Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
Matthew and Romans: Mirror Lessons
Matthew’s biography of Jesus has the end meet the beginning, bookends if you please. These are aimed at the shame of the recipients. Matthew 1 famously has the genealogy of Jesus showing his regal credentials as the King of the Jews. But notice these two divergent aims:
1) Matthew 2 we have the “king of the Jews” try to kill Jesus while Gentiles came to worship him.
2) Matthew 27 we have the religious leaders of the Jews along with the Romans, kill Jesus while a Gentile centurion proclaims “This man really was God’s Son.
These two teach us valuable lessons for evangelism today:
1) The ones whom we think should receive the gospel are not the ones who necessarily do. And contrary to that, the ones whom we think the gospel doesn’t fit, are the ones who confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
2) Going beyond the racial question of Jew and Gentile, we must ask ourselves who do we resemble? Are we too religious to accept this form of Jesus born in and died in shameful circumstances? Do we need to evangelize ourselves?
Why would Matthew shame the recipients? It is for their good, not out of ill will. How do we know this? I posit a possible answer as found in another book, Romans 14-16:
(CSB) 13) Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14) if I might somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them. 15) For if their rejection brings reconciliation† to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16) Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Jealous and Zealous are the same word in Greek. Those who were zealous for the Law will become jealous of another people – the Gentiles. Why is their God saving “those people”? Thus, the books of Romans and Matthew teach us the same lesson. The God of the Jews wants to be the God of the Gentiles. Therefore, Romans is about Gentiles accepting Jews; and Matthew is about Jews accepting Jesus.
Comments