Matthew
Author : Matthew , also called Levi Audience : Greek- speaking Jewish Christians Date : Between AD 50 and 70
Theme : Matthew presents Jesus as the Jewish Messiah sent by God to bring salvation to Israel and the nations in fulfillment of OT Scriptures .
PERSPECTIVE
It is probably safe to say that the most- often read part of the Gospel of Matthew in our day is the Sermon on the Mount ( chs . 5 – 7 ). It is easy to imagine why . We live in a moralistic , legalistic , individualistic age . The Sermon on the Mount can be read as a guidebook for ethical living , to be followed regardless of what you think of God , the Jewish community , or the Christian church . Unfortunately , this is the wrong way to read the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of Matthew as a whole .
Why ? Because reading it this way assumes that the way we choose to behave determines who we are and determines our identity . And that ’ s not true at all . What the Gospel of Matthew teaches us in general and what the Sermon on the Mount teaches us in particular is that who we are ( or more precisely , whose we are , i . e ., whom we choose to follow or identify with ) determines how we behave . If we choose to follow Jesus as Messiah , Matthew tells us , then the Sermon on the Mount is a description of how we will behave .
Three important things happen , all of them bad , when we read the Sermon on the Mount incorrectly .
First , we overestimate our goodness . It is tempting to think of our characters as something we carefully craft , using a brick of honesty here , a two- by- four of generosity there , built on a cement foundation of discipline and energy . In such a scenario we choose the goal and we choose the building methods and materials we need to achieve the goal . And it is up to us to make the grade . Matthew says we are not that good ( e . g ., Mt 5:27 – 28 ; 12:34 , 36 ; 15:11 , 19 ).
Second , we underestimate our capacity for evil . The reason we cannot let our innate , God- created goodness dominate our personalities
UNCORRECTED PROOF
Reading Matthew
This Gospel begins with a genealogy of Jesus and the story of his birth . Starting with chapter 3 , it can be divided into five main sections , each telling first what Jesus did and then what Jesus said ; each section closes the same way ( see 7:28 ; 11:1 ; 13:53 : 19:1 ; 26:1 ). The last three chapters tell the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus .
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