Proper 5
Preaching
PREACHING MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
A Narrative Approach
The Gospel text appointed for this week comes from Matthew 9. This follows a series of texts in recent weeks from the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5-7. We notice immediately, therefore, that the material in Matthew 8 has been excluded completely from the Revised Common Lectionary. The rationale behind this omission could be that all the material in Matthew 8 is based on material that is in Mark's Gospel. Some of the stories also appear in Luke's Gospel.
Matthew has arranged his material with precision. As we have noted earlier, the first four chapters in Matthew introduce us to Jesus Christ. These chapters prepare us to listen with care to the teaching of Jesus as it is presented to us in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Matthew presents Jesus as One who whose words have authority. This is complemented in Matthew's structure by chapters 8-9 which present Jesus as One who did great deeds of power. Words and deeds. That's the wholeness of Jesus' ministry as presented by Matthew. Chapters 5-7: words. Chapters 8-9: deeds. Through this carefully planned presentation Matthew paints a wonderfully holistic picture of the ministry of Emmanuel, "God with us."
The mighty acts of Jesus are not displays of raw energy designed to cow opposition, to gain great throngs of adherents, or to separate the masses from their money.... The power of Jesus enacted in miracle is the power of the speaker of the Sermon on the Mount. His mighty deeds (chaps. 8-9) begin to enact the word of righteousness envisioned in the sermon.1
The lectionary simply fails us at this point! If we follow the lectionary without commentary we will present to our people a Jesus who spoke many words but who did few deeds. The lectionary ordering of texts hears well Matthew's emphasis on Jesus as teacher. It fails us, however, in presenting Jesus' deeds of healing, exorcism, control over nature, and so on. This is a very unfortunate truncating of Matthew's vision of Jesus! In our section on "Homiletical Directions" we will address this matter in terms of our preaching. We might also note here that when Jesus gives an answer to the question of his identity as raised by John the Baptist he says: "Go and tell John what you hear and see...." What they see are the deeds that spring forth from Jesus' word!
The structure of chapters 8-9 is such that it presents us with three miracles of Jesus (8:1-17), followed by a calling story (8:18-22), followed by three more miracle stories (8:23--9:8), followed by a calling story (9:9, this week's text), followed by four miracle stories (9:10-32). In the telling of the final four miracle stories we hear also the first sounds of protest to Jesus' ministry: 9:11, 14. "Why?" questions begin to be heard. These questions will grow in intensity through the course of the Gospel leading finally to accusation, trial, and death.
We might note at this point that there are other clusters of miracle stories in Matthew 12 and in 14-17. As he does with almost every detail of Jesus' ministry, Matthew cites Jesus' healing miracles as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy: "This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, 'He took our infirmities and bore our diseases' " (Matthew 8:17).
One final word on the structure of this section of Matthew's Gospel. The final paragraph prior to the Sermon on the Mount is nearly identical to the final paragraph that occurs at the end of Matthew 9. See 4:23 and 9:35. The "gospel of the kingdom" clearly includes the miraculous in-breaking of God into the very bodies of people. Emmanuel comes to make things "all right."
As we read through the stories in Matthew 8 and 9 we are struck by the central reality of the power of Jesus' word. Time and again Jesus speaks, and it is so! Jesus' word has the power of God's word in creation who also spoke, and it was so: Genesis 1. (Isaiah 55:10-11 is the classic Old Testament passage on the power of the word that goes forth from God's mouth.)
Using the language of John's Gospel, Jesus is very clearly God's word made flesh dwelling among us.
The reality of Jesus' authoritative word is put most clearly by the centurion in Capernaum: 8:5-13. He, too, is a man who speaks authoritative words. When he gives orders, men obey. This is how he understands the ministry of Jesus. Jesus blesses him for his faith: 8:10, 13.
The text appointed for this week includes one of the two passages in the material in chapters 8-9 which is centered on Jesus' calling of disciples. Jesus calls. People respond! (9:9) This is a powerful word indeed! The text also includes one of the four miracles which follow this calling story.
The remainder of the text for this week has Jesus once again in the wrong company of people. It's probably not possible for us to get inside the reality of the offense Jesus caused in the way he chose people to eat with! He ate, after all, with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees were blown out of the water by this reality. "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" they asked of the disciples. To the Pharisees' word of doubt Jesus spoke his faith-creating word: "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." Jesus speaks and sinners become righteous! "I have come as a man of mercy." "I came to announce and to enact a surpassing righteousness (5:20). I came to summon sinners out of their old life into newness of life."2
Homiletical Directions
We have two suggestions on incorporating more of Matthew 8 and 9 into our preaching calendar. First, in some years it would be appropriate simply to take some Sundays in the Pentecost season to preach on some of the texts omitted from the lectionary. In those years we might omit some of the texts from the Sermon on the Mount.
