Parody and Subversion In Matthew’s Gospel

Matthew 1:1-16

In this episode, I describe how the genealogy in Matthew is actually a parody of a genealogy. In the gospel in which Jesus instructs his followers to “call no one on earth ‘father,'” this list of fathers is intentionally ironic.

I also talk about other “trickster” texts in the Bible such as the praise of King Solomon and the story of the rise of Joseph to the second most powerful person in Egypt. These stories are not what they appear to be.

Matthew 1:18-25

The “virgin birth” of Jesus, the title “Son of God,” and the concept of the forgiveness of sins all had resonances in the first century Mediterranean world that they no longer have today. Understanding what those terms and concepts signaled, as well as how this story “fulfilled” the prophetic texts will greatly expand our understanding of what this story was all about.

This episode is the only one that will not look at one particular text (all the other episodes will continue progressively through Matthew), but rather at the book as a whole. I make the argument in this episode that the whole Gospel of Matthew parodies a genre in the ancient world to get across a very serious message.

Matthew 2:1-12

The story of the Magi evokes sentimental, feel good memories of Christmas for many of us, but this story, for its original audience, signaled hopes of liberation from a brutal occupation.

Matthew 2:13-18

In this episode, Jesus and his family become refugees. Fleeing their home country, which is under the brutal occupation of a foreign empire, they take refuge in Egypt, which, according to their national history, was both the place of their people’s slavery and also a refuge for those escaping the Babylonian invasion.

With this story, the author of Matthew introduces the themes of Jesus-as-Moses and Jesus-as-Israel by using Exodus imagery. The texts from Jeremiah 31 and Isaiah 53 also play an important role in setting up the gospel motif of Jesus bearing the suffering of his people.

Matthew 3:1-17

If this series has not been controversial already, it gets even more controversial in this episode. I make the claim that Jesus joins a liberation movement already in progress to get his start as “Messiah.” Also I will assert that temples in the ancient world were government institutions that served as mechanisms through which the ruling classes controlled the people. A significant part of the movement of John the Baptizer was to undercut temple authority.

Matthew 4:1-11

In this episode, we follow Jesus through his “vision quest,” as he retraces his people’s journey in the wilderness through a time of testing/temptation. Jesus has to prove what sort of Messiah or “Son of God” he will be.

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Matthew 4:12-22

Jesus takes up John’s work of leading a movement for The New Society (Kingdom of Heaven). Matthew’s imagery reminds the reader of the setting of this story in the Roman Empire. Jesus liberates his disciples from bondage to the empire, setting them free to join the movement.

Jesus’ campaign of healing provides an alternative to more conventional military campaigns (parody?) and signals the dawning of a new society.

Jesus begins laying out his new law or teaching for the new Society. This new teaching inverts the male honor code of the first century Mediterranean World.

Matthew 5:17-32

Jesus attempts to build a strong movement, urging solidarity between peasants and curtailing male sexual abuse of and power over women.

Matthew 5:33-48

What’s the big deal about taking Oaths?
Also, women in Nigeria in 2002 used a tactic that Matthew’s Jesus prescribes.

Matthew 6:1-4, 16-34

Jesus lifts up the mutual aid economy of the peasants and tears down the patronage system of the empire.

Matthew 6:9-15

Jesus provides a prayer for his movement rooted in peasant realities of hunger, debt, and the threat of legal prosecution as well as the ancient story of the Exodus liberation.

Matthew 7

Matthew 8:1-4

Jesus usurps the power and authority of the priests.

Matthew 8:5-13

In this episode, I make a mistake in the recording. See if you can catch it…you don’t have to be a Bible Scholar, you just need to be paying attention.

I only caught it after it was all done; there is no way to fix it, and I don’t have the time or energy to go back and correct it, so let’s make it a game. If you find it, let me know on the Facebook page.

Matthew 8:14-17

The third detailed healing: Jesus crosses the gender divide and continues his campaign of healing.

Matthew 8:18-27

Jesus crosses to “the other side” and encounters the demons of empire.

Matthew 9:1-8

Who has the authority to forgive sins? Only God? Who has the authority to speak for God then? The ruling classes in antiquity used systems of temples, priests, and sacrifice to control the people. Jesus demonstrates to the people that they don’t need any of that to have good standing before God and each other.

Matthew 9:9-13

The campaign of healing takes the form of a meal with “sinners.”

Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus has to explain why now is the time to party with the sinners.

Matthew 9:18-34

After having gathered in the lost – the tax/toll collectors and “sinners” – he suddenly gets called to a high status household, but on the way heals a marginalized woman suffering from menstrual bleeding. Chapters 8 and 9 have Jesus entering the worlds and lives of people who are very separate from each other: a leper, gentiles, women and men, social outcasts, low and high status people; in all of these situations, he brings healing, both social and physical. And finally he heals two blind men and casts out the demon from a mute man, punctuating this section of the story with images of liberation from Isaiah.

Matthew 9:35 – 10:15

Jesus sends out an army of healers to retake Israel from those who have stolen it.

What does Jesus mean when he says that his disciples will not finish their mission of going through the towns of Israel “before the Son of Man comes”? Listen to this episode to find out.

