Matthew, Disciple and Scribe

by Patrick Schreiner

  In a similar way, the prohibition against adultery is still in force (Matt. 5:27–30), but Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (5:28). He condemns not only adultery but also what leads to adultery—adulterous thoughts. This was the intention of the law the entire time, but the heart of the matter needed to be spelled out. Matthew’s words on divorce are more difficult: “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matt. 5:31–32). The difficulty is that the law does allow a divorce with a certificate. Moreover, it seems Jesus intensifies this command and says that there is only one instance where a divorce is legitimate. Should we conclude that Jesus is abrogating the law? Jesus could also be correcting a misinterpretation of Deut. 24:1–4. It is better to say Jesus fulfills the ultimate purpose of the OT law. God’s original intention is grasped in Genesis. This law should not have been used to justify divorce; rather, it is a concession due to the hardness of human hearts (Matt. 19:8). The intention of God’s command is clear in Genesis. The certificate has become a license for liberty rather than a concession for a sinful, broken world.

  The prohibition of all oaths again might seem like Jesus sets aside the OT law that permits oaths: “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or . . .” (Matt. 5:33–34). But if this command is viewed through the lens of the preamble, then the OT laws enshrine the importance of truthfulness. The language of Jesus is, therefore, hyperbolic. Jesus reminds people of the original intention of the law. His words create a community of truthfulness, where oath taking is unnecessary since men and women speak the truth.

  Many have seen an abrogation of the law in verses 38–42, since Jesus seems to reject the OT law of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Instead, he calls on his hearers to not take revenge for evil: “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:39). John Meier claims that Jesus’s teaching regarding the lex talionis is perhaps the clearest and least disputable case of annulment in the antitheses. This view, though popular, is probably mistaken. What Jesus counters is a misinterpretation of the command to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The lex talionis was designed to limit violence (Lev. 24:19–21). The command simply affirms that the punishment should fit the crime. However, the lex talionis had come to perpetuate rather than arrest violence. The heart of the disciple is to be one of forgiveness and nonretaliation. Therefore, Jesus again corrects a misuse of the law. He brings out treasures both new and old. They are new because Jesus teaches a way to overcome the flesh and enact the justice of God, but old in that these are still the same commands given in the Torah.

  The last section concerning loving your neighbor should be interpreted similarly, where Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Matt. 5:43). There is no OT command saying that one should love one’s neighbor and hate one’s enemy. Thus this last example confirms that throughout Jesus responds to some distortion of what the people thought the Torah taught. The true meaning of Lev. 19:18 is that believers should love all people—friends and enemies alike. “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”

  The law has always called on Israel to love, and Jesus returns to this idea of both loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. Jesus turns their eyes toward the true intent of the law. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Matthew has Jesus, as a teacher like Moses, presenting the old-fashioned law. This is the old message that Moses has already given, but now it is wrapped in the robes of the messiah. He fulfills the law by both performing the law (see the previous chapter) and giving its true interpretation (see this chapter).

  Taking His Yoke

  A fitting way to conclude a reflection on how Jesus is a prophet like Moses, who fulfills the Torah, is by looking at how Jesus instructs his disciples to take his yoke upon them. The relationship between wisdom, law, and the new exodus are evident in Matt. 11:28–30:

  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

  As David, the kingdom, and wisdom were joined, so too in this text Moses, the new exodus, and wisdom meet. Wisdom 10:18–11:16 speaks of Lady Wisdom as the one who rescued Israel from Egypt with miracles, brought them across the Red Sea, led them through deep waters, drowned their enemies, opened their mouths to sing praises, prospered the works of Moses, gave water from the rock, and tested the generation as a parent.

  Three indications in the text support viewing this statement by Jesus under the banner of the Torah and the next exodus, with wisdom at the center. First, Jesus calls his disciples to come to him, and he will give them rest (ἀναπαύω, 11:28–29). This Greek word, ἀναπαύω, is the same word employed for Sabbath rest (Exod. 23:12; 31:15), but even more importantly for the promised land. In Deut. 12:9–10 the word “rest” parallels their inheritance and relief from their enemies.29 This is repeated in Josh. 1:13 when Joshua reiterates the words of Moses: “The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest [καταπαύω] and will give you this land.” The phrase “rest for your souls” also alludes to Jer. 6:16, which is a scathing judgment oracle. The offer stands, but refusal of wisdom leads to disaster (Prov. 1:20–33; 8:35–36). Intertextual allusions therefore confirm that when Jesus calls for people to come to him and find rest, he holds out to them the promise of a new exodus. However, to obtain this rest, they need a solution to the law they fail to keep.

  Therefore, second, Jesus tells them to take his yoke upon them. Yoke is an image for both Torah and wisdom. Jesus teaches them that to find rest they need to become his disciples, who receive Jesus’s yoke: “Take my yoke [ζυγός] upon you, to learn [μάθετε] from me. . . . For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:29–30).30 Deutsch notes that the sage in Sir. 6:18–37 and 51:23–26 speaks of a yoke that is wisdom, which is also equated with the Torah.31 Then 2 En. 34.1 says, “They have rejected my commandments and my yoke.” And 2 Bar. 41.3–4 says, “I see many of your people have withdrawn from your covenant, and cast from them the yoke of your law.”32 In the table, the text from Sirach is compared with the text from Matthew.33

  Matthew 11:25–30 ESV Sirach 51:1, 23–28 NRSV

  At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. . . . I will give you thanks, O Lord and King. . . .

