Allow me to introduce myself: I am the person who compiled what you know as the Gospel of Matthew. That isn’t my real name: there is no evidence of what I’m really called. You call my book the Gospel of Matthew because an early historian believed it to be written by a tax collector of that name whom Jesus called to discipleship. But time has moved on; today’s date is towards the end of the first century after Jesus’s birth, Jesus died around 60 years ago, and I am compiling my book for some very specific purposes.
But, for today, you can call me Matthew.
I live and work here in Antioch. I am a believer in Jesus of Nazareth and I’m passionate about what that means to the Jewish people. I really believe that he truly was the long-awaited Messiah of the Jewish tradition. I am a member of a small community of believers, and we all hold very powerfully to the idea that Christianity is a reforming power within Judaism. We would argue that Jesus was the fulfilment of all the Jewish prophecies about the Messiah, and that Judaism has no future without recognition of that fact: he was the one we have been waiting for.
Now there are other views around. There are teachings and letters and historical writings circulating among our communities which place a great emphasis on the appeal of Jesus’s message to Greeks, gentiles, pagans, Romans, everyone in fact. And that’s good! The material I have for my book shows that faith in Jesus is intended to spread through all the nations and conquer the whole earth. It just gets to me that large parts of the community out of which Jesus came still refuse to accept him as the Anointed One of God and the true fulfilment of the great prophecies about God with us.
So, I’ve decided it’s time to put together the best collection I possibly can of material about Jesus, starting right at the beginning, and to make sure that it reflects my community’s beliefs and opinions about the birth, life, mission, and death of Jesus, the carpenter’s son, with the mother called Mary - our Messiah.
You might be rather surprised at what the date is - that around 60 years have passed since the Romans crucified our Messiah. 60 years of stories told and re-told; 60 years of interpretation, translation, editing, embroidering, ranging from eye-witness accounts to fifth-hand recollections. And remember, I wasn’t around at the time, so I do have to rely on the work of other people.
At least this means I’m not short of material! I’ve already decided that the heart of my Gospel is going to be a reworking of a version of the life of Jesus which is already circulating quite widely – you know it as the Gospel of Mark. I have great respect for Mark’s Gospel and I think I can take about 80% of it into my book virtually as it stands.
After that, I’ve got hold of a wonderful piece of work which Mark seems not to have known about: it’s full of really powerful sayings which Jesus used in his dealings with his family, his disciples, and the crowds which followed him around. This is really going to put a lot of flesh on the bones of what Mark tells us, and it’s good from my point of view because these sayings are very Jewish in their style and in the way they teach – they give Jesus the aura of a Jewish rabbi! And I particularly like it every time he has a swipe at those hypocritical Pharisees!
And then, the final ingredient in my book will be some material to which I have exclusive access. This is what will really make my work different from all the others. And, if I do say so myself, I’m quite a good writer: I know how to put an argument together, how to make a strong point, how to tell a tale, how to hold my reader’s attention. If nothing else, my book is going to be a thumping good read from beginning to end.
I’ve worked out a really good ending: there’s a touching final farewell and a solemn handing on of the divine commission to go out and spread the teachings of the Messiah far and wide. But I have to admit I’m having a bit of trouble with the beginning of my book.
If I’m going to be true to my Jewish Messiah theme, which sits right at the very heart of my own belief, I really do need to prove to my readers that Jesus was fully qualified to be the Messiah. And the Jewish prophets have been pretty clear over the years about what those qualifications must be. I have got to be able to prove a genealogy which links Jesus with David. Every Jew knows that the Messiah must come to us from the line of David. If I can’t make that connection – and do it convincingly - I’m sunk.
And now I’ve made a rod for my own back, because the best material I have about Jesus’s family tells me that there was something of a slight irregularity around the conception of the child. So, a part of my book is going to have to tell everyone that Joseph wasn’t Jesus’s father; but unless I can show that Joseph was exactly that, I can’t show Jesus as being descended from the line of David, and I weaken my claim that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.
