“Very truly I tell you,”Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
John 8:58
This verse comes at the end of a rather long discussion between Jesus and the Jewish leaders that began with the validity of His testimony, and moved to a discussion of both His and their paternity, and now has simply come down to who exactly Jesus is (John 8:12-59). Jesus was quick to tell them in vv. 54-55 that He is God’s Son. In the next verse He tells them that He knows Abraham’s thoughts as well when He says that Abraham looked forward to this day and rejoices in it. It is important to note that Jesus did not say this so as to speculate on what Abraham would have thought, but instead He is stating it as a fact; He is acting as a witness to it.
This completely blows their minds.
Their response in verse 57 is not one of amazement but is instead ridicule; they are marginalizing Him again so as to reduce or eliminate His credibility with the rest of the people. Verse 58 is the tipping point in the discourse: Jesus claims to be God. To make the statement that Jesus made here is one that is direct, to the point and undeniable in its meaning. “Before Abraham was born, I am!” Jesus is telling them two things, first that He has been around since before Abraham; He isn’t thirty-something, He’s at least 2,000 years old. Second, notice that Jesus didn’t say “before Abraham was born, I was alive” no, He said “I am”. I Am is the name God used to identify Himself to Abraham, thus Jesus is telling them that He is none other than God in the flesh. They understood this, and since they knew blasphemy when they heard it, they proceeded to grab for stones with which to execute Him. Jesus slips away, for His time had not yet come to die. It is worth pointing out that for all of the reasons Jesus cited, these people did not stop to consider the possibility that He might be telling the truth.
These great men of God, these teachers, lawyers and scholars were actually following the devil, and their haste to shut Jesus up when He states the greatest truth of all is a poignant reminder to all of us that we must “continue in His word” to ensure that we are recognizing the truth when it is spoken in this difficult and dark age in which we live.
As we move into the Christmas season and look forward to our celebrations, perhaps we too should stop and ask ourselves just who it was who was born in that Bethlehem manger so long ago; clearly He was not just the son of an obscure carpenter.
This final section of Matthew’s account of Jesus is quite interesting for several reasons and is deserving of a little extra background information. To begin, it is comprised of three parts, the first of which runs from 26:1-56 in which Jesus actively predicts and accepts the course of events that culminate in His death. In these scenes there is a cohesiveness that is comprised of Jesus’ own words that detail coming events, and even set them in motion; they are punctuation by prophetic announcements concerning upcoming scenes (See 26:3, 12, 18, 21, 24, 31, 32, 34, 45, 50, 54, 56). With this continuing contrast between Jesus’ foreknowledge and His constant determination to do the Father’s will (cf. 26:34, 39, 42, 54, 56) Matthew shows us that the Passion of Jesus was not a strange twist at the end of the story, but a conscious and voluntary self-sacrifice made to accomplish God’s will.
The second part extends from 26:57-27:50, in which Jesus moves away from being an active participant and into a passive role, seldom speaking and silently enduring pain and humiliation as God’s suffering servant. Following Jesus’ death in 27:50, God once again takes an active role in the story, confirming His pleasure with His Son’s actions through miraculous signs of approval. As a result, the mocking of the Jewish leaders in 27:38-41 is replaced by Gentile onlookers’ claim that Jesus was “the Son of God” (27:54). The Jewish leaders take every precaution to ensure that no one can claim Jesus had risen from the tomb by posting guards; yet He bursts forth from that very same tomb. You no doubt know the story and the series of events; God is quite active in the remainder of the narrative.
There is another aspect of the Passion that might be of interest: The Passion has many parallels with the opening section of Matthew’s Gospel (1:1-4:17). The concluding section of Matthew’s account brings to a climax the rising Jewish opposition that began way back when Herod attempted to kill Jesus at the time of His birth (2:16-18 cf. Rev. 12:1-4). We might also note that early in the story, the “chief priests and teachers of the law” are aligned with political forces in opposition to Jesus (2:4-6). In addition, the final section resumes the emphasis on prophetic fulfillment in a manner parallel to the opening chapters (Chaps. 1-5 cf. 26:56, 59; 27:9-10). The latter chapters also abound with references to Old Testament texts (e.g. Ps. 22, 69; Zech. 11:13; Is. 50-53).
