Advent 2
Preaching
PREACHING MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
A Narrative Approach
Enter John the Baptist. Matthew doesn't introduce this desert prophet until now. John's message is simple and straight to the point. "Repent!" he cries. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Jesus will begin his ministry with the very same words. See 4:17.
When Jesus sends out the twelve for their ministry among the Gentiles he describes their ministry in similar words: "As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near' " (10:7). In Matthew's telling of the story this call to repentance and the advent of the kingdom of heaven are central realities.
We might note here that the phrase "kingdom of heaven" is unique to Matthew. It occurs 33 times in Matthew and nowhere else in the entire New Testament. Kingdom of heaven means the same as "kingdom of God" (four times in Matthew, at 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43). It is a pious phrase designated to avoid speaking the awesome and holy name of "God" (cf. 6:9). Note also "thy kingdom" (6:10, 13; 20:21), "the kingdom of their [my] Father" (13:43; 26:29), and the simple "kingdom" (6:33; 25:34).
Among New Testament writers Matthew alone has "the gospel [or word] of the kingdom...and the phrase "sons [=citizens] of the kingdom" (8:12; 13:38; cf. 17:25). All these phrases (kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, kingdom of their (or my) Father, or simply the kingdom) are very nearly interchangeable.... [This] is not to assert that it has its source in heaven or in God, but that it comes as gift from above, and that it is something wholly different from earthly kingdoms and sovereignties. ...more than any other New Testament writer, Matthew stresses the vital connection between the kingdom and righteousness (cf. 6:10, 33).1
Matthew understands John to be the one who carries out the role spoken of by Isaiah the prophet. John will prepare the way. He will make the way straight for the coming of the Messiah. This ministry is based on Isaiah 40:1-11. John's appearance and diet are also attested in such a way that the crowds know that this man is a prophet. He dresses just like Elijah: 1 Kings 1:8. He fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah: Zechariah 13:4. (See also Malachi 4:5-6.) He calls Israel again to the wilderness, the place of their spiritual origin.
In every way, John is the forerunner of Jesus! His ministry and message foreshadows the ministry of Jesus. Both John and Jesus are the agents of God sent by God (10:40; 11:10). Both belong to the time of fulfillment (1:23; 3:3). Both have the same message to proclaim (3:2; 4:17).
Both enter into conflict with Israel: in the case of the crowds, a favorable reception ultimately gives way to repudiation; in the case of the leaders, the opposition is implacable from the outset (3:7-10; 9:3). Both John and Jesus are "delivered up" to their enemies (4:12; 10:4). And both are made to die violently and shamefully (14:3-12; 27:37). To know of John is to know in advance of Jesus.2
Matthew paints this picture of John as forerunner based on 20/20 hindsight. John the Baptist didn't necessarily know this script! There is much evidence that John's visions of a Messiah were much different than that which Jesus presented. In Matthew 11:2-6 an imprisoned John sends his disciples to Jesus in order to ask him: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" This is the question of the ages in Israel. Every generation of Israel addressed this question to each new king. Every generation of Israel looked forward to the day when the one to whom this question was addressed might answer: Yes!
Jesus' answer was, Yes! "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me" (11:4-6). Clearly John did not know that this was the kind of ministry that he was forerunning! People in every age have been offended when they discover the reality of Jesus' ministry.
Matthew 11 is important in terms of the relationship of John and Jesus. Jesus gives a speech identifying the ministry of John. John is the greatest one who ever lived before the time of the coming of the kingdom. But John is the least in the kingdom of heaven.
John belongs to the age of the law and the prophets. Jesus belongs to the age of the gospel and the kingdom. See 11:7-19. John's ministry is a ministry carried out at the very turning of the eons! It is a ministry featuring a call to repentance; a call to make ourselves ready and fit for the new reality that is to come.
Again, the focus of John's message is his call to repentance. Even religious leaders need to repent! Pharisees and Sadducees need to repent. John calls upon them to live lives that bear the fruits of repentance. He was clearly not convinced that they practiced what they preached. They relied too easily on their tradition. They were the children of Abraham after all! How could John be so impertinent as to ask them to repent?
