Matthew begins his gospel this way: "This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah..."
The word for genealogy is the same word used in Genesis, at least as it was translated in Greek. A genealogy is a genesis, a beginning. This is not only a lead-in to a description of the generations that lead up to Jesus. It's also a claim about who Jesus is: he is a new beginning. He is a new Adam.
The end of the Gospel of Matthew also alludes to Genesis. We are told in the passage commonly known as the 'Great Commission' that Jesus has received all authority in "heaven and on earth," which echoes Genesis 1, where God creates 'the heavens and the earth'. (Genesis 1:1). In a sense, then, Matthew's gospel tells us that Jesus has brought God's initial creation to its true fulfillment. The heavens and earth, God's raw material for everything, has found its true authority in Jesus.
The end of the Gospel of Matthew also gives us a clue about the way Matthew has organized his whole gospel. Jesus' closing speech bears a striking resemblance to the closing speech of Cyrus, the king of Persia, at the end of 2 Chronicles. Both are royal decrees to go do something. Cyrus' decree is to build the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus' is to go and make disciples. Both also claim authority. Cyrus claims authority over "all the kingdoms of the earth" because "the God of heaven" gave them to him. Jesus also claims authority, but over both the heavens and the earth.
Though 2 Chronicles is nestled somewhere around the middle of our Old Testaments, it concluded the Hebrew Bible, the Bible that Jesus and the disciples would have had. So for Matthew's gospel to conclude with a reference to the conclusion of 2 Chronicles is very suggestive about Matthew's whole project in his gospel. If Jesus' story begins as a new genesis, echoing the beginning of the Hebrew Bible, his story also concludes the same way the Hebrew Bible concludes, with royal decrees and claims of authority. Matthew's project seems to claim: Jesus' story echoes this story. Jesus' story fulfills this story. Jesus' story recapitulates this other story.
It is a story that Adam begins, as he is the father of all mankind. It is also a story in which the failure of Adam is written into every chapter of Israel's history, most of which is recounted in Matthew's gospel. Moses is God's instrument for setting up real but limited access to Eden through Mount Sinai and the Tabernacle, but Israel falls prey to temptation repeatedly in the desert. Matthew 1-7 orients us to see Jesus as a new Moses. Joshua leads Israel into conquest in the promised land, but they don't take full possession. Matthew 10 orients us to see Jesus as a new Joshua. Solomon excels all in wisdom and gives proverbs. Matthew 13 orients us to see Jesus as a new Solomon. Elijah and Elisha create a new Israel within the corrupt older Israel. Matthew 18 orients us to see Jesus as a new Elisha. Jeremiah prophecies the death of exile and the resurrection of return to an Israel unwilling to listen. Matthew 23-25 orients us to see Jesus as a new Jeremiah. Throughout, we see that the story of Israel was not really meant to redeem Adam's fall into sin and death. It was really meant to foreshadow and point to the new Adam, Jesus, who would inaugurate a new era of grace and resurrection.
We'll look at Romans 5 in another post, but we'll close by looking at Daniel 7, which presents us a picture of the world's redemption as a new human, a new Adam. The vision begins with four animals - a lion, a bear, a leopard, and an unnamed fourth beast. They come out of the sea, which is a common symbol for Gentiles throughout the Bible. They are symbols for 'beastly' empires, which hold great clout in this world under the dominion of the first Adam, under the dominion of death. Then a man appears:
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14)
In the same way that Adam tamed the beasts in the garden (Genesis 2:20), the new Adam tames the rebellious beastly empires of the world, leading them back into the garden, back into the presence of the Ancient of Days, the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment