With Matthew and The Master: “Under the Water”

January 17, 1993

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I wish I could have met that Matthew fellow.....maybe some day I’ll get to. No complete picture of him emerges from the sources we have to work with.... The information about him at our disposal is sketchy. Was the author of the first Gospel the disciple Matthew? We don’t know. Tradition says that, and it may be so.

It may be, just as the Record says, that when Jesus saw him, Matthew, sitting at the tax table, and said, “Follow me”, that he got up, straightway, and followed him. JUST LIKE that!

That may be our man. If so, if that was the disciple who later became the Gospel writer, then it’s clear there was one thing he didn’t leave behind when he walked away from his previous life. HE DIDN’T LEAVE HIS PEN BEHIND. He took it with him, and switched from accounting to evangelism, from digits to discipleship. It makes a neat package, an enormously appealing scenario...we just can’t be sure it’s true.

Those who argue for the apostolic authorship of the first Gospel point to that vivid account of Matthew’s call. It’s only one verse long, and only Matthew tells it.

Could it be a kind of signature insertion into the narrative, they suggest, a subtle way of saying, “I know what I’m talking about in telling the story of this Special Man.... I was THERE, and here’s how I got into it.”

That may be our man. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know with any certainty until we get to the Great Beyond.

A better clue to the man we call Matthew is in what we can deduce from the Gospel he left, this writing the Church has treasured so much it put it first when it collected the books that make up our New Testament.

The Gospel of Matthew hands down is the most quoted book in the world....It contains the Sermon on the Mount, at least the most complete version. It contains the Great Commission, the mandate of the Christian mission enterprise...“Go ye into all the world and proclaim the Gospel....” It contains the cherished and beautiful story of the Wise Men, who came from far off to worship the Christ Child, the story which inaugurates this season of Epiphany, the season of God’s appearing, and manifesting himself to the people.

I wish I could have met that Matthew fellow. No complete picture of him emerges from the sources we have to work with, but from his writing, from the way he tells his story, we can pick up enough information to make us certain he’d be worth knowing better.

For example, he was clearly an historian. He had a sense of the broad sweep of things. He portrays Jesus as the culmination of all the Old Testament preparation. Why do you think he begins his Gospel with a genealogy. HOW DEADLY DULL, we say---

So and so begat so and so....and on and on. Who can even wade through it? BUT A GENEALOGY IS ONLY DULL WHEN IT’S NOT YOUR GENEALOGY. If it’s your family tree being charted, your ears pick up.

That’s what Matthew’s saying with his acute sense of history---“Look, folks, Jesus didn’t just bop into history like a rock through a plate glass window. See, he has roots, and they’re Old Testament roots. They’re OUR roots. God has been planning this thing all through the generations. There’s a pattern here, design and purpose.

For Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses. See the parallels between the Moses of Exodus and the Jesus of Matthew---The wicked King in both cases tries to kill the child...Both came out of Egypt.

Moses gets the Law from the Mountain; Jesus proclaims the new Law from the Mountain... the Sermon on the Mount.

The Books of Moses are 5 in number, the Pentateuch; The Book of Matthew also has 5 parts....remarkable similarities. HE WAS A HISTORIAN. He was also, plainly, a TEACHER, Matthew was. His Gospel is well organized.... it has structure and development, far more than Mark’s....

He was doing more than telling a story; HE WAS TEACHING A LESSON, with students in mind. Matthew is easy to memorize. Could that be just accidental? The very form of it lends itself to easy remembering.... “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are the pure in heart....”

“You have heard it said of old...but I say unto you....” The man who put this book together had obvious pedagogical propensities. HE WAS A TEACHER.

What’s more, he was a CHURCHMAN. He loved the Church; supported the Church, believed in building up the Church. The word “church”, ECCLESIA, is found only twice in the Gospels---lots of times in Paul, but only twice in the 4 Gospels, and both are in Matthew. The main reference is at Caesarea Philippi:

“On this rock I will build my CHURCH”, Matthew quotes Jesus saying to Simon Peter, “and the gates of hell itself shall not prevail against it.”

Here was a man who believed that the main business of Christianity was disciple making, and he believed the Church was the principal matrix in which Christian character could be forged.

He says a lot about tithing, about service, about self-denial, about obedience. He says Jesus thought those things were important. It wouldn’t be far off to call the Gospel of Matthew a handbook of Christian discipleship. He wrote it as a manual of First Century Church membership.....YOU WANT TO BE A FOLLOWER OF THIS MAN, THIS INCOMPARABLE PERSON? Here’s who He is, and here’s how you do it.

Small wonder that when the Church compiled its Book, gathered its early writings together to form its NEW Testament, it made Matthew’s account the lead-off entry.