Robert Smith usually interprets remarks such as these addressed to Jewish religious leaders to be a kind of code for an attack on the Christian religious leaders of Matthew's day. (See Preface.)
Members of Matthew's community may have been finding their security before God in the ceremony of baptism and in spiritual endowments. They may have somehow disconnected baptism from any thought of the deadly power of sin, from the solemn call to repentance, and from the summons to the new life of righteousness.... Matthew's report concerning John the Baptist amounts to a plea to his own community to rethink and reorder their lives.3
Whether or not Smith is correct in his interpretation it is much more important that the focus of any repentance-preaching we do on the basis of this text be directed at problems within the Christian community rather than at the Sadducees and Pharisees of old. We can too easily and self-righteously judge the religious leaders of old all the time missing the reality that John would call us to repentance. So would Jesus!
We indicated above that John did not totally grasp the nature of Jesus' ministry. John did, however, realize that the baptism that would come in Jesus' name would be quite different from his own baptizing: "...one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (3:11).
This message of John is vital to our preaching of repentance today. John calls for repentance that bears fruit. Fruit, however, does not grow on demand. Fruit grows only on healthy trees. This is a constant theme in Matthew: 7:16-20; 12:33; 13:8; 21:19, 34, 41, 43. Israel was not bearing the fruits of repentance. It may well be that Matthew's community wasn't, either. So what's the solution to such a problem? You can't command the fruits of repentance. Fruit grows from a good tree. It would appear that John the Baptist knew this and that is why he is pleased to announce that one mightier "than I" is coming. Bearing fruit is not the real problem. Healthy trees is the problem. Only one mightier than John can nurture healthy trees (healthy lives) that bear much fruit. Fruit-bearing is the work of the Spirit, not a work demanded through any kind of repentance.
Homiletical Directions
This text from Matthew has many narrative connections with material in both the Old and New Testament. Our biblical storytelling on this day could strike out in many directions.
A first suggestion for preaching is for a didactic sermon based on this text. The "kingdom of heaven" is so important to Matthew's Gospel that it might be wise here at the beginning of Matthew's year to teach our people what Matthew means by this phrase.
The Smith quotation in the text above supplies you with the relevant biblical references for such a time of teaching. In this Advent season we will want to tie such a sermon to the coming of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Jesus Christ. Remember as well Smith's accent that for Matthew the kingdom and righteousness are nearly inseparable themes. Fortunately, the One whose birth we are preparing to celebrate not only brings the kingdom but also comes as our righteousness! As Luther once put it, our righteousness in Jesus Christ is always alien to us. It always comes to us from the outside. It comes to us as the gift of a baby wrapped in diapers.
A second and more narrative preaching possibility presents itself in the parallelism of the ministry of John and the ministry of Jesus. The Kingsbury quote in the material above provides us with all the relevant passages we need for this narrative sermon. Tell the story of John the forerunner as the precursor of Jesus' ministry.
We have two choices here. We can either tell John's story first, following the Kingsbury outline, and then tell Jesus' story second as its parallel, or we can tell John's story, Part One, followed by Jesus' story, Part One, and so on. Either way, we have before us a story of conflict, repudiation, opposition, delivering up, and violent and shameful deaths.
God is revealed in our world through the ministry of John and Jesus.
We are confronted here with a God who is revealed to us in hiding! The lives and destinies of John and Jesus don't look much like God's way in the world. They do, however, look a lot like our way in the world. That is just the point. God identifies with us all the way from cradle (Jesus' cradle and ours) to grave.
"I am a God whose presence in this world is hidden in the life of John the Baptist. I am a God whose presence in this world is hidden in the life of Jesus Christ. I am a God whose presence in this world is hidden in the trials and struggles of your life. On the last day all the world will see that which is hidden now revealed as my way with the world; as my way with you." Amen.