Second, briefly tell the stories in Matthew 8 and 9 which lead up to the text for this week. (Chapter 13, on the Third Sunday in Advent, also suggests making use of the miraculous deeds in Matthew 8-9.) Tell the stories centered around the reality of the word become deed which Jesus speaks. In the first story (8:1-4) Jesus says: "' I do choose. Be made clean!' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed." In the second story in Matthew 8, the story of the centurion in Capernaum (8:5-13), the emphasis falls on the clear understanding of the centurion that Jesus' word has creative power. In 8:23-27 Jesus speaks to the wind and the sea and they obey him! In 8:28-34 Jesus simply says, "Go!" and the demons leave the Gadarene demoniacs. To the paralytic (9:1-8) Jesus says two words. He says first, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." To prove to the skeptical scribes that his word had the power to do what it said he also says to the paralytic: "Stand up, take your bed and go to your home." The man stood up and went home! Jesus speaks, and it is so!
This series of stories of the power of Jesus' word leads us finally to this week's assigned text. Jesus ate with the wrong people. The Pharisees didn't like it. But this was the heart of Jesus' ministry. He came to call sinners. He came to make sinners righteous through the power of his word! Jesus says to us today: "I have come not only to speak words of power to people in times gone by. I have come to speak words of power to you as well. I see you in all of your sinfulness. I see you in your unrighteousness. I see your sin and I say, Sin, go away. Sin, be forgiven. I see you in your unrighteousness and I say, You are righteous. I have come to make sinners righteous! And so you are. My word has made it so!"
There is an alternative approach to these texts in Matthew 8 and 9. In some years you may choose to accent the nature of faith that is present here. You may emphasize the human hearing side of the mighty words of Jesus. References to faith are recorded in 8:10, 13, 26; 9:2, 22, 29. These passages set forth a variety of ways to talk about faith. Most important, however, is to tell these stories in such a way that it is clear to all who hear that "faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard is the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). Faith clings to the word that it hears from the mouth of Jesus. Faith clings to the word that sinners are made righteous, and in the clinging, sinners are made righteous!
____________
1. Robert H. Smith, Matthew: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 128.
2. Ibid., p. 140.
Matthew has arranged his material with precision. As we have noted earlier, the first four chapters in Matthew introduce us to Jesus Christ. These chapters prepare us to listen with care to the teaching of Jesus as it is presented to us in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Matthew presents Jesus as One who whose words have authority. This is complemented in Matthew's structure by chapters 8-9 which present Jesus as One who did great deeds of power. Words and deeds. That's the wholeness of Jesus' ministry as presented by Matthew. Chapters 5-7: words. Chapters 8-9: deeds. Through this carefully planned presentation Matthew paints a wonderfully holistic picture of the ministry of Emmanuel, "God with us."
The mighty acts of Jesus are not displays of raw energy designed to cow opposition, to gain great throngs of adherents, or to separate the masses from their money.... The power of Jesus enacted in miracle is the power of the speaker of the Sermon on the Mount. His mighty deeds (chaps. 8-9) begin to enact the word of righteousness envisioned in the sermon.1
The lectionary simply fails us at this point! If we follow the lectionary without commentary we will present to our people a Jesus who spoke many words but who did few deeds. The lectionary ordering of texts hears well Matthew's emphasis on Jesus as teacher. It fails us, however, in presenting Jesus' deeds of healing, exorcism, control over nature, and so on. This is a very unfortunate truncating of Matthew's vision of Jesus! In our section on "Homiletical Directions" we will address this matter in terms of our preaching. We might also note here that when Jesus gives an answer to the question of his identity as raised by John the Baptist he says: "Go and tell John what you hear and see...." What they see are the deeds that spring forth from Jesus' word!
The structure of chapters 8-9 is such that it presents us with three miracles of Jesus (8:1-17), followed by a calling story (8:18-22), followed by three more miracle stories (8:23--9:8), followed by a calling story (9:9, this week's text), followed by four miracle stories (9:10-32). In the telling of the final four miracle stories we hear also the first sounds of protest to Jesus' ministry: 9:11, 14. "Why?" questions begin to be heard. These questions will grow in intensity through the course of the Gospel leading finally to accusation, trial, and death.
