back. They find the child, offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and are warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Joseph receives a dream commanding flight to Egypt; Herod, finding himself deceived, orders the slaughter of all male children in Bethlehem under two years. The massacre evokes Rachel weeping for her children, from Jeremiah. After Herod's death, Joseph receives the command to return; he settles in Nazareth of Galilee rather than Judea, fulfilling the prophecy that the child would be called a Nazorean. The chapter is a sustained typological argument: Jesus relives the story of Israel, going down to Egypt and coming back out.
Matthew 3
John baptizes; Jesus enters the Jordan
John the Baptist appears in the Judean wilderness preaching repentance and baptizing at the Jordan. Matthew describes him in terms drawn from 2 Kings — camel hair, leather belt — and places him in the Isaiah tradition: the voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism and receive a sharp rebuke: who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit that shows repentance. The one coming after me is mightier than I; he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus then arrives from Galilee to be baptized. John protests: I need to be baptized by you. Jesus' answer — let it be so now, to fulfill all righteousness — is the gospel's first extended statement of his own understanding of his mission. He is baptized, the heavens open, the Spirit descends as a dove, and a voice from heaven speaks: this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. The baptism is the public inauguration of the ministry and the first of three moments in the gospel where a divine voice identifies Jesus.
Matthew 4
Temptation, calling the first disciples
Immediately after the baptism, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights of fasting, after which the tempter comes. Three temptations are given in sequence. The first: if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 8:3: man does not live by bread alone. The second: the devil takes him to Jerusalem, sets him on the pinnacle of the temple, and quotes Psalm 91 — if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; the angels will catch you. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 6:16: you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. The third: the devil shows him all the kingdoms of the world and offers them if Jesus will fall down and worship him. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 6:13: worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Each answer is from Deuteronomy, from the speech Moses gave to Israel in the wilderness — the forty days replaying the forty years. After the temptation, Jesus hears of John's arrest, withdraws to Galilee, and settles in Capernaum. He calls Simon and Andrew, then James and John, from their fishing boats, and begins preaching, teaching, and healing through Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
Matthew 5
Beatitudes and the antitheses
Chapter 5 opens the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes: nine macarisms — blessed are — that attach the condition of blessedness to the conditions worldly wisdom does not recognize as blessed: poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking, persecution. The disciples are called salt of the earth and light of the world; their light is to shine before others in good works that glorify the Father. Jesus then states the formal principle of his relation to the Torah: I have come not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. What follows is six antitheses, each opening with you have heard that it was said to those of old, followed by a Torah command, followed by but I say to you with an intensification. Murder becomes anger and contempt; adultery becomes lust in the heart; the permission to divorce becomes the prohibition with one exception; the prohibition of false oaths becomes the prohibition of all oaths; the principle of an eye for an eye becomes turn the other cheek; love of neighbor becomes love of enemy. Each antithesis takes the external legal standard and relocates it in the interior life and in the quality of relationship.
Matthew 6
Almsgiving, the Lord's Prayer, and anxiety
Chapter 6 takes up the three practices of Jewish piety — almsgiving, prayer, and fasting — and gives instructions that consistently redirect their motivation from public recognition to the Father who sees in secret. Almsgiving is not to be announced with trumpets; prayer is not to be performed on street corners; fasting is not to be displayed with a gloomy face. Each practice is resituated in the hidden relationship with the Father, who rewards what is done in secret. The Lord's Prayer is given in the midst of the prayer instruction, introduced by the phrase pray then like this. Its seven petitions — hallowing the name, the kingdom's coming, the will on earth as in heaven, the daily bread, the forgiveness of debts, the deliverance from temptation, the rescue from evil — cover the ground from the Father's honor to the community's daily need to the final danger. After the prayer, the chapter turns to the heart's orientation: where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Wealth cannot be served alongside God; the single eye is the healthy eye; you cannot serve God and money. The final movement is on anxiety: do not be anxious about your life — consider the birds of the air, consider the lilies of the field, which neither toil nor spin and yet are clothed more gloriously than Solomon. Seek first the kingdom and its righteousness, and the rest will be added.
