Monday 29 December 2008

Background

The reason we are reading this Old Testament passage today isbecause Matthew refers to it in his Gospel, in 2:16-18. Also,today is Holy Innocents Day. Your diary may tell you that it wasyesterday, but it is transferred to today because Sundays arealways and only for the celebrating ofthe one feast - that of theResurrection.

Matthew was writing for 1st century Jews. He told new stories andre-told old ones to inform his audience who Jesus really was.Matthew's Gospel includes five teaching blocks (that conclude withsimilar words) which are intended to remind the reader of the fivebooks of the Law of Moses. The first teaching block is 'The Sermonon the Mount' (Matthew 5-7). TheGospel ends on a mount (Matthew 28:16-20).Moses meets with God on mountains (Exodus 19:3, 20;24:9-18). In fact, there are more mountains in Matthew's Gospelthan any other.

The slaughter of the innocents, when King Herod ordered the deathof all the children "in and around Bethlehem" (Matthew 2:16-18),has its resonance in the story of the slaughter of the firstborn(Exodus 11 and12). In this Old Testament story, God tells Moses that he will'pass over' him and his people and not kill the first born of theHebrew families.

An ancient Jewish story about the birth of Moses had been basedon Exoduschapters 1 and 2. Moses' dad had a dream in which he was toldabout the son he would have. Pharaoh is forewarned of the birth.When the child is born, all Egypt 'trembles' and Pharaoh consultsastrologers. It appears to be the case that Matthew retells thisbirth story in his account of the birth story of Jesus.

(In Matthew's story, for Pharaoh read King Herod. Troubled at theastrologers' news of the birth of "born king of the Jews" (Matthew2:2) and tricked by them, King Herod orders the killing of allchildren under two years old. But this is Matthew's story. It isnot history. To date, there is no other evidence for itwhatsoever.)

What Matthew is telling us is a truth that matters. Jesus is thenew Moses, the new lawgiver, the new covenant-maker, the one wholeads his new covenant people into the kingdom of God (which, forMoses, was the Promised Land). 'This is the way to look uponJesus,' says Matthew. Jesus is 'the prophet like Moses" whoChristians believe is prophesied in Deuteronomy18:15.

The book of Jeremiah tells how the old covenant people of God tooktheir eye off what God willed. They ended up in bondage again (asat their beginning in Egypt) firstly under the Assyrians and thenunder the Babylonians. But Jeremiah writes of a hope.

Matthew also writes of a hope. Because of the Incarnation (when Godcame to earth in human form as Jesus) a new exodus is possible, ofpeople from a life under judgement to a life of righteousness!

To Ponder

When you look at Jesus, do you see Moses? How faris Matthew helpful here to your understanding of Jesus?