Matthew 10:24-42

Jesus says that secrets will be revealed. Listen to this episode to learn what those secrets are!

Matthew 11:1-15

Matthew has been showing how Jesus and his movement fulfill the visions of the prophets. In chapter 11, the fulfillment theme gets stated so forcefully that it becomes evident that Jesus does not merely fulfill the visions of the prophets but reinterprets them. This reinterpretation is part of a larger program of reinterpreting the world in a way that will change it for all who partake in this reinterpretation.

Just a clarifying thought that I had after I published the last episode…

Ever wonder about that parable about the children playing games in the marketplace? I unpack that one in this episode.

Matthew 11:25-30

Jesus is the broker of God’s wisdom to the people, a wisdom for a new society that is not oppressive.

Jesus defeats the elite wisdom men of the old society in public debate.

Matthew 12:22-32

Jesus diagnoses the problem of demon possession differently than his upper class opponents. He finds the root cause of the problem not in the demon-possessed individual but in the situation of oppression.

Special Music by Murry Hammond whose music can be found here.

Matthew 12:33-45

Ever wonder what that parable of the 7 demons is about?

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Matthew 12:46 – 13:23

Jesus starts talking in riddles to hide the wonderful secrets of the new society from those who would destroy it, but the wise will understand.

This episode and the next two regular episodes, numbers 33 and 34, explore the parables discourse of chapter 13 (which begins at the end of chapter 12). Through this discourse, Jesus trains his disciples to be scribe of the New Society.

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Matthew 13:24-43

The movement for the New Society is sneaky and spreads through the unwashed masses.

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Matthew 13:44-58

This episode concludes a chapter in which Jesus speaks in riddles, revealing the hidden things, the wonderful secrets of the new society. Again, nothing is as it seems. Jesus attempts a great scribal reversal, making the peasants scribes, and leaving the scribal class on the outside, lacking understanding. This reversal is rejected…but wait…nothing is as it seems.

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This is a long episode, but a very important one. In this episode, I make clear something that I have been saying throughout the series, that Jesus, as portrayed in Matthew, is opposed to the power of Temples and Priests (all of them, not just in Israel).

This episode contains longer musical interludes (to break it up and give listeners time to absorb the concepts), all composed by David Martyn.

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Matthew 14:1-21

The rich and the powerful party at the expense of the poor, but the common poor can create their own new society of abundance for all!

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Matthew 14:22-36

This second sea crossing recalls both Israel’s seminal story of liberation and the boastful thoughts of a Seleucid emperor.

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Matthew 15:1-20

When an oppressed people express their desires for liberation, they often do it by demonstrating zeal for their national culture and traditions. But oppressed people are often divided into factions, each accusing the other of not being sufficiently dedicated to the cause, not demonstrating sufficient zeal for the national traditions. That is what we see playing out in the first passage of chapter 15 in Matthew.

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Matthew 15:21-28

The story gives us a surprise twist. Is Jesus showing his humanity, or is he a really clever teacher?

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Matthew 15:29-39

The encounter with the Canaanite Woman in the last episode broke open a whole new frontier for the movement. The movement for a new society can now include all people.

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Matthew 16:1-4

The Pharisees and Sadducees join forces to challenge Jesus, but Jesus isn’t interested in their credential system.

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Matthew 16:5-12

How do you resist oppression? Is nationalism ever right? Can a group be nationalist while at the same time collaborating with the imperial oppressor? Can a movement draw deep from it’s own national heritage but still be transnational? Those are the questions that today’s episode wrestles with through this second passage of Matthew 16.

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Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus and his disciples travel north where a dead king is worshiped. Peter is declared to be the bedrock of the “church”. . . or is he?

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What gets lost in translation, and why does it get lost? In this interview, we talk with Dr. James Fehr who is doing work on translating New Testament texts in a way that wrestles with the fact that these texts are from a completely different time and culture and that our modern translations have been translated by people with privilege who don’t want to offend those in power.

This work is not just academic for Fehr. His love for these texts fuels his passion for justice. His day job, in the German Mennonite Peace Office, currently involves solidarity with immigrants trying to flee war and extreme poverty.

The text of the report that he mentions in the podcast, “Incarcerating the Marginalized: The Fight Against Alleged ›Smugglers‹ on the Greek Hotspot Islands,” can be requested as a PDF or booklet from info@dmfk.de

The work of CPT’s “Aegean Migrant Solidarity” team can be found on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/CPTLesvos

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Matthew 16:21-28

We finally come to the halfway point in the story, where it takes a turn toward Jerusalem. Geography in this story is not always exact, in fact the author takes literary license with the geographical facts, but it is always pregnant with meaning.

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Matthew 17:1-8

The Transfiguration has baffled commentators for centuries. What is the point? How does it fit into the story? I think that I have a good answer for that. If we think of this gospel as a “hero story,” what happens in that sort of story when the hero finally decides to take the gloves off and go on the offensive, no longer avoiding conflict but running towards it? I suggest, in this episode, that the answer to that question provides the key to understanding this pivotal scene in the Gospel of Matthew.