May I propose that we study a part of this Gospel together for the next few Sundays? The lectionary readings for January this year and even beyond are mostly taken from Matthew. I’m making some minor adjustments with certain dates to allow for better chronological continuity...... (that’s a preacher’s way of saying I ain’t followin’ the book exactly----)

But in the beginning of a new year, with the beginning of new worship service next week, it seemed not inappropriate to look at the beginning of Jesus’ adult career, how He started off in His public ministry. He, too, had to begin, and Matthew the historian, the teacher, the churchman, the follower, tells us something about that. So for these 3 Sundays, today, the 24th, and the 31st, I want to invite you to read with care and receptiveness Chapters 3 and 4 of the Gospel of Matthew. There’s no penalty for reading more, but that’s where I’m going to be trying to dig in. I hope you’ll join me. We’ll consider the baptism, the temptation experience, and the early preaching of Jesus as seen through the eyes of Matthew. Let’s call them “Under the Water”, “Out in the Wilderness”, and “Off to Work”. There’s some good stuff here, something for everybody, and I promise you, more than we’ll ever exhaust.

Matthew had trouble with the baptism of Jesus. The early Church had trouble with the baptism of Jesus. That it happened, that it took place was too well established to deny. The early Church certainly wouldn’t have made up the story if it hadn’t been true.

Luke says He was baptized when He was about 30 years of age. That much seems clear. The question was WHY was He baptized? WHY did Jesus submit to baptism at all, and especially to John’s baptism? John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. “Repent and be baptized”, John proclaimed:

Change your ways. Turn your life around.

People came from all over to respond, people who knew their lives needed to be turned around. HOW DOES THAT APPLY TO JESUS? Of what did He need to repent? Wasn’t He without sin, completely unblemished in character and deed?

That’s what the early Church claimed. How does the hymn express it, “O Thou whose deeds and dreams were one.” WASN’T HE THE ONLY ONE OF WHOM THAT COULD BE SAID?

Matthew, along with much of the Church wrestled with how all this could fit together without contradiction. Mark, in his account, doesn’t deal with it. Mark wrote earlier than Matthew, and he just ignores the problem. He says, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan....PERIOD, and goes on to the next thing.

No elaboration whatsoever. He states it, but doesn’t explain it. He declares it, but doesn’t interpret it. By the time Matthew wrote, some explanation, some interpretation had to be given....

To new members now coming into the Church, to beginning Christians, there was the danger of giving the impression that since John baptized Jesus, therefore, John was more important than Jesus. Some of John’s disciples were actually saying that. Even later, when the Gospel of John was written, the same problem was hanging around.

Matthew makes it clear that he’s aware of the ambiguity this lack of clarification causes. Why was Jesus, the sinless one, baptized?

Matthew says JESUS CHOSE to be baptized. It was His decision. He went to the Jordan “to be baptized by John.” That is, He went deliberately, volitionally, intentionally. He wasn’t simply caught up in the excitement of the moment; He wasn’t swept up in the emotion of the setting or the preaching....HE WENT ON PURPOSE, with the specific intent of being baptized.

Not only that, but John himself recognized the uniqueness of the situation, the ticklishness of the relationship.

John himself, Matthew says, was nervous about the request, and protested when Jesus came to him. “I need to be baptized by YOU, not vice-versa.” He clearly subordinates himself to the superiority of his cousin.

AND THEN, Matthew tells us, Jesus gives John up front His rationale for being baptized. “Let it be so for now”, He says, “for it is proper now for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

That is to say, I am doing this now because it’s what God wills. I am doing it as an act of conscious fidelity, as an act of faithfulness to the commands of the Heavenly Father.

WHAT AN EXCITING THING! No wonder Matthew had to get it all down. JESUS DIDN’T NEED TO BE BAPTIZED....HE CHOSE TO BE BAPTIZED, as a means of identifying with those who DO need to be baptized. It was for Him, Matthew is saying, an act of commitment, an act of dedication, not on account of His own need, but on account of people and their need. IT was the opening moment of His self-giving, on behalf of a hurting and needy world.

From that time on, from that very moment on, Jesus would, as it were, be ONE with humanity.

It’s not His virgin birth that makes Jesus one of us. Matthew tells that, too. That’s the other side of the picture, a way of saying Jesus was more than just human, somehow, was different, was special. Matthew believed that about Him. But here he’s saying, special though He was, He was also totally immersed in the fullness and complexity of real human life, just like the rest of us.

He’s not aloof, up there, remote from reality, insulated from the dust and grime of actual living. Though personally sinless, He identified with humankind in its sin, and did so as a conscious act of obedience to the Father’s bidding.

What’s the big deal about that? What’s the significance, if any, for you and for me?

Isn’t it this?

Matthew saw and is saying to us that our Savior, our Redeemer, this One we follow and look to as Lord, is not so far off and removed from the realities of life that He doesn’t understand the mess of the way it can sometimes be. He was baptized for us; He elected to join us; He jumped into life with us, all the way.

He knows, because He, too, has been through it, what it is to be inundated with more demands than you can reasonably handle....what it is to feel the pressure to produce, what it is to have people misunderstand your motives and your intentions.

He knows what it is to experience disappointment and letdown, what is it to have friends who say one thing and do another, what it is to experience the ache of separation, and isolation, and grief.

HE’S BEEN THERE, in all of it. He was baptized into life. When trials come to us, and pressures, and hardships....when we have to face the consequences of the neglect, and carelessness, and hostility, and malice of others, or even the consequences of our own sin, the searing pain of remorse that comes from the recognition of wrongdoing, we can know that Someone before us, Someone infinitely greater--though sinless Himself---understands, out of being there, too... and still sticks with us.