Matthew 7
Judging, asking, and the two foundations
Chapter 7 closes the Sermon on the Mount with a series of counsels and images that together constitute the sermon's final movement toward decision. The opening prohibition — do not judge, lest you be judged — is followed by the image of the speck and the log: you cannot remove the speck from your brother's eye while a log is in your own. Then the positive movement: ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened. The argument from the lesser to the greater: if earthly fathers give bread when asked, not stones, how much more will the heavenly Father give good things to those who ask? The golden rule follows as the summary of the law and the prophets: whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. The narrow gate and the hard way: the way that leads to life is narrow, and those who find it are few. The warning against false prophets — wolves in sheep's clothing — and the principle that the tree is known by its fruit: not every one who says Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom, but the one who does the will of the Father. The sermon closes with the parable of the two builders: the one who hears these words and does them is like the man who builds on rock; the one who hears and does not do them is like the one who builds on sand — and when the rain, the floods, and the wind come, the house on sand falls, and great is its fall. The crowd's astonishment at the authority of his teaching ends the sermon.
Matthew 8
Healings: the leper, the centurion, many more
Chapters 8-9 form the narrative counterpart to the Sermon on the Mount: where chapters 5-7 demonstrate the authority of Jesus' teaching, chapters 8-9 demonstrate the authority of his deeds. Chapter 8 opens with a leper who approaches Jesus and says Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Jesus touches him — a transgression of purity law — and says I will; be clean. He then encounters a Roman centurion whose servant is paralyzed; the centurion's declaration that Jesus need only say the word, without coming under his roof, because a centurion understands the authority that gives orders that are obeyed, moves Jesus to declare that he has not found such faith in Israel — and that many from east and west will recline at table with Abraham in the kingdom, while the sons of the kingdom are thrown into the outer darkness. The centurion's servant is healed at that very moment. Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever and many others that evening, fulfilling Isaiah 53: he took our infirmities and bore our diseases. He warns a scribe and a would-be disciple about the cost of following. He and the disciples cross the sea; a storm comes up; Jesus sleeps; the disciples wake him in fear; he rebukes the wind and the sea, and there is a great calm. They arrive at Gadara and he casts two demons into a herd of pigs that rush into the sea and are drowned; the townspeople ask him to leave.
Matthew 9
Forgiveness, calling Levi, and more healings
Chapter 9 continues the miracle cycle with a scene that adds theological weight to the healings. When Jesus tells a paralytic that his sins are forgiven, the scribes think he is blaspheming; Jesus reads their thoughts and says which is easier, to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk? — then heals the man so that they may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. The crowds marvel and glorify God who had given such authority to men. Walking on, he calls Matthew from the tax booth; the table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners provokes the Pharisees; Jesus answers with the physician's logic — the sick, not the healthy, need a doctor — and I desire mercy, not sacrifice, from Hosea 6:6, the verse he will cite again at 12:7. The Pharisees then ask about fasting; Jesus answers with the wedding guests, the new cloth, and the new wine. He raises Jairus's daughter from death — the ruler's faith a counterpoint to the disciples' weak faith in the storm — and heals the woman with a hemorrhage who touched his garment, and two blind men who followed him calling son of David, and a mute man out of whom a demon is cast. The Pharisees attribute the healing to the prince of demons; Jesus looks at the crowds and has compassion, for they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd — and the chapter ends with the statement that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few: pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.
Matthew 10
The missionary discourse
Chapter 10 is the second of the five great discourses, the missionary discourse, delivered to the twelve apostles whose names are given in full for the only time in the gospel. The commission is to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel — not to the Gentiles, not to the Samaritans — and to proclaim the kingdom of heaven, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons. They are to take nothing for the journey: no gold, no bag, no second tunic. They are to find worthy households and let their peace rest on those houses. Then the discourse turns from practical instruction to warning: he is sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves; they will be handed over to councils and flogged in synagogues and dragged before governors and kings as a testimony to the Gentiles. They are not to worry in advance about what to say; the Spirit will speak. Brother will deliver brother to death; the one who endures to the end will be saved. The servant is not above the master; if they called the master Beelzebul, they will call the household even worse. But do not fear those who kill the body; fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. Even the sparrows are under the Father's care; the hairs of your head are numbered. The discourse closes with the logic of allegiance: whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 11
John's question and the unrepentant cities
John, in prison, hears about the works of the Christ and sends disciples to ask: are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Jesus answers not with a direct assertion but with a list of deeds that echo Isaiah 35 and 61: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. To the crowds he then speaks about John: not a reed shaken by the wind, not a man dressed in fine clothing — a prophet, and more than a prophet. He is the Elijah who is to come, the one of whom Malachi had written. The this generation then appears: they are like children who complain that John did not eat or drink and they called him demon-possessed, and the Son of Man ate and drank and they called him a glutton and drunkard. The generation cannot be satisfied either by the ascetic or by the one who eats with sinners. Wisdom is justified by her children. Then the woes against the Galilean cities that had seen his deeds and not repented: Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum — if the same works had been done in Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, they would have repented. The chapter closes with the great invitation: come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 12
Sabbath controversies and the unforgivable sin
Chapter 12 opens two Sabbath controversies. The first: the disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees object. Jesus answers with the precedent of David eating the bread of the Presence when hungry, and with the priests who profane the Sabbath in the temple and are guiltless, and with the verse from Hosea he had cited in chapter 9: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. He closes: the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath. The second controversy: a man with a withered hand is in the synagogue; the Pharisees watch to see if Jesus will heal on the Sabbath. Jesus asks which of them would not pull a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath; the man is healed. The Pharisees go out and conspire to destroy him. Jesus withdraws; he fulfills the servant song of Isaiah 42 — he will not quarrel or cry aloud in the streets, a bruised reed he will not break. When he casts out a demon that had made a man blind and mute, the Pharisees attribute it to Beelzebul. Jesus demonstrates the logical incoherence of the attribution and then issues the gravest warning in the gospel: every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven in this age or the age to come. The chapter closes with the sign of Jonah — the only sign to be given to an evil and adulterous generation — and the redefinition of family: whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother.