  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Draw near to me, you who are uneducated, and lodge in the house of instruction. Why do you say you are lacking in these things? . . .

  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Put your neck under her yoke, and let your souls receive instruction; it is to be found close by. See with your own eyes that I have labored but little and found for myself much serenity (rest).

  Therefore, in Matt. 11:28–30 Jesus invites Israel to rest by calling them to learn his wisdom––specifically to be his disciples in both his embodiment and interpretation of the Torah. They are to embrace Jesus’s teachings and to imitate him as he goes to the cross. They can enter the land only if they follow Jesus as he fulfills the Torah and empowers them to do
likewise.34

  Third, Matt. 12, which immediately follows this passage, also supports the yoke and Torah interrelation, with Jesus reinterpreting the Sabbath commandment. The Pharisees and scribes impose heavy yokes on the people, but Jesus’s way of the Torah is freeing, not burdensome; it leads to rest. “The disciple therefore, learns the yoke of Jesus, i.e., the Torah, as it is interpreted by Jesus himself, as illustrated in 12:1–8, 9–14.”35 These three points combine to form a picture of Jesus as the new Moses, who leads the people to the promised land of rest by discipling them in wisdom cocerning the Torah. He takes the law upon himself as their wise leader. In this way he surpasses Moses, who could only mediate the law but never fully accomplish it.

  The New and Wise Lawgiver

  If Jesus is the new Moses, then would it not be natural to expect Jesus to deliver a new revelation? This assumption has tilted people into saying that Jesus “extends” the law in the Sermon. Yet the first premise is questionable. If Jesus is the new Moses, he might also simply be the one to whom the law always pointed. The new fulfills the old, and the old informs the new. He is still another lawgiver because he embodies the new law and clarifies the true intention of the law. So is there anything new to what Jesus is saying?

  While continuity exists with the instructions of the Torah, there is also discontinuity relative to the old covenant that comes from the apocalyptic new-covenant era that Jesus has inaugurated. A transformation occurs through the coming of the new covenant. The eschatological transformation means not that he contradicts the law but that the law now resides in a new era. The law is still the law, but it now is in the mouth of the true lawgiver, law abider, and law liver. He takes the entire Torah (the yoke) upon himself. The authority of the OT law continues, but it does not function in the same way, because it inhabits a different epoch.

  By bringing his people into a new epoch and taking their yoke upon himself as the Moses-sage, Jesus leads them on the new exodus.36 While Moses led Israel into the promised land, the people found that sin still resided in their hearts. Jesus provides a redemption that transfers not only their location but also their allegiance. The Sermon and the rest of Jesus’s teaching on the law displays that while the law was always destined to lead them toward a right relationship with God, a wide-angle lens displays that obedience can come only through death. The law is good, but sin has corrupted the law. As Israel needed to die for their sins, now a representative of Israel is going to die for the sins of the people. The only way to live a kingdom life in accord with the Sermon is to follow the teacher-prophet to the cross. Too often the Sermon is read in isolation from the rest of the Gospel. The Sermon and the new exodus overlap like the Torah and the exodus intersect for Moses. Jesus is the eschatological prophet to whom the Law and the Prophets pointed. He can lead them on the new exodus because he has accomplished all that the law requires.

  Jesus interprets the law as a musician performs Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Good performances add nothing to the score, not a jot or tittle. Yet at the same time, the performance is not wooden but is an act releasing what is inherent in the text itself. The music is realized through the performance and interpretation. It comes to life in the performance, and although the performer exercises self-restraint in not adding to the piece, there is a newness to each performance. In the same way, Jesus does not add to the law, but his performance and presence bring new life to it. The new covenant, in a similar way, is both like and unlike the old covenant. A different νόμος is at work, because Jesus brings forth the new covenant. There are not new commands, but the law is now within—written on the heart—and God will be with his people (Jer. 31:33).

  Jesus is the teacher, unlike Moses, who enables Israel to overcome the flesh rather than acquiesce to it. He fulfills the newness like a musician playing Mozart. The new covenant instituted by Christ is the old covenant revealed, and the old covenant is the new concealed beneath dark hearts. Jesus instructs the people on the law as the new Moses and tells them to pray for the new exodus as he leads them into the land he has promised their forefathers. Matthew’s strategy here is to string the teaching material together so that readers can trace the pearls all the way back to Sinai. This connection reveals how to interpret the Sermon, how to view Jesus, and how to see the placement of Sinai on the canvas of God’s redemptive history.

