The Synoptic Gospels: A Journey Into the Kingdom

Matthew 2:1-12 (RCL and BCP)

The Feast of the Epiphany offers an annual taste of one of the richest, most poignant stories in the New Testament. It celebrates the visitation to the Holy Family by wise men from the East. While they are not identified as royalty in the biblical story itself, they are nonetheless the Three Kings of the Orient celebrated in hymn and carol.

The term “epiphany” means spiritual revelation. On this occasion, the term commemorates the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Here, at the beginning of Matthew, we see the Hebrew Messiah draw unto himself those who, though far away, possess a profound insight that enables them to realize that something of singular importance is happening in faraway Bethlehem.

In the Journey text, we explore this story from wide and varying angles. We ask, “why Bethlehem?” “Why these men?” “Why this trip to see a baby?”

We also examine how the religious traditions of the wise men prior to the time of their trek to Bethlehem informed their understanding. Where are they from? In what or whom do they place their faith?

We look at the signs given to them, the strange gifts they bear, and the future they imagine.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Matthew 2:1-12. The text is located at pages 116-127.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

As with some of our other seasonal readings, the lectionary for the First Sunday after Christmas is the same each year.

John 1:1-18
The gospel offering is John 1:1-18. Though John is not among the synoptic Gospels, it does occasionally receive some commentary in the Journey series. In fact, it was a subject of our blog entry of Monday, December 24, 2007, as Christmas selection III.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about John 1:1-18. The text is located at pages 208-212.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

Galatians 3:23-35; 5:4-7
The First Sunday after Christmas features an important reading from one of the letters of Paul. The Letter to the Galatians contains his most powerful declaration about how freedom in Christ liberates the people of the way from what Paul by now considers to be the shackles of Judaic law. Paul focuses on faith working through love, rather than obedience to ritual requirements, as the center of one’s relationship with God.

Paul’s view about the relationship of the Christian believer to the Hebrew law was far from unanimous. Other early Christian leaders, including James the brother of Jesus, adhered to the notion that the law was still operative, and that gentile converts to even this Christian expression of Judaism were required to accept all the burdens of the law, including circumcision and dietary restrictions.

In fact, the experience of the early church coming to grips with a mission that embraced gentile converts was among the most important developments in first-century Christianity. It opened the richness of life in relationship to the God if Israel to those who were previously outside that fellowship.

Among the Gospels, Matthew is the one most focused on connections between Jewish tradition and the growing church. For that reason, we considered the text from Galatians in light of statements that Matthew’s Jesus makes about the law in the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon itself receives the lion’s share of our attention in Volume II of the Journey.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Galatians 3:23-25 and 5:4-7. The text is located at pages 255-264.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in a PDF format.

Matthew 2:13-18

The Christmas season lectionary takes us quickly from the joy of Jesus’ birth to the brutality of King Herod’s Slaughter of the Holy Innocents, remembered annually on 28 December. This passage reminds us how, even as we bask in the warm light of God among us, darkness and depravity of the worst sort remain.

Our Journey commentary on this passage begins with a consideration of life under King Herod. Despite considerable deeds benefiting his people as a younger man, the aging Herod has become so consumed by the desire to preserve his power that he is willing to kill the weakest among his people to hold onto his might.

The commentary also considers how this passage fits into Matthew’s theological and literary patterns of connecting Old Testament prophecy with New Covenant fulfillment. Matthew’s skill is not found so much in making concrete connections between prophecy and fulfillment, as in remembering the communal history of Israel and hearing it echo in his own time. He also does this indirectly, as the story of the flight into Egypt echoes Moses being delivered from Pharaoh’s grasp.

Perhaps most importantly, we grapple with theological problems that the story presents as we consider how the innocent die even as one among their number is spared through divine guidance.

Finally, our text considers the role of dreams in scripture. How do we experience dreams today?

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Matthew 2:13-18. The text is located at pages 139-149.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in a PDF format.

Luke 2:1–20

Christmas Day offers three selections for lectionary reading. Because the selections are the same each year, we depart for now from the specific Year B path tethered to the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, and immerse ourselves in Luke’s historical, literary, theological, and communal world.

Selections I and II, from both the RCL and the BCP lectionaries, have Luke 2:1–20 as their gospel readings. The two selections break the text out into standard and optional parts at different verses. Selection II divides the material into Luke 2:1–7 (standard) and Luke 2:8–20 (optional). This division compares closely to our own division in the Journey series.