A third preaching possibility deals with the overriding theme of repentance. Repentance, of course, is a strong Advent theme. The first story to tell is the story of John's preaching and baptizing. The heart of John's message is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." John baptized people as a sign of their repentance. John expected that such an action would result in a fruit-bearing life. (The baptism called for by John is a pre-Christian baptism empowered by the will of the repentant one to change his/her life course.) John was calling upon Israel to repent in the advent of the Messiah.
The second story would be the story of the beginning of Jesus' ministry. This ministry begins in Matthew 4:12-23. (This text is appointed for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany.)
The key to this brief story telling is to see that the first words of ministry from the mouth of Jesus are identical to the words in the mouth of John: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (4:17). If John's repentance-word was addressed to Israel of old, Jesus' repentance-word is addressed to us.
A third story might be to tell of the relationship between John and Jesus. Jesus himself reflects on this relationship in Matthew 11:7-19. (Only the first four verses of this passage occur in this year's lectionary cycle: Third Sunday in Advent.) Tell this story explicating how Jesus sees John as both greatest and least. Reflect then to this week's text where John himself has a vision of this difference: "...one who is more powerful than I is coming after me...." John preached a message of human empowered repentance. Even John seems to know, however, that such repentance is not enough. Repentance needs a more powerful One, a mightier One, a stronger One to turn human striving into divine possibility!
This sermon might well end with an Advent call to repentance in light of the coming celebration of Messiah's birth. Be very clear, however, that this is not a call to a human-powered repentance. This is to be a repentance in which the human self dies to all human will power and turns to a more powerful One, turns to Jesus as the true source of nourishment who can enable the trees of our lives to bear fruit in abundance.
"Repent," Jesus says. "Bring your barren lives to me. Bring your withered limbs to me. I am the more powerful One of whom John spoke. I am the mighty One. I am the strong One.
Come to me and I will transform your life from the inside out. I will make the withered tree of your life strong and productive. I will turn your barren lives into fruit-bearing lives." Amen.
If your congregation celebrates Holy Communion on this Sunday the aforesaid words could be transformed into an invitation to the table.
____________
1. Robert H. Smith, Matthew, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 48.
2. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), p. 49.
3. Smith, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
When Jesus sends out the twelve for their ministry among the Gentiles he describes their ministry in similar words: "As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near' " (10:7). In Matthew's telling of the story this call to repentance and the advent of the kingdom of heaven are central realities.
We might note here that the phrase "kingdom of heaven" is unique to Matthew. It occurs 33 times in Matthew and nowhere else in the entire New Testament. Kingdom of heaven means the same as "kingdom of God" (four times in Matthew, at 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43). It is a pious phrase designated to avoid speaking the awesome and holy name of "God" (cf. 6:9). Note also "thy kingdom" (6:10, 13; 20:21), "the kingdom of their [my] Father" (13:43; 26:29), and the simple "kingdom" (6:33; 25:34).
Among New Testament writers Matthew alone has "the gospel [or word] of the kingdom...and the phrase "sons [=citizens] of the kingdom" (8:12; 13:38; cf. 17:25). All these phrases (kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, kingdom of their (or my) Father, or simply the kingdom) are very nearly interchangeable.... [This] is not to assert that it has its source in heaven or in God, but that it comes as gift from above, and that it is something wholly different from earthly kingdoms and sovereignties. ...more than any other New Testament writer, Matthew stresses the vital connection between the kingdom and righteousness (cf. 6:10, 33).1
Matthew understands John to be the one who carries out the role spoken of by Isaiah the prophet. John will prepare the way. He will make the way straight for the coming of the Messiah. This ministry is based on Isaiah 40:1-11. John's appearance and diet are also attested in such a way that the crowds know that this man is a prophet. He dresses just like Elijah: 1 Kings 1:8. He fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah: Zechariah 13:4. (See also Malachi 4:5-6.) He calls Israel again to the wilderness, the place of their spiritual origin.
In every way, John is the forerunner of Jesus! His ministry and message foreshadows the ministry of Jesus. Both John and Jesus are the agents of God sent by God (10:40; 11:10). Both belong to the time of fulfillment (1:23; 3:3). Both have the same message to proclaim (3:2; 4:17).
