Reading the Gospels Together How do you begin a gospel? – Part 2 Matthew begins his gospel in a radically different way from Mark. That ought to be somewhat surprising to us since it is almost certain that Matthew had Mark’s gospel before him as his primary source as he wrote his own gospel. So Matthew made a choice to lay Mark aside for a time and begin in his own way. He will pick up Mark’s story later but of course then it will no longer be the beginning. Matthew begins his gospel by providing his readers with the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew believes his readers are keenly interested in the origins of Jesus – he calls it Jesus’ genesis. Where does Jesus come from? What are his beginnings? Matthew’s genealogy is not so concerned with the actual order of things but is symbolic in nature. Jesus comes from a three-fold listing of fourteen generations beginning with Abraham. Of course we can recognize that this scheme can also be divided into six sets of seven ancestors with Jesus being the first of the seventh set – the perfect set. Matthew wants his readers to know that Jesus belongs to the Jewish history and experience of God. Jesus belongs to the OT story. His origin is there. And within this genealogy Matthew identifies four women all of whom are in some way connected with scandal. And then Matthew tells the story of the birth of Jesus which also has the possibility of being connected with scandal. Matthew knows that Jesus belongs to the OT people of God and that his origin is there but Matthew also believes in the virgin birth of Jesus which means that Jesus’ origin is also uniquely from God. There were stories afloat during that time of the conception of Jesus by a Roman soldier through a scandalous affair in which Mary was impregnated outside of marriage either by being raped or worse through an illicit relationship. Matthew is concerned with the legitimacy of Jesus both as a true Israelite and also as the unique Son of God. His beginning addresses both concerns. Matthew is also very aware that the powers of this world represented by Herod the Great will oppose Jesus. Like Mark, Matthew is aware that he will be telling the story of the crucifixion of this one whose origin is from the OT and from God. So Matthew colors his birth story with another story of an attempt to eliminate God’s people. Matthew colors his story by reminding his readers of the story of the attempted holocaust in Egypt when Pharaoh ordered that all male children be drowned in the Nile. Moses was the intended victim of that slaughter of the children and Moses will play in important role in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus will be described as the new Moses. Matthew also remembers the story of how God called his people into being and brought them out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Matthew colors the story of Jesus’ birth with this story too as Jesus and his family flea to Egypt and then out of Egypt God calls his own Son. Everything that Matthew is doing in his beginning would have resonated with an audience of Jewish Christians and would have satisfied their need to know the origin and the legitimacy of Jesus. Why did Matthew choose to lay Mark aside and begin his gospel in this way? Again we can only speculate but it is likely that Matthew’s community was assailed with rumors of the illegitimacy of Jesus and the question of whether or not Jesus could truly be the Messiah. Mark had provided nothing to counteract these concerns. Mark didn’t need to as he wrote to his own community. But Matthew did need to provide his readers with this story. Was Matthew successful by beginning his gospel in the way he did? Frankly, many modern readers find Matthew’s genealogy boring and uninteresting. I’ve known more than one person who, when I suggested that they read the Bible, come back and tell me that they got lost in the “begets” of Matthew’s gospel. They were thankful the genealogy wasn’t too long. Personally Matthew’s beginning doesn’t grab me like Mark’s does. But my context is not that of Matthew’s community. I think Matthew’s beginning was extremely successful for his own community of readers. Matthew has accomplished what he needed to do for them. Matthew’s beginning is very different from Mark’s but it is brilliant in its own way. And Matthew’s beginning also gives us confidence that we can trust Matthew to proclaim the gospel to us so that if we have open hearts and minds we will be transformed by that proclamation.