There are many themes, ideas and phrases that were found in early chapters which are repeated in the final section such as forgiveness of sins (1:21; 9:6; 20:28; 26:28), as well as terms relative to Jesus such as Christ, King of the Jews, shepherd and Son of God. Even the mocking scenes have a parallel in the Temptation narrative (4:1-11) when the mockers take on the role of tempters to try and deflect Jesus from His course of doing God’s will.
Finally, the ending of the narrative (28:18-20) recalls the themes of: A mountain as the place of revelation, the universal appeal of the Gospel and the abiding presence of Christ, and with this abiding in the last sentence, it is as though Matthew has taken us full circle, back to Jesus in Galilee. Clearly, with this final command to teach “everything I have commanded you” we find that the entirety of Matthew’s narrative becomes an active part of our Christian lives.
In the entire series of events beginning with the plot of Judas and ending with his suicide, the disciples aren’t portrayed in a very flattering light, but Jesus isn’t surprised by any of this, in fact He predicts it. It is really quite easy for us to look down our very righteous noses at the disciples’ actions that night; yes they failed miserably. Would we have acted differently in their places?
I rather doubt it. Trying to honestly place myself in their shoes, I must (grudgingly) admit that the scene in the Garden when the mob comes to arrest Jesus would probably have done it for me, for seeing this Man whom I had witnessed walking on water and calming storms being taken away quietly by such a motley force would simply have blown my mind, and even now, knowing how the story ends… it still blows my mind! No, I don’t think I’ll be joining the finger-pointers on this one.
Jesus tells them that on this night they will all disown Him, citing the prophecy from Zech. 13:7, and they are astonished, and proclaim their faithfulness; Peter is their spokesman. Notice that just as they did when Jesus predicted His death, they missed the last part. Shouldn’t they be saying something like, “What did you mean, ‘after you have risen’?” But they didn’t say that.
Matthew tells the familiar story about Peter’s three denials and the rooster crowing, and again Peter steadfastly says he won’t do any such thing:
But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same. (26:35)
Ultimately, Peter’s claim would turn out to be true, but on this night, they would all falter.
The way I see it, there was much too much at stake for God to let the disciples get in the way of events, for it was vital that Jesus keep His appointment with the cross, for this was at the very core of God’s eternal purpose of redemption. Suppose that the disciples fought the troops in the garden, as Peter started to do, and a general engagement ensued. What would become of God’s purpose if there had been a bloodbath in the Garden?
No, Jesus, the Lamb of God, had to go quietly in submission to do His Father’s will, and the disciples needed to get out of the way and let Him do it, for they had a critical role to play in the early years of the church− of course, this is just speculation on my part. Next time, we pick up the action in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Abram remained conscious of God’s promises; he remained in Canaan and prospered. Lot saw a financial advantage and left Canaan to live on the Jordan plain, taking up his headquarters in Sodom, a town filled with wickedness against God. I don’t know whether or not he prospered there, but in the end, he surely came to regret his choice as war swept into the region and Sodom was defeated along with Gomorrah and their possessions, and Lot himself was carried away by their foes. When word came to Abram, he raised an army of 318 men and went after a vast army, defeated them and seized everything they had, including Lot. Abram was a warrior-hero and the king of Sodom offered him a reward that Abram refused to accept; he would only take his share of the spoils and no more, for his trust was in God alone. Another king came to see Abram, this time it was the King of Salem.
Let’s take a closer look at this King of Salem:
This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him,and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.”Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
Hebrews 7:1-3
The story of Melchizedek and Abraham is found in Genesis 14:17-20, and he isn’t mentioned again, except for an obscure reference in Psalm 110 that is only understood when it is quoted in Hebrews 7. He came suddenly out of nowhere, and was gone just as quickly, and many scholars believe that Melchizedek is a pre-incarnation appearance of Christ (called a Christiophony). Clearly there are similarities between the two, but without more evidence, I’ll only say that he was a “type” of Christ.
