As folks who know how this story ends, it’s so easy to pick Peter apart in this scene. We quickly understand that the Messiah figure is one of sacrificial love and servant leadership. How could Peter, who just called Jesus the Messiah, not understand that he needs to go and be crucified by the authorities and Rome? Some head of the church he is. But that’s not what Peter and the disciples would be thinking at all.
Matthew 16:13-20 (13th Sunday after Pentecost) – August 27, 2023
R. Alan Culpepper writes, “This scene gives us a tantalizing glimpse into the early church in the latter decades of the first century and Matthew’s place in that theological “landscape.” In form, these verses constitute both a foundation story and a commissioning story; they tell the Matthean church where it came from, and they commission Peter as the leader of the church, and by implication the authorized bearer of the tradition.”[1]
Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28 (12th Sunday after Pentecost) – August 20, 2023
It is an insult. Please don’t try to explain away Jesus’ words here by saying that they wouldn’t have been insulting in Jesus’ day or that Jesus was just trying to test the woman’s faith. His words were insulting and, in some ways, they are even more pointedly insulting (with potential to cause harm) because of Jesus’ time.
Matthew 14:22-33 (11th Sunday after Pentecost) – August 13, 2023
This is not the first time that the disciples get into a boat in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s a pretty common experience in many of the gospels. Traveling by boat from one shore to another is a pretty effective means of travel in those days. However, this time it’s a little different. Jesus compels the disciples to get into the boat, but Jesus does not go with them. After hearing about the death of John the Baptist, after the feeding of the 5000-10,000 gathered people, Jesus decides that he needs to be alone and so he sends the disciples out onto the boat while he goes up on the mountain. There are plenty of aspects of this story that we could focus on from this text. Jesus needing time away. Jesus grieving the death of a friend. Jesus being a Moses figure, going up to the mountain to communicate with God. But today I want to stay with the story of the disciples. And that’s because there’s a slow transition happening between last week’s text up through the transfiguration. Jesus is trying to show the disciples that they will need to start taking the lead. But that does not mean that God’s not there (see next section for this Matthew trajectory).
Matthew 14:13-21 (10th Sunday after Pentecost) – August 6th, 2023
Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish that had been gathered, the only food that anyone had. He looked up to heaven and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. Everyone ate and had enough. It wasn’t a miracle that everyone received some bread and fish. It wasn’t even a miracle that there was so much left over. It was a miracle because no one had to leave.
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 (9th Sunday after Pentecost) – July 30, 2023
Take any of these parables and turn them over again and again. Change out the characters. Change out the scenarios and have fun with them. But, when looking at them altogether, the interpretation that makes the most sense to me is that WE are NOT the ones doing the finding. We also may be a weird tree/shrub.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 (8th Sunday after Pentecost) – July 23, 2023
As I’ve said in other commentaries, Matthew is foretelling of a Judgment Day that will come at the end times. So, while I’d love to tell you that there is a nifty way around this where he’s not talking about Judgment Day in the explanation, that wouldn’t be true to the text. The explanation of this parable is describing an end times Judgment Day.
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 (7th Sunday after Pentecost) – July 16, 2023
Chapter 13 really should be read in the context of the unit of chapters 11-13. In chapter 11, Jesus has been theologically and scripturally wrestling with authorities and doubters (John’s followers and the Pharisees) and he is also talking about repentance and judgment. In chapter 12, he is out among the people again healing and showing “mercy.” But because this happens on the sabbath, he is being questioned by the Pharisees as to his disregard for the law and where his authority comes from (Beelzebul). Now in chapter 13, the next day, he has a crowd around him. We feel the tension of these parables quickly. After Jesus finishes the parable of the sower, we miss a crucial section where the disciples ask why he is speaking in parables (an indication of their own confusion). In Jesus’ explanation, he uses Isaiah 6:9. R. Alan Culpepper rightly asks, “The primary exegetical issue is whether Jesus speaks in parables so that the people will not understand, turn, and be forgiven (as in Mark), or so that the crowds will understand, repent, and be forgiven (Matt 13:34-35).”[1] This is the crucial question for this chapter on parables and the entirety of the rest of the Gospel. If it is the former, then this is a matter of the “elect.” God has already chosen who will hear and thus Jesus speaks in parables only to create greater confusion. But if it is the latter, then Jesus is using parables to open the minds of the crowds so that they will indeed repent and come to understand the kingdom of God.
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 (6th Sunday after Pentecost) – July 9th, 2023
The lectionary is doing us a bit of a disservice this week as we’re starting in the middle of a scene that is rife with tension. But the reason is because we got Matthew 11:2-11 back on the 3rd Sunday of Advent. A disciple of John the Baptist is coming to Jesus with a message, “Are you the one or are we to wait for another?”
Matthew 10:40-42 (5th Sunday after Pentecost) – July 2, 2023
As we continue through this sending passage, we get these final three verses of chapter 10. Now, to different preachers these verses may sound relatively innocuous (and perhaps boring) or they may sound contrary and confusing. Afterall, didn’t Jesus just say that he didn’t come for the righteous but for the sinner? And isn’t a prophet’s reward that of the cross (where he just said they needed to go)?
Micah Krey 