19. Matthew 11-12: Drama and Conflict Intensify (1)
John the Baptist
(11:1-6)
John the Baptist’s disciples keep
him abreast of all that is happening with his protégé Jesus of Nazareth as he
languishes in prison. And he grows understandably more and more confused. He
was convinced God was ready to lower the boom on an altogether deserving people
who consistently and idolatrously refused to be who he called and gifted them
to be. He believed Jesus was the divine agent of that judgment. He hoped to
inaugurate a New Exodus on the other side of which a newly repentant and
obedient people might emerge. But his emphasis was on judgment. He was a
thoroughly Old Testament prophet in that regard.
But Jesus was spending his time
healing and exorcizing and preaching, announcing a new fulfillment of God’s
plan and purpose through him. He knew judgment was coming, too be sure (as we
have seen). But his vision focused on gathering a new Abrahamic Israel from
amidst the old and equipping them to survive this judgment.
So John sends his disciples to ask
Jesus if he has misread him. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait
for another?” (v.2). Here we meet another significant typological
correspondence. This is a replay of the Elijah-Elisha story in 1-2 Kings. Jesus
tells us as much when he identifies John later in this chapter as “Elijah who
is to come” (v.14). Jesus plays Elisha here to John’s Elijah. Elijah thunders
judgment against idolatrous Israel and God concurs and is ready to judge his
faithless people (1 Ki.19:15-18). Just like John. And horrendous judgment will
come through King Jehu of Israel. Just like through Rome for 1st
century Israel. But Elisha seems not to do much judging in that sense.
“But before Jehu ever appears on the
scene, we have the ministry of Elisha, and Elisha doesn’t seem to do anything
that punishes Israel. Elisha leaves a few dead bodies around—the 42 young men
who mock him and are killed by bears. Mostly, though, Elisha is doing good. He
heals a Syrian leper, feeds some prophets who are without food, and restores
property to widows. He raises the dead and gives advice to the kings of Israel
and Judah. Elijah wasn’t around to see all this, but we can imagine His
reaction: ‘Where is the sword of Elisha? He’s barely killing anyone. Are you
the Coming One, or do we look for another?’”[1]
Just what John
wants to know too.
And Jesus answers him forthrightly,
in the spirit of Elisha. His ministry or healing and mercy and good news to the
poor (vv.4-5) is the form of that judgment John had announced. It comes in the
form of a final chance, an invitation to even at this latest of hours embrace
his way of being Israel and not continue on the others paths which will end
with the Roman legions besieging and destroying the city and the temple. Jesus knows
that not all, not even many, will warm to his message and that will be their
judgment. But his “good news” is that those who do take his way will become a
new Israel, an Israel truly returned from exile, restored beyond punishment to
be the people God wanted them to be. Jesus quotes Isaiah here from Isaiah
(26:19; 29:18; 35:5-6; 42:7; 61:1), texts that speak to the promise and reality
of just this people.
So judgment, yes. That cannot and
will not be avoided with terrible consequences. But this judgment is evoked by
mercy, the last gracious overture God can make to this stubborn and rebellious
people. The ax John declared laid at the root of the tree is all that Jesus
Messiah has done to this point to save his people from that coming judgment.
Elisha-like Jesus testifies that God’s judgment is ultimately restorative in
purpose though retribution may pave the way to that restoration (Isa.40:1ff.).
The deep pathos of this moment is that this is ethnic Israel’s last chance, not
to be “saved” (as we use that term), but to be the instrument through whom God
blesses the rest of the world. A new “restored” Israel will be birthed but it
will not be identical to ethnic Israel and those who allied themselves with it.
Those consumed with fiery, bloody
judgment can seldom be satisfied with less. Jesus offers a warning to such
folk, like John and his disciples, not to take offense at the way God chooses
to administer his judgment but rather to rejoice and climb on board Jesus’
mercy and justice train and let the judgment work itself out (v.6).
Jesus
on John the Baptist (11:7-19)
John’s question of Jesus raises the
question of his status viz-a-viz the latter. Jesus poses the issue to the
crowds following him. Who did you come out to the desert to see? (v.7)
-a vacillating
“reed” who bends whatever direction the wind blows? (v.7)
-a supporter
promoting the comforts and benefits of the status quo? (v.8)
-a prophet?
(v.9)
A prophet? Yes, to be sure, Jesus
replies. But in truth far more than that. He is the Elijah, the promised
forerunner of God’s coming to his people in the great day of mercy and judgment
(Mal.4:5)! No one more important than John/Elijah has yet arisen to lead the
people (v.11).
Even so, John/Elijah belongs to the
old order, the one whose end he announces and embodies. One he prophesies will
end in disastrous judgment even if does not fully understand the nature of that
judgment. But what does that curious saying “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of
heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (v.12) mean?
The time
frame “from John the Baptist until now” gives us a clue. With John/Elijah a new
era dawned. One that fulfilled and brought its predecessor to a close. And this
new era was to be full of drama and danger and change.
“Jews expected that prior to the triumph of
the Messiah there would be a time of tribulation and apostasy. The prophets
spoke of a time when the law would become ineffective and true prophecy would
cease (Lamentations 2:9; Ezekiel 7:25-27; Zephaniah 3:3; Zechariah 7:19).