Matthew 13
Seven parables of the kingdom
Chapter 13 is the third of the five great discourses, the parables of the kingdom, and it is the longest single sequence of parables in any gospel. Seven parables are told in sequence, each opening with the kingdom of heaven is like. The sower goes out to sow; seed falls on the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and on good soil; only the last produces grain. The disciples ask why Jesus speaks in parables; he answers that to them it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom but to others it has not, and the hardening passage from Isaiah 6 is cited. The sower is interpreted: the seed is the word of the kingdom; the soils are types of hearer. The wheat and the weeds: an enemy has sown weeds among the wheat; let both grow until the harvest, when the reapers will sort them — the interpretation given privately identifies the weeds as the sons of the evil one, the harvest as the end of the age, the reapers as angels. The mustard seed grows into the largest of shrubs and the birds nest in its branches. Leaven hidden in flour leavens the whole. A man finds treasure hidden in a field and sells everything to buy the field. A merchant finds the pearl of great price and sells everything to buy it. A net cast into the sea gathers fish of every kind; at the end the good are separated from the bad. Jesus asks if the disciples have understood; they say yes; he closes with the householder who brings from his treasure things new and old.
Matthew 14
Herod kills John; feeding the five thousand; Peter walks on water
Chapter 14 opens with the death of John the Baptist, narrated in flashback. Herod Antipas had imprisoned John for reproaching him about his marriage to Herodias; at Herod's birthday banquet, Herodias's daughter dances, pleasing Herod, who offers her whatever she asks; at her mother's prompting, she asks for John's head on a platter. John's disciples take his body and bury it, then report to Jesus. Jesus withdraws to a desolate place; the crowds follow on foot; he has compassion on them and heals their sick. Evening comes; the disciples tell Jesus to send the crowds away to buy food; he answers: you give them something to eat. They have only five loaves and two fish. He takes them, blesses them, breaks them, and gives them to the disciples; five thousand men are fed and twelve baskets of fragments remain. The disciples then cross the sea while Jesus prays alone on the mountain. At the fourth watch of the night he walks to them on the water; they are terrified, thinking him a ghost; he identifies himself and tells them not to fear. Peter asks to come to him on the water; Jesus says come; Peter steps out, but the wind frightens him and he begins to sink; Jesus catches him and says why did you doubt? When they get into the boat, those in it worship him: truly you are the Son of God.
Matthew 15
Clean and unclean; the Canaanite woman; second feeding
The Pharisees and scribes ask why Jesus' disciples transgress the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before eating. Jesus answers by turning the challenge back: why do they transgress the commandment of God for the sake of their tradition? They honor God with lips but their hearts are far from him, fulfilling Isaiah 29. He then calls the crowd and gives the teaching: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles but what comes out — the things that come out of the heart, evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile; eating with unwashed hands does not defile. The scene shifts to the district of Tyre and Sidon, where a Canaanite woman comes out and cries to him: have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon. Jesus does not answer; the disciples ask him to send her away; he says he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. She comes and kneels before him: Lord, help me. He answers it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She answers yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. He declares her faith great and her daughter healed at that moment. He then heals lame, blind, crippled, and mute people on a mountain above Galilee, and feeds four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish, seven baskets of fragments remaining.
