With ch. 11 we enter upon the third of Matthew's five Books. Each has embedded in it a prophecy quoted from the Old Testament which is seen to be fulfilled in Jesus, and which sets the theme for that book.
The quotation in Book 3 is 12:18-21, from the first of the four Servant Songs in Isaiah (42:1-4), which prophesied that the Messiah would not be a bully like the usual run of earthly 'deliverers' who get their way by throwing their weight about, but would win his quiet way to victory in a meek spirit of gentle sympathy.
That is the overall theme of these chapters 11-13. Neither the King nor the Kingdom conform to worldly norms. He is not the sort of king we are used to and his kingdom is not the sort we would expect. King and Kingdom in fact are so radically different from the kings and kingdoms of this world that they can both be staring us in the face and we not see them. The King is a veiled king (12:16 e.g.), and His Kingdom is a hidden kingdom (13:33 e.g.), until we are given eyes to see both. Then the whole world looks very different. So it is that new pair of eyes, and that new look to life in this world that are to be sought in these chapters.
Broadly, the narrative section, chs. 11-12, focuses on the veiled king, and the discourse section, ch. 13 with its brace of parables, on the hidden nature of the kingdom.
The introductory statement in 11:1, "When Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities" tells us that this section will contain teaching of a general kind for all sorts and conditions of men. It will in fact be a demonstration by Jesus Himself of just the kind of mission to which in ch. 10 He commissioned the disciples. Ch. 11 supplies the model; Jesus Himself will preach and heal, and we shall see how His preaching and healing produces division just the way He warned the disciples theirs will.
Looking for repeating editorial phrases which Matthew uses in his narrative sections to indicate natural breaks, two offer themselves fairly obviously.
One is: "At that time ..." 11:25, 12:1; and one very like it introduces the discourse of ch. 13, "On that day."
Another is the phrase "something greater" which occurs at ...
12: 6 something greater than the temple
12:41 something greater than Jonah
12:42 something greater than Solomon
Indeed, the 'something greater' idea recurs all through the section:
• near its beginning at 11:11: he who
is least in the Kingdom is "greater than John"
• a little further on at 11:21 & 23: Jesus upbraids those
towns where "mightier (greater) works had been done than in
Sodom"
• and again in 12:29: the one who is "greater than the strong
man" so as to be able to plunder his house.
But it always comes embedded in the text, not at the beginning of a paragraph, so we take it to be a little flag Matthew keeps waving at us to keep us alert to the overall theme he is pursuing. He is talking about the hiddenness of the king and the kingdom, and that can lead us, just as easily as it leads the world, to overlook and ignore both; Matthew wants to be sure we do not, so he keeps reminding us how much greater both are than their worldly counterparts. The phrase 'at that time' is the paragraph divider we are looking for. The paragraphs are:
1. 11:2-24 John the Baptist and men's lack of repentance. - Repentance
2. 11:25-30 Babes who see what wise men do not: Christ can only be known by revelation - Revelation
3. 12: 1-50 The Sabbath and Satan, sins, signs and spirits, and family - Response
There are two long sections either side of a quite short one. Each has a core of teaching about discipleship embedded in it too; that is another feature Matthew observes in the framing of his material. The discipleship themes are:
1. 11: 6 - Disciples take no offence in Jesus;
2. 11:25 - Disciples are babes and yoke-fellows;
3. 12:50 - Disciples are loyal family.
This section also offers an example of Matthew's use of chiasmus in the arrangement of his material - an arrangement of ideas that begins and ends with parallel themes (which may be of either comparison or contrast), and makes the intervening ideas converge in pairs toward the middle, so ...
John's disciples - 'seek God's Son' 11. 2- 6
Kingdom seized by violence 11. 7-19Towns condemned - shown signs, did not repent 11.20-24Babes see 11.25-27'Come to me for rest' 11.28-30Wrong spirit puts down the guiltless 12. 1- 8Wrong spirit breeds injustice 12. 9-14Pharisees reject and plan to kill 12.14Many follow and are healed 12.15
Spirit-filled Servant brings justice 12. 9-14
Spirit-filled Servant lifts up the weak 12.19-21
Oppressed man given 'rest' 12.22-33
Pharisees blind 12.24-37
Pharisees condemned - want signs, will not repent 12.38-42
House seized by evil spirits 12.43-45
Jesus' disciples - 'do God's will' 12.46-50
The themes of the King and His Kingdom, the hiddenness of both and our response of repentance and faith or of unbelief to them, and the immense contrast they present to the kings and kingdoms of this world, are all interwoven together.