Don’t go too fast in this passage; you don’t often come across a guy who is both king and priest, in fact that is not the Jewish model at all; only Jesus Himself comes to mind quickly for these two offices. Note also the similarity of names. Melchizedek is called “king of righteousness” and “king of peace” while Jesus is called “Righteous King” and “Prince of Peace.” He has no genealogy, no beginning of days or end of life… Very interesting. Here is a comparison chart for Melchizedek and Jesus:
Melchizedek
Jesus
A King
A King
A High Priest
A High Priest
No beginning of days and without genealogy
No beginning of days and without genealogy (on his Father’s side)
Ministered bread and wine
Ministered bread and wine
Non Levite
Non Levite
King of Salem (King of Peace)
Prince of Peace (Is 9:6)
King of Righteousness
Righteous King (Is 9:7)
Greater than Abraham
Greater than Abraham
Isn’t it interesting also that the author says that Melchizedek resembles the Son of God. I’m having a hard time thinking of another text that makes this kind of statement…
Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, from their fellow Israelites—even though they also are descended from Abraham.This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater.In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham,because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.
Hebrews 7:4-10
Up to this point in Hebrews, we see that Jesus is superior to the angels, and we see that Jesus is superior to Moses, but now we see that Melchizedek is superior to Abraham; in Jewish tradition, nobody is superior to Abraham! Yet when you consider the author’s evidence, it would seem that he has a valid point. Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek, this can also be rendered “tribute” which is always paid by the lesser to the greater. Under the Law, a tithe is paid to the Levites, the priests, and yet the father of all the Israelites paid a tithe to this Melchizedek centuries before the Law, and in a sense, Levi himself was involved in the payment, since his ancestor paid it.
The really amazing statement that the author makes in this section is this: In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. (7:8) I don’t mean to be overly simplistic, but you just don’t come across writing like this very often; who is this guy? It’s becoming easier to understand why many scholars have concluded that he must be Jesus pre-incarnation. Of course, the point was also made in verse 7 that the lesser is blessed by the greater. Clearly, Melchizedek is superior to Abraham, as mind-boggling as that must have been to a Jewish audience.
Before I wrap this up, I think we need to recognize here and now that this section is entirely intentional in the letter, for our author is building up to a massively important crescendo. As we continue, we will see that not only was Melchizedek greater than Abraham, but that Jesus is like Melchizedek, and as a result, He is also a high priest superior to the Levites, administering a covenant superior to the Law of Moses, and theologically speaking, that’s the ball game.
This passage opens with Jesus giving instructions to the disciples about the arrangements for the Passover meal that remind us of His instructions to them in 21:1-3 about the arrangements for His entry into Jerusalem. After everything had been arranged, the scene opens at the meal itself. This narrative is broken into two sections, each beginning with the words “while they were eating”. The first, 26:20-25 is all about the betrayal of Jesus, the second (26:26-30) covers Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper.
Matthew’s account, though it gives these details, omits most of the details that John includes, such as Jesus’ washing their feet, and John’s lengthy account of the final discourses, and in this, Matthew is continuing the choppy pace that began at the beginning of this chapter; he reminds us a little of the way Mark covered most everything. Yet while he is leaving out some of the dramatic discussions of that evening, Matthew is once again focusing our attention on the ultimate mission of Jesus: His appointment with the cross.
In the first part, notice that when Jesus tells them that His betrayer is in their midst, the disciples are “sad” and say “surely you don’t mean me, Lord” (26:22). Matthew gives a direct quote from the denial of Judas in 26:25: “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi”. It may be nothing, but there is a slight difference between the eleven who said “Lord” and the one who said “Rabbi”, for in calling Jesus “teacher”, Judas seems to be expressing respect for Jesus as a teacher, but withholding his obedience to the Lordship of Jesus. Whatever his intent, Judas’ remark was disingenuous at best.
In His reply to Judas, Jesus seems to be revealing that He isn’t buying the denial.