Matthew 16
Peter's confession and the keys of the kingdom
The Pharisees and Sadducees ask for a sign from heaven; Jesus refuses, offering only the sign of Jonah, and warns the disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They discuss loaves; Jesus reminds them of the feedings and clarifies he was warning about teaching, not bread. At Caesarea Philippi he asks: who do people say the Son of Man is? Various answers — John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah. Who do you say I am? Peter answers: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus declares Peter blessed: flesh and blood has not revealed this, but my Father in heaven. You are Peter (Petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. He then charges them to tell no one that he is the Christ, and for the first time predicts his passion: he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed and on the third day be raised. Peter protests; Jesus turns and rebukes him: get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block, for you mind the things of men not of God. He then calls the crowd: whoever would save his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Matthew 17
The transfiguration and the healing of the epileptic boy
Six days after Peter's confession, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain and is transfigured before them: his face shines like the sun and his garments become white as light. Moses and Elijah appear and talk with him. Peter offers to build three tents; while he speaks, a bright cloud overshadows them and a voice from the cloud says: this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him. The disciples fall on their faces; Jesus touches them and says rise, and do not be afraid; looking up, they see no one but Jesus only. On the way down, Jesus orders silence until the resurrection; they ask about Elijah; he answers that Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him — and the disciples understand he means John the Baptist. At the foot of the mountain, the crowd brings a boy with a demon who convulses; the disciples could not heal him. Jesus calls the generation faithless and perverse and heals the boy immediately. The disciples ask why they could not; he answers because of your little faith — if you had faith like a mustard seed, you could move mountains; this kind does not go out except by prayer. The second passion prediction follows; they are greatly distressed. Peter is told to pay the temple tax by taking a coin from the mouth of the first fish he catches.
Matthew 18
The community discourse: greatness, forgiveness, the lost sheep
Chapter 18 is the fourth of the five great discourses, the discourse on the church, addressed to the disciples' question about who is greatest in the kingdom. Jesus places a child among them and says unless you turn and become like children you will not enter the kingdom at all; whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest. Then warnings against causing the little ones to sin: it would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck and be drowned in the sea. The parable of the lost sheep: if a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to find the one? So it is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish. The procedure for dealing with sin in the community: go privately, then with witnesses, then to the church; the binding and loosing authority is given to the community as a whole. Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. Peter asks how many times he must forgive a brother who sins against him; up to seven times? Jesus answers seventy-seven times — and then the parable of the unforgiving servant: a king forgives a servant an enormous debt; the servant refuses to forgive a fellow servant a small debt; the king hands the unforgiving servant to the jailers. So also my heavenly Father will do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.
Matthew 19
Divorce, children, and the rich young man
Jesus leaves Galilee for Judea beyond the Jordan, where the Pharisees test him on divorce: is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? Jesus refers them to Genesis: God made them male and female, and the two become one flesh; what God has joined, let not man separate. They counter with Moses' permission; he answers that Moses allowed it because of hardness of heart but it was not so from the beginning. He allows one exception: sexual immorality. The disciples react by saying it would be better not to marry; he speaks of eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom — let the one who can receive this receive it. Children are brought to him; the disciples rebuke those who brought them; Jesus says let the children come and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. A young man runs up and asks what good deed he must do to have eternal life. Jesus asks why he asks about the good, tells him to keep the commandments, and lists them; the man says he has kept all these; what else does he lack? Jesus tells him to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow him. The man goes away sorrowful, for he has great possessions. Jesus tells the disciples it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom; the disciples are astonished; Jesus says with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Peter says they have left everything; Jesus promises a hundredfold and eternal life for those who have left everything for his sake.
Matthew 20
Workers in the vineyard; the third passion prediction; servanthood
Chapter 20 opens with the parable of the workers in the vineyard. A landowner hires workers at dawn for a denarius; more are hired throughout the day; at evening all receive the same denarius. Those hired first grumble; the owner answers: I am not being unfair — did you not agree for a denarius? Am I not allowed to be generous with my own money? So the last will be first and the first last. On the road to Jerusalem the third passion prediction is given, the most detailed of the three: the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, condemned, handed over to the Gentiles, mocked, flogged, crucified, and on the third day raised. Immediately, the mother of James and John asks that her sons sit at his right and left in his kingdom. Jesus asks if they can drink the cup he is about to drink; they say yes; he says they will drink it, but the places are not his to give. The other ten are indignant; Jesus calls them together and gives the great inversion: among the Gentiles the great lord it over the others; it shall not be so among you; whoever would be great must be your servant, and whoever would be first must be your slave — even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. As they leave Jericho, two blind men cry out son of David, have mercy on us; the crowd rebukes them; Jesus stops, touches their eyes, and they see.