Both enter into conflict with Israel: in the case of the crowds, a favorable reception ultimately gives way to repudiation; in the case of the leaders, the opposition is implacable from the outset (3:7-10; 9:3). Both John and Jesus are "delivered up" to their enemies (4:12; 10:4). And both are made to die violently and shamefully (14:3-12; 27:37). To know of John is to know in advance of Jesus.2
Matthew paints this picture of John as forerunner based on 20/20 hindsight. John the Baptist didn't necessarily know this script! There is much evidence that John's visions of a Messiah were much different than that which Jesus presented. In Matthew 11:2-6 an imprisoned John sends his disciples to Jesus in order to ask him: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" This is the question of the ages in Israel. Every generation of Israel addressed this question to each new king. Every generation of Israel looked forward to the day when the one to whom this question was addressed might answer: Yes!
Jesus' answer was, Yes! "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me" (11:4-6). Clearly John did not know that this was the kind of ministry that he was forerunning! People in every age have been offended when they discover the reality of Jesus' ministry.
Matthew 11 is important in terms of the relationship of John and Jesus. Jesus gives a speech identifying the ministry of John. John is the greatest one who ever lived before the time of the coming of the kingdom. But John is the least in the kingdom of heaven.
John belongs to the age of the law and the prophets. Jesus belongs to the age of the gospel and the kingdom. See 11:7-19. John's ministry is a ministry carried out at the very turning of the eons! It is a ministry featuring a call to repentance; a call to make ourselves ready and fit for the new reality that is to come.
Again, the focus of John's message is his call to repentance. Even religious leaders need to repent! Pharisees and Sadducees need to repent. John calls upon them to live lives that bear the fruits of repentance. He was clearly not convinced that they practiced what they preached. They relied too easily on their tradition. They were the children of Abraham after all! How could John be so impertinent as to ask them to repent?
Robert Smith usually interprets remarks such as these addressed to Jewish religious leaders to be a kind of code for an attack on the Christian religious leaders of Matthew's day. (See Preface.)
Members of Matthew's community may have been finding their security before God in the ceremony of baptism and in spiritual endowments. They may have somehow disconnected baptism from any thought of the deadly power of sin, from the solemn call to repentance, and from the summons to the new life of righteousness.... Matthew's report concerning John the Baptist amounts to a plea to his own community to rethink and reorder their lives.3
Whether or not Smith is correct in his interpretation it is much more important that the focus of any repentance-preaching we do on the basis of this text be directed at problems within the Christian community rather than at the Sadducees and Pharisees of old. We can too easily and self-righteously judge the religious leaders of old all the time missing the reality that John would call us to repentance. So would Jesus!
We indicated above that John did not totally grasp the nature of Jesus' ministry. John did, however, realize that the baptism that would come in Jesus' name would be quite different from his own baptizing: "...one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (3:11).
This message of John is vital to our preaching of repentance today. John calls for repentance that bears fruit. Fruit, however, does not grow on demand. Fruit grows only on healthy trees. This is a constant theme in Matthew: 7:16-20; 12:33; 13:8; 21:19, 34, 41, 43. Israel was not bearing the fruits of repentance. It may well be that Matthew's community wasn't, either. So what's the solution to such a problem? You can't command the fruits of repentance. Fruit grows from a good tree. It would appear that John the Baptist knew this and that is why he is pleased to announce that one mightier "than I" is coming. Bearing fruit is not the real problem. Healthy trees is the problem. Only one mightier than John can nurture healthy trees (healthy lives) that bear much fruit. Fruit-bearing is the work of the Spirit, not a work demanded through any kind of repentance.
Homiletical Directions
This text from Matthew has many narrative connections with material in both the Old and New Testament. Our biblical storytelling on this day could strike out in many directions.
A first suggestion for preaching is for a didactic sermon based on this text. The "kingdom of heaven" is so important to Matthew's Gospel that it might be wise here at the beginning of Matthew's year to teach our people what Matthew means by this phrase.
