Saturday, July 12, 2014

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Matthew 24:32-51

In this long passage the author of the Gospel of Matthew draws upon a variety of sources, including the Gospel of Mark, as well as a source that may lie behind both Matthew and Luke, known as “Q” (“Q” is short for Quelle which means “source” in German). It is hard to know how much, if any, of this passage can be traced back to the historical Jesus. All of Matthew 24 functions, essentially, as a warning to Matthew’s community, which may have consisted of an urban group living in Syria sometime in the late first century, although other locations have been put forward. The first part of the section refers to the coming of the Son of Man, a tradition that finds its roots in Jewish apocalypticism. Although there is uncertainty as to when this figure will arrive, the author writes to his insider group, indicating that apparently there will be some anticipatory events. In any case, Matthew warns his audience to be watchful, for the “Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (24:44). In verses 45-51, the author further describes what it means to prepare for this coming. To be ready for the Son of Man means to treat your fellow community members well. Matthew may have intended these warnings and threats especially for leaders within his community who were susceptible to abuse and corruption because of their position. He likens weak and irresponsible leaders to the wicked slave, whose master will arrive unexpectedly, observe the slave’s immoral behaviour, and cut him up or cut him off, throwing him out where he will be with the hypocrites, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (24:51). Thus the unprepared will become an outsider, like the hypocrites (who are invariably equated with the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew).

It is difficult to know what to do with the vitriol of Matthew’s Gospel (for example, read through Matthew 23). Clearly the gospel writer was engaged in identity formation and preservation, and one of the means of accomplishing this can involve distinguishing insiders from outsiders, creating boundaries, and threatening community members with exclusion if they do not measure up. Certainly abiding by the rules is important, yet as the great but sadly, recently deceased, New Testament scholar Sean Freyne put it, “identity questions, both personal and social, would seem to be as essential to us as the very air we breathe. The search for and preoccupation with defining the self are symptoms of our condition, both Jewish and Christian – especially, it would seem, when we are confronted with the experience of a God who seeks to destroy such deep-seated longings within us! Therein lies the paradox that borders on the tragic in our situation.”

 Matthew’s Gospel reveals to what extent the early Christian communities could easily become caught up in identity questions just as many people do today. One can have sympathy for the group, considering the fragility of the community and struggles that it must have faced. But rather than viewing this particular dimension of Matthew’s Gospel as prescriptive, it can be a reminder that we must attempt to resist such preoccupations with identity, and remain open to a God who breaks down boundaries between people, and who does not divide insiders from outsiders.

- Alicia Batten

¹ Sean Freyne, “Vilifying the Other and Defining the Self: Matthew’s and John’s Anti-Jewish Polemic in Focus,” in Jacob Neusner and Ernest S. Frerichs, eds, “To See Ourselves as Others See Us:” Christians, Jews,”Others” in Late Antiquity (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1985) 141.