Marginal Christianity

Matthew continues to mentor his readers and that on two levels. First, he mentors us on how to read the Old Testament. And second, he expounds the deepest significance of Jesus through this way of reading the Old Testament. If Mt. 2 closes with the Messianic “Nazorean,” Mt.3 opens with Messiah’s prophesied forerunner John the Baptist appearing in the desert to announce the near advent of the “Kingdom of Heaven” (v.1). As we might well suspect at this point, Old Testament images and types abound. We’ll take a look at a number of them here. “The Kingdom of Heaven” This is Matthew’s characteristic way of designating what the messianic ministry of Jesus is all about. No other gospel uses this phrase. Where they have “kingdom of God” Matthew seems to have substituted “heaven” for “God.” The common explanation that this is out of respect for Jewish scruples for speaking the name of God appears not to be correct. Matthew does not otherwise avoid the word “God” (51 times) and even...

Perverse Patriotism is the unique and exclusive loyalty (what we call “faith”) to apocalyptic Jesus that serves him in a Subversive Counter-Revolutionary Movement    ( a.k.a. in polite society as “church”) A Perverse Patriot Old Testament Text Jeremiah 29:4-7 4 “ Thus says the  Lord  of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  5  Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  6  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  7  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the  Lord  on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” In this important text God articulates the dialectical resident aliens/alien residents viewpoint we met...

Mt.2:1 sets the time, the place, and the players for the second part of Matthew’s birth story. -time: “after Jesus was born” -place: “Bethlehem of Judea” -players: King Herod, the child Jesus, the magi Contrary to every Christmas pageant you may have seen, the magi (“wise men”) do not show up at Jesus birth but some time after (often two years later is postulated but that is not important to Matthew’s story). Herod was king of Judea at the time (till 4 b.c.; so we know Jesus was born before then and not in 1 a.d.) and has a nasty reputation which, though perhaps one-sided, it seems he earned. “ While Herod was cruel and vindictive, perhaps even paranoid, in his dealings with his family, he played a crucial role in improving the lot of Jews during his long reign (40-4 b.c.e.).” [1] The magi are probably astrologers since they are portrayed as followers of a star to the Christ-child. Among the intelligentsia of the pagan world, they seek out the child to ...

Typology Just to remind us again we are reading Matthew typologically. We explored a bit about what that way of reading the Bible looks like in the last post. Here I want to call attention to a refinement offered by Patrick Schreiner in his recent book Matthew: Disciple and Scribe. [1]   He invites us to reflect on three questions as we consider what Matthew tells us: -How does this echo Israel’s story? -How does Jesus fulfill Israel’s story? -How does it move the story of Israel forward? We’ll follow his advice, then, as best we as we move ahead. Matthew 1:18-25: Joseph in Jesus’ Birth Story [2] Most Bible readers know that Matthew’s birth story is Joseph’s experience of Jesus’ birth. Luke gives Mary’s experience in his gospel. Hers gets more attention because it is a bit more dramatic and she is, after all, Jesus’ birth mother. Joseph, meanwhile is but his step-father. The high-point in Mary’s story is her stirring declaration in response to Gabriel’s a...