The Smith quotation in the text above supplies you with the relevant biblical references for such a time of teaching. In this Advent season we will want to tie such a sermon to the coming of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Jesus Christ. Remember as well Smith's accent that for Matthew the kingdom and righteousness are nearly inseparable themes. Fortunately, the One whose birth we are preparing to celebrate not only brings the kingdom but also comes as our righteousness! As Luther once put it, our righteousness in Jesus Christ is always alien to us. It always comes to us from the outside. It comes to us as the gift of a baby wrapped in diapers.
A second and more narrative preaching possibility presents itself in the parallelism of the ministry of John and the ministry of Jesus. The Kingsbury quote in the material above provides us with all the relevant passages we need for this narrative sermon. Tell the story of John the forerunner as the precursor of Jesus' ministry.
We have two choices here. We can either tell John's story first, following the Kingsbury outline, and then tell Jesus' story second as its parallel, or we can tell John's story, Part One, followed by Jesus' story, Part One, and so on. Either way, we have before us a story of conflict, repudiation, opposition, delivering up, and violent and shameful deaths.
God is revealed in our world through the ministry of John and Jesus.
We are confronted here with a God who is revealed to us in hiding! The lives and destinies of John and Jesus don't look much like God's way in the world. They do, however, look a lot like our way in the world. That is just the point. God identifies with us all the way from cradle (Jesus' cradle and ours) to grave.
"I am a God whose presence in this world is hidden in the life of John the Baptist. I am a God whose presence in this world is hidden in the life of Jesus Christ. I am a God whose presence in this world is hidden in the trials and struggles of your life. On the last day all the world will see that which is hidden now revealed as my way with the world; as my way with you." Amen.
A third preaching possibility deals with the overriding theme of repentance. Repentance, of course, is a strong Advent theme. The first story to tell is the story of John's preaching and baptizing. The heart of John's message is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." John baptized people as a sign of their repentance. John expected that such an action would result in a fruit-bearing life. (The baptism called for by John is a pre-Christian baptism empowered by the will of the repentant one to change his/her life course.) John was calling upon Israel to repent in the advent of the Messiah.
The second story would be the story of the beginning of Jesus' ministry. This ministry begins in Matthew 4:12-23. (This text is appointed for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany.)
The key to this brief story telling is to see that the first words of ministry from the mouth of Jesus are identical to the words in the mouth of John: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (4:17). If John's repentance-word was addressed to Israel of old, Jesus' repentance-word is addressed to us.
A third story might be to tell of the relationship between John and Jesus. Jesus himself reflects on this relationship in Matthew 11:7-19. (Only the first four verses of this passage occur in this year's lectionary cycle: Third Sunday in Advent.) Tell this story explicating how Jesus sees John as both greatest and least. Reflect then to this week's text where John himself has a vision of this difference: "...one who is more powerful than I is coming after me...." John preached a message of human empowered repentance. Even John seems to know, however, that such repentance is not enough. Repentance needs a more powerful One, a mightier One, a stronger One to turn human striving into divine possibility!
This sermon might well end with an Advent call to repentance in light of the coming celebration of Messiah's birth. Be very clear, however, that this is not a call to a human-powered repentance. This is to be a repentance in which the human self dies to all human will power and turns to a more powerful One, turns to Jesus as the true source of nourishment who can enable the trees of our lives to bear fruit in abundance.
"Repent," Jesus says. "Bring your barren lives to me. Bring your withered limbs to me. I am the more powerful One of whom John spoke. I am the mighty One. I am the strong One.
Come to me and I will transform your life from the inside out. I will make the withered tree of your life strong and productive. I will turn your barren lives into fruit-bearing lives." Amen.
If your congregation celebrates Holy Communion on this Sunday the aforesaid words could be transformed into an invitation to the table.
____________
1. Robert H. Smith, Matthew, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 48.
2. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Matthew As Story (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988), p. 49.
3. Smith, op. cit., pp. 46-47.