It’s taken me ages to decide what to do, but I’ve come up with a cracker of a solution.
First of all, I’m going to rely on the principle in Jewish law that, officially Joseph became Jesus’s father when the child was formally named. I know a bit about the law, and on this occasion the law is going to set aside the biology of what actually went on. I’m also going to use some material I have about an angelic visit to Joseph. I want to show that he had no choice in the course of events but he was obedient to God’s will and ended up doing what was right.
Then, just in case that isn’t enough, I’m going to muddy the waters and sling a bit of the mud at a few other people in Jesus’s ancestry. With a bit of luck, this will take the heat off Mary and the Holy Spirit, and still leave a connection back to David which just about holds water. I've decided to draw attention to some very dubious goings on many generations ago. I’m going to mention the involvement of some very active and vigorous women in the history of our people. These women gave birth to some of the significant figures in Jesus's ancestry, and I rather hope this glimpse of a checkered past will encourage my readers to see that God can work through our sins to fulfil God’s bigger purpose. I'm trying to put my readers in the frame of mind to see that the conception, birth and parentage of Jesus was entirely the working out of God’s will to fulfil a bigger purpose – and that it can be embraced within the Jewish tradition around the genealogy of the Messiah. Some people will notice the holes in my argument, but the list of ancestors is only the beginning of my logically-argued case to prove who Jesus was. I’ll have them convinced by the end of my book.
In a way, it’s easy for me to assemble all my evidence 60 years after the events it refers to, and to develop a reasoned, coherent account of what happened all those years ago. For such a long time, the people who read my book assumed I was actually there as an eye-witness. How I wish I had been!
I often wonder what it must have felt like to be in amongst it all as it was actually taking place. When he called each of his followers to join him, what evidence did they need that this was not just another odd-ball preacher? What personal magnetism must Jesus have had to be able to gather his followers into a community, to debate with the scribes and Pharisees and trip them up so skilfully on their own prejudices? What love must he have inspired in those who felt his healing touch or heard his forgiving words?
They didn’t examine his family history to look for proof. They didn’t think twice about his parents’ betrothal and marriage, or the visits of angels, or astrologers from the East. They met him, they heard him, and they knew. It was entirely a personal response.
One of the most moving pieces of material which I have in my collection describes a remarkable moment between Jesus and Peter in Caesarea Philippi. Jesus says to his disciples, ‘Who do the people say that I am?’ and he receives various answers such as John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet. Then Jesus says directly to his disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ And it is Simon Peter who answers, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’.
What a reply that is! I could write you a hundred books setting out the evidence I have, and arguing my corner that the Messiah came to dwell among us as a carpenter’s son, the child of Mary; but I don’t know whether my account of his life could ever bring you to the point of saying with your own voice, with the conviction of Peter, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’.
Perhaps my book will go some way to opening your minds about Jesus. Perhaps I can prepare the soil for the seeds, make you think, question, argue, debate and consider who he really was.
I give you what I consider are the issues of my time. In my time, in this place, among my community of followers of Jesus, these are the facts as we have received them, influenced by our culture, set against the backdrop of our history. And there's no doubt that, barely a few decades after his death, the followers of Jesus are steadily growing into a world-wide movement just as he commanded when he said ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’.
He said he would be with us ‘always, to the end of the age’. I’m convinced that, as he comes alongside each one of us, he still asks a question of every new follower – just as he asked it in Caesarea Phillipi – ‘Who do you say that I am’. Every follower answers that question for themselves at some time. All the evidence in the world – including mine - boils down to that one personal question.
As you prepare to focus once again on that part of the Jesus story which deals with his birth – and I do hope my book will get plenty of prominence! – perhaps it’s a good time to ask that question again. Who do you say that the child of Bethlehem is? Through his grace can you say 'I met him, I heard him, I know'?
Well, it was very nice to meet you all. Do look me up some time: you’ll find me in The Book.
(Philip Jones)
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church
of Manchester. Click here for further information.