Did Jesus fail to meet expectations in Matt 11?
The lectionary gospel reading for Advent three in Yr A is Matt 11.ii–xi, and every bit usual is rather truncated, so you might want to extend the reading past a poetry or two before and after to be fair to its setting.
The chapter begins with the second of Matthew's five summary statements that conclude the five focussed sections of Jesus' education:
When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities (Matt 11.1)
The summary phrase varies slightly each time, but consistently includes 'When he had finished…' (compare Matt 7.28, 13.53, 19.1, 26.1). That he is going on to 'teach and preach' hints that the following department volition not exist neatly focussed on Jesus' actions, in contrast to the blocks of teaching, just will in fact mix Jesus' deportment and his teachings, earlier nosotros come up to the next focussed cake of education on the nature of the kingdom in chapter 13. The last part of Jesus' teaching in chapter x emphasises Matthew's version of Paul'southward 'trunk of Christ' theology: those going in Jesus' name stand for his presence, and then that how people respond to Jesus' disciples is indicative of how they respond to Jesus.
"Whoever receives y'all receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet'south reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these niggling ones even a cup of cold water considering he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no ways lose his reward." (Matt 10.twoscore–42)
This idea is an essential hermeneutical cardinal to the much misinterpreted 'parable of the sheep and the goats' in Matt 25.31–46; the 'little ones' here correspond to the 'least of these my brethren' in the parable, existence the disciples of Jesus who are in need of help.
In fact, this section is all nigh how people reply to Jesus and to his kingdom ministry. From Matt 11.20, Jesus denounces the towns and villages ('cities' translating πόλεις doesn't communicate their reality as quite small-scale settlements) who have not received him. Past contrast, from Matt eleven.25, Jesus celebrates God'south grace in revealing himself to the 'little children' who have received him. In between these two responses sits John the Baptist, who is not afflicted by scepticism so much as niggling doubts about who Jesus is and what he does. This range of responses (also found in chapter 12) is connected in the narrative in chapter 13, where Jesus' didactics most the kingdom begins with the parable of the soils, each soil demonstrating a dissimilar response to the sowing of the seed of the word. Parabolic variety of response reflects the previous narrative variety of response.
This part of chapter 11 consists of 4 dissimilar sections, all connected by the theme of John the Baptist, merely which practice not sit together very well in terms of their narrative coherence:
- John's question about Jesus (2–6);
- Jesus' question most reactions to John (7–11);
- The epochal turning point of John's ministry (12–16);
- The dissimilarity between Jesus and John (17–19).
Parts of this department run parallel to Luke seven.19–35, and it is worth comparing the two. In the start section, Matthew is much more abbreviated than Luke, who adds in the explanatory annotate that Jesus had cured and delivered many people, and restored sight to the blind (Luke seven.21). Every bit elsewhere, the different gospel writers feel free to shape their narratives, but tend to converge together again when it comes to recording Jesus' words; save for the slight adjustment of tense to take into account his explanatory comment, and Matthew's grouping of the half-dozen things into three pairs using 'and', Luke records the same words of Jesus as Matthew does.
(In that location might be implications here in terms of synoptic relations—though it is hard to say in which management the prove points. On the 1 manus, Matthew might exist construed as doing with Luke what he does with Mark, in cutting out extraneous detail and abbreviating his account—suggesting that Matthew was dependant on Luke. On the other hand, Luke might exist construed as tidying up Matthew's business relationship, adding necessary detail, and making the whole thing menstruum ameliorate, thus suggesting Luke was dependant on Matthew, in agreement with Mark Goodacre'due south argument almost editorial fatigue.)
Although Matthew has identified the ministry building of John more closely with the ministry of Jesus than the other gospels, he has already suggested that there is some tension between John's disciples and the disciples of Jesus in relation to the question of fasting: where Mark and Luke annotation 'people' raising the question of why Jesus' disciples don't fast, in Matt 9.14 it is John's disciples who enquire the question.
John has been imprisoned by Herod Antipas in Perea, and it would non be an unnatural place to harbour doubts about his ain ministry building and the ministry building of Jesus. In the ancient world, prison house was not a place of punishment so much as a place of holding whilst the prisoner awaits judgement and punishment, so John is awaiting his terminal fate.