In 26:26-30, we have the institution of the Last Supper, one of the most hotly debated aspects of the Faith traditionally, as disagreements among believers have literally divided the Body multiple times for the past thousand years or so. Ironically, however, everyone agrees that the partaking of the bread and the cup point us to the cross, the one thing that unites all Christians.
After leaving Egypt Abram and his party returned eventually to Canaan where they settled and tended to their herds of livestock; Abram became quite wealthy. After some time, it became clear that the herds had grown to the point where Abram and Lot needed to go their separate ways, for the land could only support so many animals. Abram, now showing a great deal more humility than he had in Egypt, allowed Lot to have his pick of lands, and being a smart young man, Lot took the best locations for himself, leaving Abram to find another place.
Lot had chosen for himself the entire plain of the Jordan, rich indeed, but not quite in Canaan, where he lived near the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram, mindful of God’s promise, remained in Canaan (13:1-13). That’s where things get interesting…
The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”
So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamreat Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to theLord. (13:14-18)
Let’s pause and think about this: After the shameful episode in Egypt, Abram and the clan went back into Canaan and prospered. Their prosperity was such that Abram and Lot needed to separate their respective herds, and by all rights Abram, as head of the clan, should have claimed the very best lands for himself, but instead, he deferred to Lot’s choice. In doing so, he also remained in the land God had taken him to and had previously promised. To me, it would appear that Lot chose his financial advantage over God’s promise, and Abram chose God’s promise over financial advantage… and God responded to Abram’s wise choice by reiterating His promises to Abram for both the land and his offspring.
For us today, I think there is also a message, and that is that God will remain faithful to us, will keep His promises to us, when we choose to remain within His will, even though we might stumble and fall from time to time. That’s quite a word of encouragement, don’t you agree?
God had a message for Lot also, but we’ll have to wait until next time for that.
We have now begun the final section of Matthew’s Gospel. I don’t want to interrupt the narrative of Matthew’s story, so I will compile a Bonus Post with the background on this section, which is quite interesting. I will say that you will notice that Matthew really picks up the pace from this point forward…
This text has three parts that flow in rapid succession. By arranging the narrative in this way, Matthew shows us that there is quite a lot going on behind the scenes at or about the same time. We begin with Jesus and the disciples (26:1-2) which is set in time as “When Jesus had finished saying all these things…” (26:1). From this transition we come to see that they are all sitting there where Jesus has been giving the Olivet Discourse; Jesus finished the Parable of the Sheep and Goats… and then said…
That He was about to be crucified.
Isn’t it interesting that He has told them everything we have seen in 24-25, and then brings them right back to His messianic mission:
He must die?
Matthew immediately follows this statement by shifting to the Jewish leaders behind closed doors plotting His secret arrest and His murder (26:3-5).
Next, in verse 6 we have a scene change; now Jesus and the disciples have left the Mount of Olives and walked the few miles to Bethany where they are in the home of Simon the Leper. Nothing more is said about Simon, and thus we can’t be quite sure of who he was, or if he was even present. The scene centers on an unidentified woman who anoints Jesus with “a very expensive perfume”. The disciples object, saying that the ointment could have been sold for a lot of money, and then the money given to the poor; apparently they had been listening to Jesus’ story of the sheep and goats. Yet Jesus tells them something else that should bring them back to His messianic mission: she was preparing His body for burial!
Is It just me, or are those disciples just not hearing Him when He tells them that He is about to be killed?
Then Judas slips out and goes back into Jerusalem and makes his deal with the chief priests to deliver Jesus into their hands so they can kill Him.
After God called Abram, he packed up everything and everyone in his rather considerable household and set off for a destination God would show him, and as we discussed in the last section, this is one of the great examples of faith in the Scriptures. They set out and God leads the party right through Canaan and into Egypt because of a famine in Canaan. When they approached Egypt, Abram became concerned about his wife Sarai, for she was a beautiful woman: He devised a plan:
As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai,“I know what a beautiful womanyou are.When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.Say you are my sister,so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” (12:11-13)
Was Abram having a crisis of faith or did he just not quite comprehend what God had promised him? Of course, we have no way to know for sure what was going on in Abram’s head; we can only note that he had fallen from his high ground of extraordinary faith into a very deep valley at that moment. One might even expect that God might inform him that their deal was now off.