Matthew 21
Jerusalem entry, temple cleansing, and the authority question
Chapter 21 begins the Jerusalem section of the gospel. Jesus instructs two disciples to fetch a donkey; he enters Jerusalem riding on it, the crowds spreading cloaks and branches and crying hosanna to the son of David. The entry fulfills Zechariah 9:9. He enters the temple and drives out those who bought and sold, overturns the money-changers' tables, and quotes Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7: my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. The blind and the lame come to him in the temple and he heals them; children cry hosanna; the chief priests and scribes are indignant; he silences them with Psalm 8. He goes to Bethany for the night; returning in the morning, he curses a fig tree that has leaves but no fruit; by morning it has withered. He tells the disciples that faith like this moves mountains. In the temple, the chief priests and elders challenge his authority. He offers a counter-question: the baptism of John — from heaven or from men? They cannot answer; neither will he tell them his authority. Two parables follow: the two sons (one says yes to working in the vineyard and does not go; one says no but goes — which did the will of the father?), and the wicked tenants who kill the son of the vineyard owner. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the kingdom will be taken from them and given to a people producing its fruits.
Matthew 22
The wedding banquet; tax, resurrection, the great commandment
Chapter 22 opens with the parable of the wedding banquet: a king gives a feast for his son; the invited refuse; the servants are killed; the king destroys their city; others from the roads are brought in — but one guest arrives without a wedding garment and is bound and cast into outer darkness; many are called but few are chosen. Then three attempts to trap Jesus. The Pharisees and Herodians ask about paying tax to Caesar: is it lawful? Jesus asks for a coin, asks whose image is on it, and answers: render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. They marvel and go away. The Sadducees pose the resurrection puzzle: seven brothers all marry the same woman; at the resurrection whose wife will she be? Jesus answers that they know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; in the resurrection there is no marriage; God is the God of the living, not the dead. A Pharisee asks which is the greatest commandment. He answers: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind — this is the great and first commandment. And a second like it: love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. He then poses a counter-question: the Christ is called David's son — but David in Psalm 110 calls him Lord. If David calls him Lord, how is he his son? No one could answer him a word, and from that day no one dared ask him any more questions.
Matthew 23
The seven woes against the Pharisees
Chapter 23 is the longest single denunciation in the gospel, and it is addressed to the crowds and the disciples, not only to the Pharisees. Jesus opens by acknowledging the scribes' and Pharisees' authority from Moses' seat and commanding obedience to their teaching but not their example: they do not practice what they preach; they bind heavy burdens on others' shoulders; they do everything for show — wide phylacteries, long fringes, the best seats. Call no man father or teacher or rabbi; the greatest among you will be your servant. Then seven woes in sequence, each opening with woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You shut the kingdom in people's faces. You travel land and sea to make a proselyte and make him twice the child of hell. You say swearing by the temple is nothing but by the gold of the temple is binding — blind guides, straining gnats and swallowing camels. You tithe mint and dill and cummin and neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You clean the outside of the cup and leave the inside full of greed and self-indulgence. You are like whitewashed tombs — beautiful on the outside, full of dead men's bones. You build the tombs of the prophets and say you would not have done as your fathers did, yet you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Serpents, brood of vipers — how will you escape the sentence of Gehenna? The chapter closes with the lament over Jerusalem: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those sent to you — how often I would have gathered your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. Your house is left desolate; you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Matthew 24
The Olivet discourse: signs of the end
Leaving the temple, the disciples point out its buildings; Jesus says not one stone will be left on another. On the Mount of Olives, they ask: when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? He warns first about deception — many will come in my name saying I am the Christ. Then wars, famines, earthquakes — these are the beginning of the birth pangs. Persecution will come; the one who endures to the end will be saved. The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come. The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel — let the reader understand — will stand in the holy place; those in Judea are to flee to the mountains; there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world; for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short; false Christs and false prophets will rise and perform great signs and wonders to lead, if possible, even the elect astray. After the tribulation the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall, and the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his elect from the four winds. The generation will not pass away until all these things happen. But about that day and hour no one knows — not the angels, not the Son, only the Father. As in the days of Noah — be watchful, keep awake; you do not know when your Lord is coming. The faithful and wise servant gives food at the right time; the evil servant says my master is delayed and beats his fellow servants — the master will come on a day he does not expect.