John’s ministry marks the beginning of this climactic battle, this cosmic
warfare between the kingdom of God and the forces of evil. John’s ministry
initiates the Messianic tribulation, a time of lawlessness and false prophecy
when the prophets and law are silenced. This is the time that Israel is in, the
time of the kingdom. The climax of Israel’s history has arrived, and yet many
of the Jews are tone-deaf to the tune of the times (vv. 16-17).”[2]
When God intervenes to reassert his
rightful rule and reorder international relations (as it were) the furniture is
going to get tossed around a bit. And things are going to get dicey. And we
have seen that this is clearly the case. John/Elijah is the sign of all this
impending upset and upheaval.
Jesus twice emphasizes the necessity
of faith to grasp the pathos of this moment in history.
-“Let anyone with ears listen!” (v.15)
-“Yet wisdom is
vindicated by her deeds.” (v.19)
The former is a characteristic saying
of Jesus. The latter is a proverb suggesting that wisdom will be known by its
fruits. Even John, great a figure as he is, doesn’t quite get Jesus. Those who
embrace his way of being Israel will get him (at least eventually) and thus
stand in a different and greater era than the Baptist does.
John poses the same challenge Jesus
does for his hearers, albeit from a different vantage point. The time is here,
Messiah has come, the New Exodus begins – how will the people respond?
Not well, apparently. They seem to
want to have their cake and eat it to (v.17). John comes, Jesus says, an
ascetic, and was accused of demonic possession (v.18). The Son of Man comes promoting
table fellowship with any and all, especially the dis-reputables, and is
accused to being a glutton and lush (v.19). But those follow Jesus will prove
them wrong.
Cities
Condemned (11:20-24)
Acts of power performed by Jesus in the
cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida have failed to elicit positive response
(repentance). He tells them that if the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon,
paradigms of idol worship and prideful arrogance,[3]
had experienced these acts they have immediately repented. Judgment day will be
better for them than for these Jewish cities that have rejected Jesus.
And even Jesus’ hometown, Capernaum,
has turned its back on him. And Jesus pronounces that even the archetypal evil city
Sodom would have changed its way had it experienced his acts of power and sill
existed (v.23). It too will have it better on judgment day than Capernaum
(v.24)!
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum all
failed to properly discern the times and know who and what they were dealing
with in Jesus. Wisdom is all about making such proper discernments. Those who
make them will demonstrate it in their response to Jesus and his New Exodus
movement. Wisdom will indeed be vindicated by her children!
Jesus Reveals
His Father (11:25-29)
This well-known passage has often been
thought to have the flavor of something from the gospel of John, so distinct
that it is theorized that Matthew drew this passage from John. But it may have
been the other way around. Mark Goodacre makes a persuasive case for this view.
He shows that the language and theology of this passage is typically and thoroughly
at home in Matthew. He argues that this text, while not quoted by John, is the
inspiration for similar sounding material in his gospel.[4] Thus
we are in touch here with bedrock Matthean theology.
This prayer of praise by Jesus follows
on directly on the responses of the three cities just mentioned. They are the “wise
and the intelligent” (v.25) to whom God does not “choose” to grant insight into
who Jesus is and what his appearance means. “Infants” are, of course, those who
ironically are wisdom’s children who show by their response to Jesus that the
Father has revealed the Son to them (v.27).
We should not abstract this passage
from its context and make it a predestinarian text. Jesus’ final comment, “All things have been handed over to me by
my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the
Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (v.27)
makes this clear. The Father has “handed over” the task of making him known to
the Son. This was God’s “gracious will” (v.26). Thus we should not project his
back into the unknown so-called “eternal decrees” of God. This revealing has
its origin in grace, and as we have seen Jesus is quite willing to extend that
graciousness to any willing to receive it (Mt.8:2-3).
“Wasn’t that a
bit daunting for his followers? Isn’t it rather forbidding to discover that the
true God can be known only through Jesus? No. It might have felt like that if
it had been somebody else; but with Jesus everything was different. It gave him
the platform from which to issue what is still the most welcoming and encouraging
invitation ever offered. ‘Come to me,’ he said, ‘and I’ll give you rest.’”[5]
That rest
depends upon his hearers taking on Jesus’ “yoke” (v.29). “Yoke” was a common
metaphor for the law in Judaism.[6]
They understand the law as something borne, incumbent on every Jew to bear.
Jesus and his disciples included. But Jesus does something no teacher in Israel
would have done. He claims a yoke of his own his disciples and any who follow
him must bear. Jesus claims to be the giver of the law. Not its mediator like
Moses. But its giver. Like God! And its embodiment (Jer.6:16).[7]
His message, his torah (e.g. Mt.5-7), his interpretation of the law, then, is
the law. And because the law is an expression of God’s grace, the yoke of Jesus’
law is easy and light. It falls to the Apostle Paul to expand and expound on
this further in his letters.
Theologically
this text undergirds the claims made in this section about Jesus. He and the
Father have an exclusive relationship of mutual knowledge. Thus the only way to
true knowledge of God is through him and vice versa. That makes one’s response
to him every bit as crucial, important, and ultimate as Matthew says it is.
[1] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 3404-3408.
[2] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 3454-3457.
[3] Wilkins, Matthew: 2875.
[4] Mark Goodacre, “Johannine Thunderbolt or Synoptic
Seed: Matt.11:27//Luke 10:22 in Christological Context,” SBL Annual Meeting: November 2016, San Antonio at https://www.academia.edu/30186172/Johannine_Thunderbolt_or_Synoptic_Seed_Matt._11_27_Luke_10_22_in_Christological_Context,
11.
[5] Wright, Matthew for Everyone: 2596.
[6] Wilkins, Matthew: 2928.
[7] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 3576.
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