HE CHOSE TO BE BAPTIZED IN IDENTIFICATION WITH GOD’S PEOPLE.

The Baptism of Jesus, as exemplified by His willingness to submit to it out of obedience to the Father’s will, and as a reflection of the Father’s heart---those always go together--is, in part, His pledge that no matter what happens, we are not alone. Hang on to that, Matthew is saying to us.

Now, notice another interesting feature of Matthew’s account of the baptism. The baptism itself, the actual laying on of hands, the ritual act of baptism, is given almost no emphasis. We can assume, I think that it was done by immersion---it says He came up from the water---and that should make all Baptists happy---but the report of the actual baptism itself is relegated to a relative clause. Matthew’s emphasis is not on the MODE of baptism, but on the declaration of God with respect to what was happening.

There is not a word offered about how Jesus felt about the experience....nothing in the account to suggest that He was elated, or ecstatic, or moved, or anything, no mention at all of His interior emotional condition. We can’t tell from Matthew’s report what was going on inside of Jesus at the baptism. Matthew doesn’t address that. What he focuses on is what God announced at the baptism. As always, at any baptism, GOD IS THE CHIEF ACTOR.

This is an Epiphany story. We’re in the season of Epiphany now, all the way to Lent, at the end of February. Epiphany means appearing, manifesting, making known. Light, brightness, clarity,

revelation.... those are all Epiphany motifs.

You preach missionary sermons during Epiphany, and talk about evangelism, outreach, proclamation.

What was merely whispered during Advent is shouted abroad in Epiphany. All the stops are pulled out, the music is fortissimo, the powerful truth of God is issued in all its fullness.

With graphic epiphany language, Matthew shows us the glory---the heavens themselves were opened, a symbol of divine revelation....the Spirit descended on Jesus to bestow empowerment. AND MATTHEW SAYS THE VERY VOICE OF THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY WAS HEARD, SAYING, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Luke’s version and Mark’s version of the same scene are subtly different. Luke and Mark tell this story, too, but in those Gospels, the voice of God says, “YOU are my beloved Son.......” It’s a word spoken to Jesus, spoken to Him directly....For Luke and Mark the declaration is a matter of personal experience, for Jesus alone.

In Matthew, it’s a public announcement. It’s for everybody. THIS is my beloved Son. It’s a message for the world to hear, and Matthew tells his story for that very reason.

Listen up, nations, peoples, everybody. Hear this! God has declared something ineffably magnificent: HIS SON, IN WHOM DWELLS ALL OF THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY, HAS COME, AND IN HIM THERE IS REDEMPTION. Let the whole world hear God’s Epiphany proclamation.

I’d like to have met that Matthew fellow, wouldn’t you? He was no mean evangelist. The description of the baptism, couched in poetic images, of course, couched in picture language, is Matthew’s own testimony to the Father’s gracious initiative, on behalf of a battered world. That’s the same Gospel we’re still preaching, in the 20th Century.

And how is that gracious initiative to be carried out?

A good Jew, which Matthew certainly was....a devout, pious Jew, saturated in the Hebrew Scriptures, which Matthew certainly was, would recognize the 2 parts of the public declaration attributed to God. Matthew’s Jewish readers would have recognized them.

“This is my beloved son.” That part of the phrase comes from the Psalms. Psalm 2, verse 7. It’s part of a coronation psalm, a psalm that was read when a new king was crowned. The king was considered God’s son. After David, this took on messianic connotations. Some day a new king will come, even more powerful and more splendid than David.

The other part of the phrase, “in whom I am well pleased”, comes from one of the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah...Isaiah 42:1. Here, unexpectedly, they are put together.

A messianic statement----a suffering servant statement...

A statement about a king---a statement about a victim.

A statement about power---a statement about weakness.

A statement about one who would be victorious---a statement about one who would be submissive.

A statement about one who would triumph----a statement about one who would voluntarily give himself up.

The connotations are poles apart.... except for God. A messiah who suffered was a contradiction in terms..... BEFORE THIS.

Messiahs did not suffer--messiahs made others suffer.... until now. Here is the first place in the Gospels that we have juxtaposed the radical concept which was to be the hallmark of the ministry of Jesus...a ministry precisely of winning by losing, overcoming by surrendering, achieving triumph by laying one’s life squarely on the line. The implications of this baptismal formula point straight to the Cross.

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” To anyone immersed in the Hebrew Bible, here is a statement so bold as to leave a hearer gasping. IT STILL DOES, you see, in the Divine economy, Sovereignty is tied to sacrifice. Honor is linked to humility. Leadership is joined to service. Greatness is affixed to sharing. Glory is found in giving. Life is achieved through death.

It is God’s announcement of His values, Matthew is saying, and Jesus leads the way.

It is surely no surprise in Matthew that immediately on the heels of the baptism, there follows the temptation experience. How else could the weight of this commission be worked through? Now Jesus must wrestle with the implications of what He has heard.

The Father has called. The Son has started. But, thank God, He never looked back.