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Matthew 17:9-27

Fresh off the mountain of the transfiguration, Jesus counters the interpretation of the temple establishment, casts out a Roman demon, and cleverly undermines the authority of the temple system of the empire.

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The Gospel story has been used as a pretext for horrible persecution of Jewish people in the West. This persecution led to the modern state of Israel, perceived, for good reason, by many Jews as the only way to escape this persecution. The result has been the dispossession of the Palestinian people.

In this episode, I try to grapple with this history and also tell of my experience of visiting the West Bank 20 years ago.

For further resources on the current situation in Israel, visit B’tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that maintains detailed documentation of what is happening as well as helpful analysis, at https://www.btselem.org/.

Another worthwhile site to visit is Jewish Voice for Peace, https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/, which organizes in North America. And finally, I highly recommend Christian Peacemaker Teams, https://www.cpt.org/, which has had a team in the West Bank for almost three decades. They send teams all over the world to wage nonviolent resistance to injustice, as Jesus does in the Gospel of Matthew.

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Matthew 18:1-14

This episode starts a new section of Matthew, chapters 18-20, in which Jesus talks about the structure of the New Society, specifically how power, honor, and authority are distributed.

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Matthew 18:15-20

In this episode, I make the case that what normally has been understood as a passage about “church discipline” is actually about an alternative criminal justice system. The language used is language of ancient judicial proceedings in both Judea and the wider Greco-Roman world.

So those who are today talking about abolishing the current criminal justice system and replacing it with something more democratic and community-based seem to be thinking with the mind of Christ.

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Matthew 18:21-35

The parable at the end of chapter 18 of Matthew is usually called “The Parable of the Unforgiving Slave” because it is understood to be about the behavior of one character in the parable. But a closer examination of the parable in its historical context reveals that it is not just about one person’s behavior but also about systemic and structural injustice.

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One of our listeners gives a brilliant modern-day analogy to help us understand and interpret “The Parable of the Tyrant King and the Unforgiving Servant.”

Also, Time magazine came out with an article on air conditioning, and one place in Canada recorded 121 degrees Fahrenheit!

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This interview is focused on hearing the Gospel in today’s context. I interview a local pastor of a bilingual Spanish-English congregation, Pastor Marcos Canales.

Pastor Canales hears the Gospel as one who has lived the effects of colonization as Jesus did. Also, his congregation just finished a study of the Gospel of Mark, a major source for Matthew, so we get his insights from that study.

Marcos Canales is the pastor of La Fuente Ministries at PazNaz (Pasadena Church of the Nazarene). You can tune into their worship services on Youtube here.

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Matthew 19:1-12

Jesus finally leaves Galilee, on his way to Jerusalem, and enters Judea. Pharisees ask him about divorce, and Jesus ends up talking about eunuchs. Good stuff!

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Matthew 19:13-30

The rich young man man comes to Jesus. He’s more sympathetic to the movement for a new society than we might think.

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Matthew 20:1-16

Whew! Finally getting this one out! I worked hard on this episode, and I think you will like it…Jesus warns against meritocracy in this often overlooked parable.

A couple of resources mentioned in the podcast are:

Clifton Mark’s article, “A Belief in Meritocracy is Not Only False, It’s Bad for You,” can be read here.
The PBS video about Paul Piff and his experiments about wealth and meritocracy can be viewed here.

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Matthew 20:17-34

Equality is extremely difficult; there are always people who want to put themselves in positions of power and authority over others.

Different accounts of the conquest of Jerusalem by David, Joshua, and Judah: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-israelite-conquest-of-jerusalem-in-the-bible-when-and-who

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Matthew 21:1-11

Part of the title for this episode, “Making and Ass Out of Rome,” is borrowed from Warren Carter, who entitled the section on this passage in his commentary with those words.

In this episode, I mention The Yes Men, modern tricksters who expose some of the more absurd and cruel aspects of capitalism. To find out more about them and see them in action, go to https://theyesmen.org/.

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Matthew 21:12-17

Why did Jesus drive the money changers and people selling animals out of the temple?

Also, ancient people had their sacrificial rituals, but do we? What are the rituals of modern capitalism, and do we even know that we are performing them?

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Matthew 21:18-22

Please consider making a donation to Christian Peacemaker Teams for the work in the West Bank, in Hebron/al- Khalil in Palestine. You can read more about their work and make a donation at https://www.cpt.org/.

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Mark 10:2-16

My good friend, Susan Cameron, who is a lawyer as well as a seminary graduate, gives us insights into the divorce text in Mark, which is different from but similar enough to the two divorce texts in Matthew that her work gives greater depth to the work that I did on the Matthew passages.

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Matthew 21:23 – 22:14

In chapter 12, Jesus talked about binding the strong man and plundering his house. In this episode, Jesus does that.

Please consider making a donation to the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund.

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Matthew 22:15-46

The Pharisees join forces with the Herodians and Sadducees to try to stop Jesus from plundering the house. They engage him in public debate…but that never ends well for them.

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Matthew 23

In chapter 5, Jesus gave 9 blessings. In chapter 23, he gives 7 woes.

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