Friday, 27 March The Messiah Reveals His Kingdom. Matthew 20:17–34
This passage opens with a shocking moment. After Jesus’ demolition of any kind or prestige or hierarchies of power in his new Kingdom – no first, no last – Jesus calls the Twelve together. They are travelling in a large crowd; we hear about that elsewhere – all the carers and cooks and followers generally. But now Jesus calls aside his special Twelve.
He tells them really clearly what will happen in Jerusalem: rejection, betrayal, flogging, crucifixion – and then resurrection! We can easily skip over this because we know the story so well, but read it again for its horror and utter destruction of everything that the Jewish nation had stood for in the past.
The words going up to Jerusalem are repeated in quick succession in vv17&18. This should grab our attention. Why did Matthew do this? Nothing in scripture is accidental.
The phrase go up to Jerusalem is thematic for the Old Testament. It is a metaphor, not for going up to the capital city for shopping or sightseeing, but for going up to the Temple. The Temple was in Jerusalem, and was the House of the Lord God – the physical place of his holy presence. To go there was a holy obligation, and a perpetual joy. Think of Moslems today going to Mecca, but with much more joy and a deep sense of shalom (that special word for peace that includes wellbeing of earth, of society, of family, and the individual).
There are seven Psalms known as the Psalms of Ascent. They are psalms that were associated with going up, i.e. ascent to the Jerusalem temple. If you were a group of pilgrims setting out on that journey, you would – like any holy-day-maker decide on what you were taking with you, what route you would take – and what music you will sing as you go (they didn’t have streamed music then, they made their own as they walked). What shall we sing? Let’s sing the Seven Psalms of Going Up! One of those psalms is Ps. 132. Listen to our group of pilgrims as they go up in joy and anticipation to Jerusalem.
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation:
14 “This is my resting place forever; here I will reside, for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly bless its provisions; I will satisfy its poor with bread.
16 Its priests I will clothe with salvation, and its faithful will shout for joy.
17 There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one.
18 His enemies I will clothe with disgrace, but on him, his crown will gleam.”
Now read again the words that Jesus said as he drew his disciples around him and announced that like all Jewish pilgrims, they were going up to Jerusalem: the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified;
Where is the joy? Where are the songs of hope? Where are the nurturing priests? Where is the gleaming crown and the lamp of peace and benevolent rule?
Our Old Testament ends with the book of Malachi, so we are inclined to forget that the Jewish scriptures as read by Jesus and all Jews of his era (and still today), actually ended with the second book of Chronicles. The last verse of the last chapter of that book, and thus of their entire Holy Scripture which ultimately looked forward to the Messiah and the deliverance in shalom of the Jewish people reads like this (2 Chron. 36:22):
Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up.
Now we can grasp the point of Matthew’s repetition of this phrase, going up to Jerusalem! Let him go up is the last phrase in Jesus’ Bible. He is about to fulfil the end of scripture.
Such a going up to Jerusalem was the core theme, the ending-point, the launching-pad of history for the entire volume of Jewish scripture. But when Jesus announces it, there is a thundering clash of worldviews – the Prince of Peace and the Pax Romana (that special political peace which the Romans preserved wherever they were in charge). Jerusalem – the place of the Temple was the place of peace and joy. That is what its name means! The Dwelling-Place of Peace. Jeru-shalom.
The disciples ought to have been astounded by Jesus’ words. Those words should have struck upon their ears as completely dissonant. Jerusalem is the place where the Messiah is to be sought and celebrated! Jesus is the Messiah – they are now certain of that. Why should he face ridicule, torture and death? The way that they reacted shows to what extent Jesus’ words were actually incomprehensible. They formed a cognitive dissonance. They were so opposite to everything that should be expected, that they were just blocked out.
Matthew follows this up with two short vignettes which cast quite a bit of light on how they understood what he had said:
· Two brothers and a mother who just don’t see the realities of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus has been teaching and want to drag the kingdom of heaven down to their earthly ambitions.
· Two blind men who just don’t see though their world of darkness to the world of light around them, and who desperately want to see that light.
Contrast the crass, egocentric ambitions of the mother of James and John with the blind men who just want to see and follow Jesus. Matthew’s inclusion of this story of two blind men following the story of two brothers cannot be accidental. Mark tells a parallel story, but his story only has one man (Mark 10:4–52). This difference does not make one story wrong. Mark deliberately names his blind man. That two blind men might choose to travel together is not surprising. Both Matthew and Mark have chosen their material to suit their editorial and narrative purposes.
Jesus now gives them his greatest lesson in leadership.You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
In just a few days from now, they would see Jesus live out this lesson in ways that they would never forget.
Prayer: Oh, my Lord Jesus Christ! How truly your going up to Jerusalem fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures! I am so sorry that we treated you so badly and misunderstood your mission. Help me now, please, to love and serve you as the Lord Christ of my life. Amen.