We might note at this point that there are other clusters of miracle stories in Matthew 12 and in 14-17. As he does with almost every detail of Jesus' ministry, Matthew cites Jesus' healing miracles as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy: "This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, 'He took our infirmities and bore our diseases' " (Matthew 8:17).
One final word on the structure of this section of Matthew's Gospel. The final paragraph prior to the Sermon on the Mount is nearly identical to the final paragraph that occurs at the end of Matthew 9. See 4:23 and 9:35. The "gospel of the kingdom" clearly includes the miraculous in-breaking of God into the very bodies of people. Emmanuel comes to make things "all right."
As we read through the stories in Matthew 8 and 9 we are struck by the central reality of the power of Jesus' word. Time and again Jesus speaks, and it is so! Jesus' word has the power of God's word in creation who also spoke, and it was so: Genesis 1. (Isaiah 55:10-11 is the classic Old Testament passage on the power of the word that goes forth from God's mouth.)
Using the language of John's Gospel, Jesus is very clearly God's word made flesh dwelling among us.
The reality of Jesus' authoritative word is put most clearly by the centurion in Capernaum: 8:5-13. He, too, is a man who speaks authoritative words. When he gives orders, men obey. This is how he understands the ministry of Jesus. Jesus blesses him for his faith: 8:10, 13.
The text appointed for this week includes one of the two passages in the material in chapters 8-9 which is centered on Jesus' calling of disciples. Jesus calls. People respond! (9:9) This is a powerful word indeed! The text also includes one of the four miracles which follow this calling story.
The remainder of the text for this week has Jesus once again in the wrong company of people. It's probably not possible for us to get inside the reality of the offense Jesus caused in the way he chose people to eat with! He ate, after all, with tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees were blown out of the water by this reality. "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" they asked of the disciples. To the Pharisees' word of doubt Jesus spoke his faith-creating word: "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." Jesus speaks and sinners become righteous! "I have come as a man of mercy." "I came to announce and to enact a surpassing righteousness (5:20). I came to summon sinners out of their old life into newness of life."2
Homiletical Directions
We have two suggestions on incorporating more of Matthew 8 and 9 into our preaching calendar. First, in some years it would be appropriate simply to take some Sundays in the Pentecost season to preach on some of the texts omitted from the lectionary. In those years we might omit some of the texts from the Sermon on the Mount.
Second, briefly tell the stories in Matthew 8 and 9 which lead up to the text for this week. (Chapter 13, on the Third Sunday in Advent, also suggests making use of the miraculous deeds in Matthew 8-9.) Tell the stories centered around the reality of the word become deed which Jesus speaks. In the first story (8:1-4) Jesus says: "' I do choose. Be made clean!' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed." In the second story in Matthew 8, the story of the centurion in Capernaum (8:5-13), the emphasis falls on the clear understanding of the centurion that Jesus' word has creative power. In 8:23-27 Jesus speaks to the wind and the sea and they obey him! In 8:28-34 Jesus simply says, "Go!" and the demons leave the Gadarene demoniacs. To the paralytic (9:1-8) Jesus says two words. He says first, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." To prove to the skeptical scribes that his word had the power to do what it said he also says to the paralytic: "Stand up, take your bed and go to your home." The man stood up and went home! Jesus speaks, and it is so!
This series of stories of the power of Jesus' word leads us finally to this week's assigned text. Jesus ate with the wrong people. The Pharisees didn't like it. But this was the heart of Jesus' ministry. He came to call sinners. He came to make sinners righteous through the power of his word! Jesus says to us today: "I have come not only to speak words of power to people in times gone by. I have come to speak words of power to you as well. I see you in all of your sinfulness. I see you in your unrighteousness. I see your sin and I say, Sin, go away. Sin, be forgiven. I see you in your unrighteousness and I say, You are righteous. I have come to make sinners righteous! And so you are. My word has made it so!"
There is an alternative approach to these texts in Matthew 8 and 9. In some years you may choose to accent the nature of faith that is present here. You may emphasize the human hearing side of the mighty words of Jesus. References to faith are recorded in 8:10, 13, 26; 9:2, 22, 29. These passages set forth a variety of ways to talk about faith. Most important, however, is to tell these stories in such a way that it is clear to all who hear that "faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard is the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). Faith clings to the word that it hears from the mouth of Jesus. Faith clings to the word that sinners are made righteous, and in the clinging, sinners are made righteous!
____________
1. Robert H. Smith, Matthew: Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1989), p. 128.
2. Ibid., p. 140.
