Matthew

Matthew marks the prophets’ words coming to pass with one formula: “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet” (1:22). It returns at Nazareth (2:23), over the healings (8:17), at the entry into Jerusalem (21:4) and over the thirty pieces of silver (27:9). Fulfilment is more than a prediction matched. Hosea’s words, “called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1), were spoken of Israel; Matthew hears them of Jesus (2:15), the Son in whom Israel’s history is taken up. So he is tempted in the wilderness after forty days, as Israel was proved there forty years, and answers from Deuteronomy: “Man shall not live by bread alone” (4:4; Deuteronomy 8:2–3). And he says of his own coming: “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (5:17).

John and Jesus open their preaching with the same words: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17; 3:2), and the Twelve are sent to preach that it “is at hand” (10:7). Only Matthew among the Gospels says “kingdom of heaven,” most often where the others say “kingdom of God,” though he has that phrase too (6:33). The kingdom has a King. The wise men ask for him “that is born King of the Jews” (2:2), and the title is written over his cross (27:37). The parables of chapter 13 show it present but hidden, sown among tares until the harvest (13:30). Its fullness waits for the day when “the King” says to those on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom” (25:34).

At the Jordan Jesus is baptized because “thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (3:15). In the Sermon on the Mount he sets the measure for those who follow him: “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (5:20). He does not loosen the law but carries it to the heart. “Thou shalt not kill” reaches to anger, and the seventh commandment to the look of lust, each opened with “But I say unto you” (5:21–28). This righteousness is promised to those who hunger and thirst for it, “for they shall be filled” (5:6), and is to be sought first (6:33). Its counterfeit is named in the woes: “ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (23:28).

Church appears in no other Gospel (16:18; 18:17). When Peter confesses, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16), Jesus answers, “thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” (16:18). The rock has been read more than one way. Tertullian speaks of Peter, who is called ‘the rock on which the church should be built,’. Chrysostom glosses it, that is, on the faith of his confession. Augustine first read it of Peter, then of Christ, upon Him whom Peter had confessed, and wrote, Let the reader choose whether of these two opinions seems to him the more probable. In chapter 18 the church is promised Christ’s presence: “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (18:20).