Yet God didn’t do that.
God did take notice of the fact that Sarai had been taken into Pharaoh’s household as his wife, and He intervened in a rather interesting way; He sent sickness into the household and made Pharaoh aware of the real relationship between Abram and Sarai and Pharaoh was horrified at the deception. Here we might expect Pharaoh to kill Abram, and yet once again God intervenes, and rather than kill Abram he shames him when he takes the position of being the righteous one and expresses his disgust at Abram’s behavior. Then he returns Sarai to Abram and has the two and their entire household, including the gifts Pharaoh had given them, escorted out of the country.
What an adventure!
It’s even more interesting when we take note that in Old Testament prophecy Egypt represents this world. Taking an apocalyptic view, we could say that before God fulfilled His promise to give the Land to Abram, he led Abram into this world where Abram fell into sin, and then God redeemed him out of it, a theme that will be repeated throughout Scripture.
That theme also plays a big role in the “Christmas Story”, for through Christ we have all been redeemed, and received God’s promises, yet in this world, we continue to stumble around in our sin; yet God remains faithful to His promises even when we are so very weak.
When you come right down to it, isn’t that the whole point of the “Christmas Story”?
Abram’s adventures aren’t nearly over yet and in the next chapter he will once again manage to find the high ground; see you next time!
The Parable of the Sheep and Goats answers the question asked in 24:3b another way, for here we are not dealing with virgins awaiting the bridegroom or servants awaiting the master’s return but instead, with judgement day.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Matthew 25:31-33
The parable begins with Jesus sitting in judgment of the Nations where His followers (sheep) are at His right and His non-followers on the left. Then His judgment begins:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (25:34-36)
The righteous want to know when they did those things… and Jesus answers:
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (25:40)
No doubt you will recall that Jesus spoke of “the least of these” several times in Matthew’s account already− what we are seeing here is what being “ready” for His return looks like. Those who took care of “the least of these” went into the Kingdom that was prepared for them, but the others went elsewhere (24:46).
How do we live our lives− are we kind, generous and attentive to the needs of others? Do we put others ahead of ourselves? Are we willing to give to those in need?
Or do we prefer to let others get their hands dirty… or reach for their checkbooks?
I remember how old Ebenezer Scrooge answered that question: “Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses… Surely the taxes I pay to support these institutions are enough…”
For a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, that is clearly not enough, for Jesus has made it crystal clear that the way we each live our lives is the determining factor in whether or not we are “ready” for His return… which could happen Today.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Abraham is someone we should remember when we consider the “Christmas Story”. Oh, I realize that the birth of Christ came some 2,000 years after he died, so I’m not suggesting he’s a character in that part of the story. No, where I’m going with this is that Jesus didn’t just come along for no reason; there was a definite reason for His birth and ministry: He came to fulfill God’s covenant with Abraham.
They don’t tell you that in Sunday School, do they?
All right fine; they usually don’t tell you that.
Anyway, not only did Jesus come to fulfill God’s covenant with Abraham, but Abraham is a prime role model for our Christian walk as evidenced by the fact that he is named more than once in the New Testament as such. Consequently, I thought it might be fun to survey his career. Please note that my emphasis is on survey; this isn’t a biography or a commentary on each verse… not even on each scene, just the most important points for an understanding of his role as covenant partner and role model.
We begin our story as Genesis 12 opens; God’s Call of Abraham:
TheLordhad said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s householdto the landI will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1-3
So, there is God’s call, coupled with promises, and thus began a remarkable journey for the 75-year=old Abram. Personally, I think that the most remarkable part of the entire story is contained in the very next line:
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him (12:4a)
Did you see it? God told Abram to pack up everything and go… and so he did it. Abram actually took God at His word, and took action. It wasn’t any small action, he put everything on the line and set off somewhere and trusted God to keep His promises.
Who actually does that?
Our answer should be that we all do… but would that be a truthful answer?
In any case, we’re off to a quick start. Next time, we’ll join Abram and Company out on the road; see you there!
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