![]() At the Last Supper Jesus offered a blessing over bread and wine. Isaac was tricked into blessing Jacob instead of his firstborn Esau. Blessing Blessing is the asking for or the giving of God’s favor. So it is not surprising when Matthew’s key addition to Mark’s version of the parable of the wicked tenants (Mark 12:1-12 Matthew 21:33-46) is Jesus’ explicit linking of the discipleship of the kingdom with bearing fruit: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (21:43). The image of the good tree that bears good fruit is a key image in the Sermon on the Mount: “You will know them by their fruits” (7:16-20). Bearing fruit is a key mark of repentance worthy of the kingdom. In Matthew’s narrative one of the key adaptations of Mark’s narrative of John the Baptist is in John’s call for his hearers to “bear fruit” that is worthy of repentance. If for Matthew righteousness is a key description of disciples of the kingdom (5:20 6:33), then it is significant that at the end of the Gospel Jesus’ last words to his disciples are to go and “baptize” in his name. It is explicit at Jesus’ baptism when, only in Matthew, Jesus overcomes John’s reluctance, asserting that he must be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (3:15). Its link instead with righteousness and repentance is established in the preaching of John the Baptist (3:6, 11). Matthew removes the thematic link of baptism to Jesus’ death, which is a key motif in Mark’s Gospel (compare Mark 10:38-39 with Matthew 20:22-23). ![]() In Matthew’s Gospel baptism is important in its link with the related central theme of righteousness. ![]() Much later baptism became one of the sacraments of the Church, the action by which a person is incorporated… More Baptism Jesus was baptized (literally, “dipped”) in the Jordan River by John the Baptizer, at which time he was acclaimed from heaven as God’s Son, the Beloved. And in his Great Commission, which concludes the Gospel, Jesus the risen Messiah claims “all authority” and with that authority commissions his disciples to baptize and teach all nations in his name and with the promise of his abiding presence (28:18-20). In his preaching he claims that “all things have been handed over” to him by the Father (11:27). That authority extends also to his healing (9:6, 8). AuthorityĪt the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds are astounded because he taught with such “authority.” Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is a teacher and he teaches with authority. They are present with the Son of Man in the coming of the kingdom and the end of the age (24:31, 36 25:31) and are the agents of the announcement of the resurrection (28:2, 5). Four times in Matthew’s birth story (1:20, 24 2:13, 19) angels are the agency of God’s presence and instruction, and they appear in that role a total of twenty times at key points in Matthew’s narrative. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream to instruct him to take Mary as his wife and to name the promised child Jesus Jesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God’s saving act for humanity More, savior and Emmanuel.
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