Daily Reading for September 21 • St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
The shape and the content of Matthew’s gospel suggest that the author himself is a scribe like the one that Jesus names. The scribes of the first century were all teachers. The “training” of the scribe that is mentioned is the Greek verb matheteuo—“to teach, to learn.” And this is the same word from which we get Matthew’s name. As the teacher of Judaism and the teacher for Judaism, Matthew’s gospel tells a story that is both new and old. Matthew’s story of Jesus’ fulfillment of God’s promises is written “like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” In this heart of the first gospel, Matthew opens his own heart to his reader. It is a radiant heart and gleams like a fine gem in clear light.
When the dust of the first siege of Jerusalem had settled in A.D. 70, the religious world had to reorganize, reconstruct, and rebuild itself. This was true for the Jews who believed Jesus to be the Messiah. This was also true for the Jews who believed that the Messiah was yet to come. We think that both of these groups of our faithful forebears gathered in southern Syria and northern Judea in order to sort themselves out. We know that around A.D. 90, the remnants of Pharisaic Judaism gathered in Jamnia to decide upon the content and order of their Holy Scriptures and to discuss the future of worship in the synagogues. We think Matthew is their Christian-Jewish colleague and competition, teaching those who are to carry the “good news” of the one who fulfills the Law and the prophets.
Matthew insists that those who confess Jesus as Messiah must honor the tradition and “keep the faith.” His gospel was first in the hearts of our forebears who fashioned the Christian church; his gospel is first in our Holy Scriptures for precisely this truth. When we reach out across ninety-nine generations to hold the hand that Matthew offers, we, too, receive his mandate to honor the tradition and “keep the faith.” It is the right mandate as well as a radiant heart. For if we are to be the ekklesia, those whom God calls out, we must be trained like the scribe who was trained for the kingdom of heaven—the one who is “like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” The hand offered by the “one to teach” is a wise hand to hold, indeed.
From One to Watch, One to Pray: Introducing the Gospels by Minka Shura Sprague. A Seabury Classic, an imprint of Church Publishing. Copyright © 2004. Used by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY. www.churchpublishing.org