  This examination of Jesus as the teacher-prophet and his stance toward the law was necessary because the law and the exodus cannot be fragmented. The law is given immediately after Yahweh has redeemed his people, because the goal was always for Israel to be free to worship Yahweh as he stipulated. Therefore, the law is not some afterthought to their redemption––it is the very purpose of redemption. Maybe this is why Matthew also presents Jesus as the teacher par excellence in his Gospel. The new exodus and the Torah are hitched in the Pentateuch, and so they must be in Matthew’s presentation as well. The Sermon and Jesus’s teaching largely is not merely a nice little compilation of Jesus’s sayings but a charter for the new people of God. If Jesus’s blood and death are the means by which the door of the new exodus will swing open, then the teaching of Jesus is the law for the reconstituted people of God.

  The Miracle Worker Who Redeems

  As Jesus is the redeemer-king like Moses (Matt. 2) and the teacher-prophet like Moses (Matt. 5–7, 11), he is also a miracle worker like Moses. After the Sermon, one might suppose that the Moses imagery would begin to fade, but in chapters 8–9 Matthew continues to portray Jesus as the new and better Moses. We can view Moses’s life as a narrative of God working miracles through him. Moses mediates many of the wonders that Israel sees, and these are all centered on the exodus. A pillar of cloud and fire guards the multitude (Exod. 13:21–22), a strong wind makes a path for them through the sea (14:21–29), bitter waters are made sweet and drinkable (15:22–25), water comes from a rock (17:2–6), the wind brings quail (Num. 11:31), Miriam is cured of leprosy (12:5–15), Aaron’s staff buds (17:1–10), and the people are healed by looking at the snake on a bronze pole (21:4–9). Yahweh is the one who performs these miracles, but he performs some of them through the mediator Moses.

  Early writers also recognized the connection between Moses the miracle worker and Jesus the miracle performer. In the Acts of Pilate, Nicodemus says the following to Pilate: “What do you intend to do with this man? . . . If the signs are from God, they will stand; if they are from men, they will come to nothing. For Moses also, when he was sent by God into Egypt, did many signs which God commanded him to do” (Acts of Pilate 5.1). Eusebius similarly said that Jesus’s miracles paralleled Moses’s: “Moses by wonderful work and miracles authenticated the religion he proclaimed; Christ likewise, using his recorded miracles to inspire faith in those who saw them, established the new discipline of the gospel teaching” (Dem. ev. 3.2). Philo also speaks of Moses as being greatly grieved and indignant that when the Egyptians oppressed his people, he could not assist them (Mos. 1.40). So he gave them assistance “like a good physician” although their taskmasters returned and oppressed them with greater severity (Mos. 1.42). In Matt. 21:15 the chief priests and scribes witness the “wonderful things” (θαυμάσια) that Jesus does. This term is widely used in the LXX of the marvelous deeds of God, and especially of the exodus wonders. Matthew likely wants readers to see the connection. Three specific examples will help readers see how Matthew develops his portrait of Jesus as the new Moses in terms of the miracle worker who brings his people on the new exodus.

  Three Signs

  Moses is given three signs so that people might believe him and listen to his voice (Exod. 4:1). The three signs Moses assumes correspond to Jesus’s life. Moses is able to (1) grasp the serpent, (2) bring waters of salvation and judgment, and (3) resurrect dead flesh. The ability to grasp the serpent (Exod. 4:2–5) recalls the promise in Gen. 3:15, where one will come who will conquer the serpent. The authors of the NT and Matthew specifically present Jesus as this promised offspring of the woman. Matthew makes that cle
ar by starting with the genealogy, which displays Jesus as the culmination of the line of promise. His entire life satisfies the seed promise in Genesis as he restores creation to an ordered relationship with its Creator. The ability to grasp the serpent was a sign of dominion and fulfillment of the role that humans are meant to have over creation. Jesus, in a similar way in Matthew, controls and dominates the serpent during his temptations and declares his rightful authority over all heaven and earth.

  The waters of judgment and salvation are the second sign given to Moses. Throughout Moses’s life, the water motif continually reappears. His name comes from the fact that he is drawn up out of the water (Exod. 2:10). When Moses flees to Midian, he draws water for the priest of Midian (2:16–19). The water Moses takes from the Nile becomes blood (7:19–20). In the climactic scene at the Red Sea, Moses stretches out his hand, and the water crashes upon the Egyptians, destroying them (14:26–27). In the wilderness, water becomes an issue at Marah until Moses casts a log into it to make it sweet (15:23–25). At Horeb, God instructs Moses to strike a rock to make it pour forth water (17:6). Moses’s downfall comes when he strikes a rock at Kadesh instead of telling it to yield its water, as God had commanded (Num. 20:7–12).

  As Moses’s life begins by being drawn up out of the water, Jesus begins his ministry at his baptism. After Jesus comes up out of the water (Matt. 3:16), he goes on to cross water, walk on water, and calm the water in his ministry. Matthew specifically highlights the story of Jesus walking on the water in chapter 14 and Peter stepping out of the boat and walking with Jesus (Matt. 14:29). No longer does the water pose a threat to Jesus, because he is sovereign over the water in a way Moses never was. Matthew ends his narrative with Jesus commanding his followers to make disciples by baptizing them with water, symbolizing that they are taking part in a story begun with Moses and consummated in Jesus.