Reading the Gospels Together

How do you end a Gospel? – Part 2

We have noticed how Matthew has built his gospel on the foundation that Mark has provided him. Matthew has added material to Mark’s gospel not so much that Mark’s gospel is inadequate but that Matthew’s community needed to hear a new word in their time. Matthew chooses not to end his gospel in the same way that Mark did. You can only “pull the rug out” from under readers once. So Matthew tells his readers what Mark’s gospel leaves wide open and only implies. Though the women leave the empty tomb in fear they also leave in great joy and, even though Matthew does not actually tell that part of the story, the women tell the news and the disciples go to Galilee where they see Jesus, just as he had said.

Matthew ends his gospel by telling that story of the disciples seeing Jesus in Galilee. We have noticed in Matthew’s telling of the story he has often softened Mark’s harsh view of the disciples. The disciples are teachable and capable. In Matthew’s story of the disciples seeing Jesus in Galilee he pictures Jesus, the teacher greater than Moses, taking his disciples up the mountain and there Jesus commissions them to go and make disciples of all nations. Matthew is concerned about the witness of this story to everyone. That witness will move out from these first followers who have participated in the events surrounding the ministry of Jesus and his death and resurrection. But Matthew is also concerned about how these first witnesses will be sustained in the world. And so Matthew ends his gospel with the comforting words that Jesus will remain with them here on earth to the end of the age. Matthew does not explain how that will happened but readers can be assured that Jesus will keep his promises. We had noticed that Mark had set up his readers by providing them several predictions of Jesus all of which come true. The only prediction in Mark’s gospel that Mark leaves unfulfilled is the promise of Jesus that after Jesus has been raised from the dead he will go ahead of his disciples to Galilee and there they will see him. We can be sure that Mark knows that did happen. Matthew has repeated all of those predictions and their fulfilment in his gospel too. And now Matthew tells of the fulfilment of the last promise left dangling in Mark. Jesus appears to his disciples in Galilee after the resurrection just as he promised! And then Jesus makes one more prediction or promise – that he will be with his disciples to the end of the age. We can be sure that Jesus will keep that promise too because what Jesus says will happen always does!

Was Matthew successful in the way he has ended his gospel? Matthew’s last words of Jesus have been a comfort to many. Too often we think of God “up there” and even that the goal of being a Christian is to get “up there” where God is. We need Matthew’s witness that Jesus in not “up there” but “down here” with us in the world. Of course we likely need more than just Matthew’s clear voice to sustain us but we also need his clear voice to help us stay grounded in the world that God has made. So Jesus is with us and because he is with us we can be God’s people in the world. Matthew has accomplished his purpose in his gospel.