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I am no longer making posts, but if you would like to use this blog as a reading guide to the Gospel of Matthew, feel free. Just begin with the posts in August, 2010. I will be glad to answer questions or engage in dialogue if you wish to use the com box.

Now that you have read through Matthew's Gospel....

At right are two different versions of Matthew's Gospel.

One is a remnant from a very early papyrus copy, still in the original Greek.

The other is a medieval illumination, with a translation into Latin.

You have read the Gospel in English, either from a printed book, or perhaps online, with the assistance of a blog.

In all these forms, in season and out of season, the Gospel endures.

As you conclude this reflection on the Gospel, ask yourself the following questions:

• How have I been drawn closer to the person of Jesus?


• How has my faith in who Jesus is grow or changed?


• How has my understanding of the Gospel, as it is proclaimed in the liturgy, deepened?


• How has my understanding of how the Gospel was written, and how it has been passed down us, changed or deepened?

Chapter Twenty Eight - Quick Notes and Facts

• Matthew’s gospel is the only one where Jesus first meets the apostles in Galilee, rather than in Jerusalem.



• The women go back to the tomb to finish the burial rites, which they could not perform on Friday due to the coming of the Sabbath.

Chapter Twenty Eight - Question 4

What is the connection between Jesus’ resurrection and his commission to the apostles? What do these “marching orders” mean for the church?

Chapter Twenty Eight - Question 3

How does Matthew counter the argument that the body had been moved?

Chapter Twenty Eight - Question 2

How does the earthquake here function in the narrative?

Chapter Twenty Eight - Question 1

Compare this account of the Resurrection to the other three (Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24, John 20 and 21). How are they alike and how do they differ?

Chapter Twenty Seven - Quick Notes and Facts

• The church has made it very clear in the last 50 years that the actions of any Jews in Jesus' death do not reflect on the whole Jewish people. (The Romans crucified him, but we have always let the Italians off the hook.)
• The idea of "Messiah" was connected to political and military kingship. This was what threatened the Roman authorities and led to Jesus' sentence.

• INRI abbreviated over some crucifixes stands for Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum - Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. It is ironic, to us and in the mind of the writer of the Gospel, as we know of Jesus' true identity and role. It also reminds us that Jesus was convicted and sentenced as an insurrectionist.
• Pilate's reputation among the Romans was as a fierce and ruthless governor. In fact, he may have been seen to be too cruel and therefore ineffective in subduing a conquered people.

Chapter Twenty Seven - Question 5

How does Matthew set up the account of the Resurrection in this part of the narrative?

Chapter Twenty Seven - Question 4

Matthew records two earthquakes (although both seem to be symbolic, not actually on the Richter scale.) What point does this earthquake make?

Chapter Twenty Seven - Question 3

As you read of the crucifixion, spend some time with the scene. What thoughts and feelings are evoked in you?

Chapter Twenty Seven - Question 2

"Golgotha" was called the "place of the skull" because according to tradition Adam (the owner of the first skull) had been buried there. What symbolism does this hold for the readers of this gospel?

Chapter Twenty Seven - Question 1

As you read this, look for all the ways that Matthew's account makes Pilate the reluctant executioner.

Chapter Twenty Six - Quick Notes and Facts

• Passover is a feast celebrated on the lunar calendar. (Which is why Easter is, as well.) It is one of the three great pilgrimage feasts in Judaism. While the Temple still stood in Jerusalem, it brought Jews together from all over Europe, Asia and Africa. The Hebrew word is Pesach and from this comes our word Paschal.
• The anointing at Bethany is not done by Mary Magdalene, although this woman and Mary are often confused, especially in art and legend.
• The Passover meal in Exodus both pre-figures and celebrates the covenant between God and the people of Israel at Sinai. Jesus' language in the institution of the Eucharist follows in this tradition - both pre-figuring and commemorating his sacrifice on the Cross, the New Covenant.

• Lambs were sacrificed at the Temple and eaten for the Passover. Christian tradition, once the Temple had been destroyed, and reflecting on Jesus' death at the Passover, named Jesus as the ultimate Paschal lamb.
• If the Jewish authorities had wanted to kill Jesus for blasphemy, they could have. (See the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7). Written in a Roman world, the accounts of the Roman condemnation of Jesus (for insurrection) seem to be skewed to not lay too much blame at the feet of the Romans.

Chapter Twenty Six - Question 3

As you read the accounts of the betrayal, arrest and trials of Jesus, what emotions are evoked in you? Imagine yourself as a character in one of these scenes. Who do you find yourself to be - and why?

