Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?
Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Unlike Luke (for whom it is really important to date events in Jesus’ life to historical events, even if it doesn’t historically work), Matthew dates events by their relation to salvation history. So we don’t know how much time has passed between Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and this event. All we know is John the Baptist has now been arrested by Herod.
• The word translated “put in prison” is the passive form of paradidomi, which means “hand over,” “betray,” or “deliver up.” It is the same word used for Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and God’s act of delivering Jesus for human sins. It relates to Isaiah 53:6, “the Lord delivered up for our sins.”
• “Withdrew” (v. 12) is used ten times in Matthew’s Gospel, almost exclusively as Jesus’ response to threats. It is not a show of cowardice, self-preservation, or strategy, but rather a representative of Jesus’ alternative vision of kingship, which is non-violent and non-retaliatory.
• Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, both cities in the Galilee region. Galilee plays a symbolic theological role in Matthew’s Gospel as a home of gentiles. Jesus’ ministry starts in and among gentiles, and thus is more than just a ministry for the people of Israel, but for all people.
• The passage Matthew referenced in v. 15-16 is Isaiah 9:2-3. Matthew used this text both because of the promise of a coming Messiah and also because it shows the expansion of the church to the gentiles.
• V. 17 Jesus repeated the same message John the Baptist had preached. Now that John is in prison, Jesus repeating his words marks the official end of John’s ministry and the beginning of Jesus’.
• V. 17 “has come near” is a good translation for the Greek. It relates not to space but to time. The kingdom of heaven is near the way daylight comes near as the sun rises, already starting to break through the horizon.
• Repent is also a richly loaded word in scripture. It literally means “change one’s mind,” but is rich with the Hebrew undertones of “turn” and “return.” It is not sorrow or remorse, but a call to change the direction of one’s life, essentially, “get yourself a new orientation for the way you live, then act on it.”
• The call of the disciples is unique because rabbis traditionally didn’t seek out students, students sought out rabbis. But here Jesus came to Andrew and Simon, spoke to Andrew and Simon, rather than the other way around. It echoes other unexpected call stories in the Old Testament, like the call of Elisha in 1 Kings 19:19-21.
• Andrew and Simon did not know Jesus, they had not seen any miracles, heard any teachings, been present to any of John’s baptisms, yet at Jesus’ call they dropped what they were doing and followed. This could be considered the first miracle of Jesus’ ministry, that the disciples followed without knowing what or whom they were following.
• The disciples were already working when Jesus called them. They were not looking for salvation or occupation; Jesus’ call did not fill an obvious hole in their lives. Rather, like for other prophets, the call of Jesus was disruptive and intrusive. Echoes of the writing of Augustine in the Confessions, “I could not seek you, if you had not already found me.”
Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.
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