We now have a broad base of understanding for this Book 3: the King and His Kingdom, their hiddenness, and our response to them. To grasp a whole section this way can keep us on the rails when it comes to tricky points of interpretation; and in this part of Matthew's Gospel, there is more than one. The saying about the kingdom being seized by violence, 11:12 for example, is counterpoised with the chiasmic equivalent 12:44-45, which supports the interpretation offered below.
When John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples to ask, "Are you he who should come, or look we for another?"
It is not the sort of question we would have expected John, at this late stage, to ask. At the beginning of his ministry he had been so sure. "He who comes after me is mightier than I." Now, it seems, he had begun to wonder. It is not hard to understand why. John had seen everything in such stark and dramatic colours; he looked for the arrival of God's personal representative on earth to be attended by big, dramatic events. The coming of the Messiah meant that God would take the government of the whole world into His own hands. That would mean salvation for some, and final judgment for the rest. The unrighteous would be cut down like rotten trees to be thrown into the fire, and the righteous would be exalted so as to shine in their Heavenly Father's realm. John expected the end of the world.
But what did he see? A gentle, quiet man, having marvellous powers and possessed of great moral impact, to be sure; but His appearance on the scene was not producing the world-shaking events John had expected. This Jesus of Nazareth did not seem to be making much difference; life went on much the same as it always had. Men could even oppose him, it seemed, and come to no harm by it. John had looked for a huge divine bomb to go off in the world, but all he could see was a damp squib.
"Are you he who is to come, or look we for another?" The hiddenness of it all was the bother. Where were the signs? John looked for such big ones.
So did the Pharisees, of course. Soon we shall hear them asking the same question. But they will be asking it in a very different mood. John wanted to believe: the Pharisees did not.
The lesson of this little episode is: if we want to believe, all we have to do is look, and we shall see: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind are receiving their sight, the lame are walking, lepers are being cleansed and the deaf made to hear, the dead are being raised up, and the poor are having good news proclaimed to them." It is exactly what the prophets had promised: "The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing." (Isa. 35:5 ƒƒ) "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He has anointed me to bring good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the eyes to those who are bound." (Isa. 61:1 ƒƒ) What are chapters 8-9 but a demonstration of just exactly that? "Use your eyes," Jesus is saying. "Did you really expect God to govern the world the same way men do - bully them into submission and destroy them by the million if they will not submit?"
What sort of Kingdom will God's Kingdom be? An iron-clad totalitarian state, or a garden, where beautiful flowers blossom and gentle fruits appear? You do not grow such a garden by scything everything down. You dig patiently, and plant quietly, and water gently, and wait for the warm sun to nourish things into tender, wholesome life. Is that not what Jesus was doing? Is that not what the Kingly Rule of God will be like?
What is it we are looking for? Big, dramatic, earth-shaking events? A church full to bursting with wildly excited people sobbing and shouting and dancing in the aisles? Or their patient, gentle nourishment into wholesome life by God's quiet Spirit and His truth? Fire and storm and earthquake are the ways men pictured God's Spirit before Jesus appeared: when He did appear, the likeness in which that Spirit settled on Him was that of a dove!
Notice finally that Jesus always welcomed honest doubt, and met it with an honest answer.
We should not be ashamed of doubt if it is honest doubt. The sort to be ashamed of is the sort we throw up as a smoke-screen to avoid the issue. If we have honest doubts we should front, not funk them. We grow that way into knowledge of the truth; we get to the place where, to use our Lord's own words, we "take no offence in Him." (v. 6)
If Jesus is the truth and we take no offence at Him, then everything in us is 'registering' as it should. If we do take offence at Him it can only mean that we are at fault somewhere. To be at odds with Jesus is sure evidence that we are out of skew. By concentrating on the area of difficulty, we open the way to get back into shape.
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