Chapter Twenty Six - Question 2

We have two thousand years of the experience of the Eucharist and Eucharistic theology to draw upon. Try to put that all aside and ask yourself, What impact did the Last Supper have on the disciples? On the early church?

Chapter Twenty Six - Question 1

Look over the story of the anointing at Bethany. How does this story fit into the whole Passion narrative? What themes can you identify which reflect the Gospel up to this point and pull us into the telling of the Passion?

Chapter Twenty Five - Quick Notes and Facts

We get our English word "talent" from the coin mentioned in this parable. The interpretation that one should not waste one's gifts and abilities became so common that the word for the coin came to mean what we call a ‘talent.'

Chapter Twenty Five

Read each one of these parables in light of what you have heard in the gospel.

• How does the parable reflect themes that you have seen earlier in the gospel?


• How does the parable reflect the tone of judgement and justice seen in chapters 23 and 24?


• What do you think was the message of the parable for Matthew's community?


• What is the message of the parable for each of us, and for the church of the present day?

Chapter Twenty Four - Quick Notes and Facts

• The most earthshaking (almost literally so) event in Judaism between the Exile in 580 BC and the Holocaust was the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. It forced Judaism to completely realign its worship and practice without the practice of Temple sacrifice. Because of the perceived necessity of the Temple to Jewish religious life, the absence of it called into question the viability of the faith itself. Read Matthew’s commentary on the Temple, written about ten years after its destruction in this light.


• “The desolating abomination” recalled the statue of Zeus set up in the Temple during the Greek occupation of Jerusalem. The rededication of the Temple, after the Maccabean revolt forms the basis for the feast of Hanukkah. These events took place about 160-170 years before Jesus' birth.


• One of the most significant crises in the early church was the delay of the return of the Lord. We expect it to be ages until he comes. They were mystified it had taken more than a decade or two. (And at the point Matthew's Gospel was written, it had been about fifty years.)

This relief from the Victory Arch of Titus shows the looting of the Jerusalem Temple. Titus later became a Roman Emperor himself. The Arch still stands in Rome, helping to bring this long ago event into our present.

Chapter Twenty Four - Question 3

What is the message in this chapter for those who are impatient with the delay of the Lord’s return? What is the message for those who are too eager to see it? What can each of these approaches teach us in this age?

Chapter Twenty Four - Question 2

We live in a time of uncertainty, to some extent, and with the possibility of greater destruction than the first century even imagined. What effect does this have on our faith? How does it affect how we see the world?

Chapter Twenty Four - Question 1

Why did the disciples so badly want to know the outcome? What was happening in their world that made this important? Are we patient or impatient about the coming of the Lord? Or do we not care at all?

Chapter Twenty Three - Quick Notes and Facts

• Phylacteries are small leather boxes containing the Sh'ma (Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one....) and the Ten Commandments. They are bound to one's arm and forehead when praying, according to the commandment in Deuteronomy 6.


• Tassels are worn by observant Jews, peaking out from underneath their regular clothes. They are attached to a tallit, a prayer garment. Both the tallit and the kippah (head covering) are reminders during the day that one is under God's authority and called to pray to God.


• Matthew's gospel was written about ten years after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, so Jesus' words here must have had an eerie quality in Matthew's community.

Chapter Twenty Three - Question 3

Some scholars think that Matthew was reflecting the conflict between Jesus and his contemporaries, but using it to fashion a commentary upon the leadership of the church in his own day. What can you imagine was going on in that church, if this is true? How should this chapter be heard by the church leadership of our own day?

Chapter Twenty Three - Question 2

What is the bottom line of what Jesus is preaching here? How do you think that Matthew's community heard it? How do we?

Chapter Twenty Three - Question 1

Many scholars consider this chapter to be the centerpiece of Matthew's gospel. What stance is Jesus making vis á vis the religious leaders of his time? What are the consequences for Jesus?

And so, back to Jesus, later in his career

After reading chapters one and two, you might have noticed that the Nativity account in Matthew is not 'cozy.' There is the threat to Mary, when Joseph thinks she has committed adultery. There is the need to flee to Egypt (and, according to Matthew's account), find a new home in Nazareth.

With those crises in mind, read slowly through chapter 23. Keep in mind that "scribes and Pharisees" does not mean "all Jews." Jesus is contending with the religious leaders of his day, but he is doing it from within the Jewish tradition, not from the outside.

However, many of the issues raised here did become contentious in the early church - particularly as it welcomed the Gentiles to faith in Christ. The heart of the question is what is the real fulfillment of the Law - outside appearance or inner conversion?