Luke 2:1–20 is the heart of the Christmas story. The first seven verses speak of the universal census, requiring Mary and Joseph to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled. Our Journey commentary on this passage considers the historical circumstances around Jesus’ birth. What Luke tells us about it differs from what we know of the precise chronology of Roman rule and administration. It also differs from what Matthew tells us. Even so, Luke places the reader in a world where a Roman decree can impose hardship on struggling young people who find themselves on a long and difficult journey, with all the risks attendant to pregnancy and ancient travel assumed in order to comply with the imperial demand. At the end of the trip, our pair is met, not with welcome, but with disinterest and were shuffled aside to a place fit for animals. The experience of Mary and Joseph at Christmas prefigures the encounter between the mature Jesus and the Roman power structure at Holy Week.

Verses 8–20 describe how the birth of God’s anointed is announced by heavenly visitors. Ironically, it is proclaimed not to the high and mighty, but to the meek and lowly. As our Journey commentary describes, the shepherds of first-century Judea are not to be considered among the solid, salt of the earth peasantry. They exist at the fringe of society, considered unclean because of the requirements of their trade. At best, they were low-class workers. At worst, they were like petty criminals, often accused of grazing their sheep on other people’s land.

It is to these ruffians that the arrival of the Messiah is announced. They go to behold him on the occasion of his birth, and soon tell others about him. By their actions they become the first witnesses, and the first evangelists, of the Christ.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Luke 2:1–20. The text is located at pages 105–115.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in a PDF format.

Isaiah 9:2–7

We also receive a little bonus from the Old Testament with the Christmas lectionary. Selection I—from both the RCL and the BCP—contains excerpts from Isaiah 9:2–7. The OT passage offers a familiar promise that Christians associate with the coming of Jesus. To us a child is born and a son is given, upon whose shoulders the government will rest (see Isa. 9:6).

We studied a few words from this passage in Volume II of the Journey as we explored how Matthew 4:12–17 considers the onset of Jesus’ ministry as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Isaiah promises that those dwelling in the Galilean lands of gentile darkness will see a great light. Matthew considers the prophecy fulfilled with the commencement of Jesus’ ministry. It begins in darkest Galilee—which, in truth, was an incredibly vital land by the time that Jesus walked; a place where cross-cultural currents carried forward, even to this day, the first words that Jesus preached.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Isaiah 9:1–2. The text is located at pages 90–95.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in a PDF format.

The Fourth Sunday in Easter does not offer a text from the synoptic Gospels. However, the Journey series has commented on one of the day’s readings. It is used in both the RCL and BCP lectionaries. In fact, it is the same text used for the Fourth Sunday in Easter, Psalm 23.

Isn’t it interesting how the great passages in the biblical witness can tell us much about our faith, both during our most penitent season—the season of Lent—and during our most celebratory season—the season of Easter?

Psalm 23

The appointed psalm for the day is the well-known twenty-third psalm. It contains lyrical praise and thanksgiving offered to the shepherd who makes his sheep lie down in green pastures by the still waters, and who guides them through the valley of the shadow of death.

We considered this model Old Testament prayer as we studied a model New Testament prayer in Volume II of the Journey. The Lord’s Prayer, found at Matthew 6:9–15, has Jesus teaching his disciples to pray. We see how one thought is spoken (for example, “Thy kingdom come.”), and how the next thought elaborates on the meaning of the first (for example, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”).

Just as the sheep of Psalm 23 are not left wanting because the shepherd is making them to lie down in green pastures, the will of God is being done on earth as it is in heaven, because his kingdom is arriving.

Click here to view what Volume II has to say about how the Lord’s Prayer follows the model of the twenty-third psalm. The text is located at pages 316–319.

The First Sunday in Lent offers several readings upon which we have commented in the Journey series. There are slight variations between the RCL and BCP lectionaries.

Matthew 4:1–11

Our two lectionaries share the gospel reading. Matthew 4:1–11 provides the first gospel’s version of the testing of Jesus.

In the Journey, we initially explored Mark’s version of the testing. It is the shortest of the three texts. We used it to set the elements of the story, and then to shift toward the longer renderings.

Second, we turned to Luke’s version. There, we focused on the changing roles that the figure of Satan plays in the Bible—beginning with the simple role of an adversary opposing the players on the biblical stage, and concluding with Satan being God’s enemy.

Finally, in Matthew, we explored the three tests in detail. The tests Jesus undergoes are not merely fantastic stories of an otherworldly encounter; they also serve to echo the divine exchange between God and the children of Israel, as told in the story of the Exodus. But in Matthew, unlike the Old Testament, God’s servant fulfills the commands given, and prevails against the forces that would separate him and his people from the Father.

Our commentary on Matthew draws comparisons with Luke. In both versions, Jesus resists the temptation to be a strictly economic messiah, or a strictly religious one, or a strictly political one. This leaves us with the question: What kind of Messiah will he be?