In using language of 'the i who is to come' (Gk ὁ ἐρχόμενος, the coming-one), John is using the language of eschatological expectation, and contributes to the synoptic idea that Jesus was one who was sent into the world past God, an idea more fully developed in John's gospel. We are not told of the grounds for John'due south questioning and doubtfulness near the significance of Jesus' ministry. One possibility might be that Jesus' ministry did not accept the political dimension that many might have hoped for—just in that location is no show at all to support this thesis. Another, more probable, possibility is that Jesus' ministry building did not appear to have the element of judgement that John had anticipated, and that he associated likewise much with the sinful whilst playing fast and loose with issues of purity. If Jesus could deliver people from the Evil One in his exorcisms, why could be not evangelize the nation from evil men?
The identification of Jesus every bit the 'stronger one' which John had made in chapter 3 is apparently now less clear to him. His question is non hostile so much as uncertain, looking for confirmation of his previous insight. (R T France, NICNT, p 422)
This doubt is not fatal for John, equally he still refers to the 'deeds of Messiah' in his question; in Matthew,Christos is a messianic title rather than functioning every bit a proper name, introduced with accent in Matt one.ane, 16, 17, 18 and forming the heart of Peter's confession in Matt 16.16.
Jesus' answer should be understood to refer to his educational activity as well every bit his actions, since he refers to 'what you hear and run across', and he alludes to two texts in Isaiah:
Then volition the optics of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
And then volition the lame bound like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. (Is 35.5–6)The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, considering the LORD has anointed me to proclaim adept news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. (Is 61.one)
These allusions work better within the narrative of Luke, since Jesus has already read from the scroll of Isaiah in Luke four, only Matthew also draws on other passages in Isaiah to emphasise that Jesus' coming is the fulfilment of the hoped-for coming of God to his people. Every bit with John'south predictions in chapter 3, these passages look toboth the coming of God himself, in person to his people and without intermediary (Is 35.four),and the anticipation of God's anointed i making his presence felt.
Jesus' concluding aphorism might naturally exist translated 'Blessed is the one who is not offended past me'. But the verb here,skandalizomai, has in Matthew a more specific sense of stumbling and declining to receive the kingdom or persist in its life—or even to pass up outright the ministry of Jesus. Your sinful heart can crusade y'all to thus 'stumble' (Matt five.29); the plants with shallow roots 'stumble' and wither in the sun'due south heat (Matt 13.21); and those in Jesus' domicile boondocks 'stumbled' and rejected him (Matt 13.57). Half of al the occurrences of this word in the gospels come in Matthew.
This does not tell u.s.a. that John is falling outside the boundaries of the kingdom as such—but it does warn us that our frustration that Jesus is non doing what we await him to do tin exist the source of serious spiritual bug.
In the next department, Jesus turns the tables: after John has asked Jesus a question about his ministry, Jesus now asks the crowds a question (or serial of questions) about John'south ministry building and their response to it.
The metaphor of a 'reed swaying in the air current' is a natural metaphor to employ, since reeds would abound in the marshy banks of the Jordan, and John'south uncompromising bulletin of repentance and judgement assorted starkly with reeds flexing and giving style to each changing breeze. The language of 'soft' clothing uses the adjectivemalakos which nosotros also detect in 1 Cor 6.nine; information technology suggests not just softness to the impact of wear, but moral indulgence and compromise. The supreme irony here is that John sits in the dungeon below a palace where (morally) soft men wear (physically) soft article of clothing, whilst John contrasts in both his graphic symbol and his attire.
John is a prophet—simply he is the last and the greatest of prophets, because (in effect) he signals the end of the era of Onetime Testament prophecy before the kickoff of the new era of the kingdom. Here Matthew includes Jesus' mention of the prophetic word of Malachi, which Mark included (but Matthew did non) alongside the prophetic word of Isaiah which pointed to the meaning of John's ministry in Mark one (assorted with Matt 3).
"I will send my messenger, who will gear up the manner earlier me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking volition come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you lot desire, volition come," says the LORD Almighty. (Mal 3.1)
But once once more, the use of the OT is freighted with Christological significance: God no longer sends his messenger to fix his own way, but the way of Jesus ('you' rather than 'me') who brings to Israel the presence of their God.
So despite existence the greatest of the old prophetic age, John cannot compare with the historic period that is now coming in the ministry of Jesus. This is not to denigrate John's ministry or his significance, but to indicate that, in the coming of Jesus, nosotros see the turning of the ages, and the commencement of God'south work to make all things new. In Advent, we look frontward to this work'southward completion when Jesus returns once more.
Thus, to the challenge non to stumble if Jesus does non encounter our expectations, Matthew adds the challenge of both recognising Jesus' significance, and living in anticipation of his return.
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