Matthew 25
Ten virgins, talents, sheep and goats
Chapter 25 continues and closes the Olivet discourse with three parables of the end. The ten virgins: five are wise and bring extra oil; five are foolish; the bridegroom is delayed; at midnight the cry comes; the foolish go to buy oil; while they are gone, the bridegroom comes, the door is shut, and to those who knock he says I do not know you. Watch, for you do not know the day or the hour. The talents: a man going on a journey gives his servants five, two, and one talent respectively according to their ability; the servants with five and two double them; the servant with one buries it; on the master's return, the first two are welcomed into joy; the third — who knew the master was harsh and hid the talent out of fear — has even what he has taken away and is cast into outer darkness. Then the great judgment scene: the Son of Man on the throne of his glory, with all the nations gathered before him, separating sheep from goats as a shepherd does. The sheep on his right inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, because when I was hungry, you fed me; thirsty, you gave me drink; a stranger, you welcomed me; naked, you clothed me; sick, you visited me; in prison, you came to me. Lord, when did we see you? Whenever you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. The goats on his left go to eternal fire because they did not do these things. When you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me.
Matthew 26
The Last Supper and Gethsemane
Chapter 26 opens the Passion narrative. The chief priests and elders conspire to arrest Jesus quietly; Judas offers to betray him for thirty pieces of silver. At Bethany a woman anoints Jesus with expensive ointment; disciples object at the waste; Jesus says she has anointed him for burial — wherever the gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in memory of her. On the first day of Unleavened Bread, the disciples prepare the Passover; Jesus says one of those reclining at table will betray him; Judas asks if it is he; Jesus says you have said so. He takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples: take, eat; this is my body. He takes the cup, gives thanks, gives it to them: drink of it, all of you; this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins; I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the day I drink it new in the kingdom. They sing a hymn and go to the Mount of Olives; Jesus predicts the scattering of the sheep; Peter protests; Jesus predicts the threefold denial before the cock crows. In Gethsemane he takes Peter, James, and John and prays: my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will but as you will. He returns three times; three times the disciples sleep. Judas arrives with a crowd armed with swords and clubs; he kisses Jesus; Jesus says friend, do what you came to do. He is seized; a disciple cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant; Jesus says those who take the sword die by the sword; then all the disciples flee. He is brought to the high priest; Peter follows at a distance; Jesus before the council says you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds. He is declared to deserve death. Peter, in the courtyard, denies three times; the cock crows; Peter goes out and weeps bitterly.
Matthew 27
The trial, crucifixion, and burial
Chapter 27 narrates the Passion from the morning trial before Pilate to the burial. Judas, seeing Jesus condemned, returns the thirty pieces of silver and hangs himself; the priests buy the potter's field, fulfilling Jeremiah. Before Pilate, Jesus is silent; Pilate's wife sends word that she has suffered much in a dream because of this righteous man; Pilate offers to release one prisoner — the crowd chooses Barabbas; Pilate washes his hands; the crowd says his blood be on us and on our children; Pilate releases Barabbas and has Jesus flogged and handed over to be crucified. The soldiers mock him: a crown of thorns, a scarlet robe, Hail, King of the Jews. He is led to Golgotha — the Place of the Skull. A charge is placed over his head: this is Jesus, King of the Jews. Two robbers are crucified with him, one on each side. The passers-by mock: you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. The chief priests, scribes, and elders mock: he saved others; he cannot save himself. From the sixth hour, darkness covers the land until the ninth hour. Jesus cries out: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani — my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? — from Psalm 22. He gives a loud cry and yields up his spirit. The curtain of the temple is torn in two; the earth shakes; the tombs open and bodies of holy people are raised. The centurion and those with him say truly this was the Son of God. Women watch from afar — Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Joseph of Arimathea asks for the body; it is wrapped in a linen shroud and laid in the tomb; the tomb is sealed; a guard is set.
Matthew 28
The resurrection and the Great Commission
Chapter 28 opens at dawn on the first day of the week with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary coming to the tomb. An earthquake occurs; an angel of the Lord descends, rolls back the stone, and sits on it; his appearance is like lightning; the guards tremble and become like dead men. The angel tells the women: do not be afraid; I know you seek Jesus who was crucified; he is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Go quickly and tell his disciples he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him. They leave with fear and great joy. Jesus meets them on the way; they grasp his feet and worship him; he repeats the command to go to Galilee. The guards report to the chief priests; the priests pay them to say the disciples stole the body; this story is still told among the Jews to this day. The eleven disciples go to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had designated; when they see him they worship him — but some doubt. Jesus approaches and says: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.