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about the testing of Jesus. The text is located at pages 61–76.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Romans 5:12–19 (RCL); Romans 5:12–19 (20-21) (BCP)

While the readings from the Epistle for the First Sunday in Lent differ slightly between the RCL and BCP lectionaries, both versions find a home in Volume II of the Journey. There, we consider what it means for Jesus to become the second Adam, a new creation in whom the free gift of grace far exceeds the first Adam’s sin of trespass.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Romans 5:12–21. The text is located at pages 36–37.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Genesis 2:4b–9, 15–17, 25–3:7

The Old Testament reading for today brings us back to the creation of the world and the fall of man. The great OT myth—spiritually true, if not scientifically precise—tells how we begin in a state of grace, and then fall into our shared human condition so plagued with sin and suffering. Yet, we know from the other readings today that God makes provision for us. He restores us to a state of blessedness and becomes the source of our healing.

We touch on this great passage from Genesis in Volume I of the Journey.

Click here to view what Volume I has to say about the dust from which we are made, and to which we will return. The Genesis reference is found in the final question of the text, the whole of which is located at pages 198–200 of Volume I.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

Ash Wednesday brings us out of Epiphany, the season of lights, and into a time to confront the inner darkness. We begin the forty days of Lent by acknowledging our sins, and turning to God in repentance, seeking his forgiveness.

Matthew 6:1–6,16–21

Matthew offers the same gospel reading every Ash Wednesday. We have studied all of it in the Journey series, though its segments fall in separate places. We will also follow that practice here.

Verses 1–4: The first segments of the gospel concern the deeds of righteousness, reinterpreting the traditional Jewish practices of almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Jesus’ opening injunction, found in verse 1, calls us to avoid making a show of our pious acts. He moves us away from image—oriented religious observance to the substance of following God’s call.

Our first example is almsgiving. Providing for the poor should be done privately, without drawing undue attention to ourselves. Even so, we must also be aware of the tension between giving privately, as a way to avoid show, and being instructed not to hide our light under a bushel.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say in introducing the deeds of righteousness, and about the giving of alms. The passage interprets Matthew 6:1–4. The text is located at pages 305–312.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Verses 5–6: The passage continues with the practice of prayer. Jesus encourages private prayer, in communion with God, not public displays of piety. The Journey commentary explores some very recent examples of people rejecting Jesus’ direction, which calls into question how and when public prayer is to be avoided or offered.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about the practice of prayer, interpreting Matthew 6:5–8. The text is located at pages 312–316.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Verses 16–18: Here we encounter fasting, the third deed of righteousness. Fasting was an acted–out prayer of lamentation. As practiced by Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries, typically it was accompanied by visual cues, such as ashes and sackcloth. Jesus encourages his followers not to make a show, but to fast without drawing attention to themselves. In the Journey, we also consider modern fasting practices.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about fasting, interpreting Matthew 6:16–18. The text is located at pages 334–336.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format

Verses 19–21: The gospel theme now shifts toward other aspects of Christian practice, as Jesus directs us how to live. He has turned our attention away from the negative (how not to practice piety), through the corrective (how to practice piety), and now toward the productive (how we are to store up true treasure). We see that human stores of wealth are vulnerable, but heavenly stores are safe. We further consider that this distinction between the concrete and the abstract is an example of the greater conversation about what is real and what is not. We even cite sources such as Plato and modern physicists!

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about treasures, interpreting Matthew 6:19–21. The text is located at pages 337–340.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10

This epistle reading juxtaposes Christ’s sinlessness with the need to confront our own sinful nature. This is an appropriate reading with which to begin the penitential season of Lent. We touch ever so lightly on the epistle for today in Volume I of the Journey, where we study the baptism of Jesus, according to Mark. In questioning why Jesus would need to be baptized, we considered 2 Cor. 5:21, Paul’s reference to Jesus not knowing sin. If there is no sin, is baptism necessary? If so, why?

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about 2 Corinthians 5:21. The text is located at pages 203–205 of Volume I.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

The Gospel for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany proclaims the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, as told by Saint Matthew. The reading is the same in both the RCL and BCP lectionaries.

Matthew 4:12-23

Matthew’s twelve-verse passage is interpreted over three separate sections of Volume II of the Journey. We examine them separately here, as well.

Verses 12-17: Our first installment focuses on the significance of Galilee to the opening of Jesus’ ministry. We read Matthew against the backdrop of his principal source, Mark’s gospel. The earlier account contains a concise proclamation that the kingdom of God has come near. Matthew revises Mark’s language to speak of the kingdom of Heaven. Like a telescope, Matthew starts at Mark’s sharply focused beginning to look more expansively upon the greater world. The prophet Isaiah is invoked, the memory brought forward from him that God is not only the God of the Jews; he is the God of the Gentiles as well. Those who sat in darkness have seen a great light. It now illuminates Galilee, a physical and cultural crossroads connecting the ancient near East to the world around it.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Matthew 4:12-17. The text is located at pages 90-95.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Verses 18-22: In the second installment, Matthew’s Jesus calls his first followers. Given the similarity between this passage and its Markan source, we used Matthew in the Journey as a platform from which to begin our acquaintance with Jesus’ disciples. Peter, James, and John, the best known of the twelve, will be present at the Transfiguration, and at other critical moments of Jesus’ life. Andrew, who is also named in this passage, is mentioned less often in the Synoptics than the other three. However, he figures prominently in the Gospel according to St. John. We reviewed the tradition of Andrew serving as missionary to the savage Scythians, and how his martyrdom models courage.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Matthew 4:18-22. The text is located at pages 109-111.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Verse 23 (continuing through verse 25): The third installment goes a couple of verses beyond today’s gospel reading. It begins with Jesus teaching, preaching, and healing in Galilee. This three-part mission extends to the life of the church today. As the passage continues, we see people from all around coming to Jesus and following him. Points to ponder include the separation of Jesus and his followers from the synagogue-a later experience implied, rather than expressed, in the text. The irony is that this sad separation begins even though Jesus’ overall mission, and that of Matthew’s church in later days, will rapidly grow to encompass those on the outside. We also draw on sources from our own time to consider how such a phenomenon of exponential growth occurs. How does the reputation of one man spread like wildfire, so that people from all over come to see him? Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point provides a modern cultural reference to help us understand this phenomenon. It also contains the seeds of a challenge to us in carrying out the Christian mission of evangelism.

Click here to view what Volume II of the Journey has to say about Matthew 4:23-25. The text is located at pages 148-153.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume II in PDF format.

Isaiah 9:1-4

The RCL Old Testament reading for the day is quoted in the same section of the Journey series where Matthew 4:12-17 is considered. Click to the above link to see what the Journey has to say about Isaiah.

The RCL and the BCP share the same texts from the gospel, Acts, and the Old Testament this week.  As occurs every year, the First Sunday after the Epiphany commemorates the baptism of Jesus.

Matthew 3:13-17

Today’s gospel offers a good opportunity to consider the Synoptic tradition in all its variations.  At pages 203-212 of Volume I of the Journey, we study Mark’s, then Matthew’s, and then Luke’s versions of the baptism. Each is different from the other, and each has its own message to give.

For those of you who own copies of the Journey series, this would be a good time to pull them out. For those of you who do not, it would be a good time to acquire them, as this is the precise type of episode for which the series was written.

In Matthew’s version, which we consider during Year A, the issue of why Jesus had to be baptized is addressed. This very same question is left completely shrouded in mystery by Mark, and Matthew makes it only slightly less obscure. Jesus, in dialogue with John the Baptist, ascribes the importance of the event to the fulfillment of all righteousness. We are left to work out for ourselves precisely what that means. Our Journey text offers some suggestions.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Matthew 3:13-17. The text is located at pages 205-208.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.

Isaiah 42:1-9

The Old Testament reading for the day is quoted in part and receives some commentary in the same section of the Journey series where Matthew is considered.  Click the above links to see what the Journey has to say about Isaiah.

Matthew 2:1-12 (RCL and BCP)

The Feast of the Epiphany offers an annual taste of one of the richest, most poignant stories in the New Testament. It celebrates the visitation to the Holy Family by wise men from the East. While they are not identified as royalty in the biblical story itself, they are nonetheless the Three Kings of the Orient celebrated in hymn and carol.

The term “epiphany” means spiritual revelation. On this occasion, the term commemorates the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Here, at the beginning of Matthew, we see the Hebrew Messiah draw unto himself those who, though far away, possess a profound insight that enables them to realize that something of singular importance is happening in faraway Bethlehem.

In the Journey text, we explore this story from wide and varying angles. We ask, “why Bethlehem?” “Why these men?” “Why this trip to see a baby?”

We also examine how the religious traditions of the wise men prior to the time of their trek to Bethlehem informed their understanding. Where are they from? In what or whom do they place their faith?

We look at the signs given to them, the strange gifts they bear, and the future they imagine.

Click here to view what Volume I of the Journey has to say about Matthew 2:1-12. The text is located at pages 116-127.

Click here to download the actual page excerpts from Volume I in PDF format.