Welcome to Liturgical Year A, the year where the Gospel readings at Mass are taken predominantly from the Gospel of Matthew. It is good to start the year by looking at what is unique in the first book of the New Testament.
First, the Gospel of Matthew is all about the kingdom of heaven.
If the language of “kingdom of heaven” is hard to wrap your mind around — which it might be, since we mostly meet kingdoms in fairy tales now — then the way the original Jerusalem Bible describes it might be helpful.
It calls the Gospel of Matthew “the great charter of the new order which, in Christ, completes God’s plan.”
He opens up a new order, a new kingdom, because, in Matthew, Jesus is proclaimed the Son of God. His apostles say so when he walks on water, and when he asks the apostles point blank who he is.
He says so in parables about himself, and his opponents call him the son of God on the cross.
Second, the Gospel of Matthew gives us unforgettable details we don’t get anywhere else.
We hear, only from Matthew, about the annunciation to Joseph — but also about the the magi and the Christmas star and the opposition of Herod the Great. It is Matthew alone who tells us that Jesus is gentle and humble of heart, and that his yoke is easy and burden light.
Matthew gives us the greatest instruction in the Way of the Kingdom, in the most common (and most complete) presentation of the Beatitudes and the works of mercy. Most of the unique details in Matthew are about the Kingdom of heaven.
Only in Matthew do we learn that the Kingdom is like a field with wheat and weeds, a net with good and bad fish — but also a pearl of great price and a treasure in a field.
And Matthew also gives us the clearest declaration of the primacy of Peter and the keys to the Kingdom, the great gift God has given us in the Church — in his life, and after his ascension.
Third, the Gospel tells the story of the Kingdom in several stages.
Matthew gives us the story arc of the Kingdom, and we see it already in the Advent and Christmas season.
Preparing the Kingdom. Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy (the Gospel for Christmas Day!) showing how Jesus descends from David and Abraham; and chapter 1-2 tells us how he started small.
Proclaiming the kingdom. When John the Baptist says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” on the Second Sunday of Advent, he begins the message Jesus expands on in chapters 3-7.
Kingdom proofs. John asks if Jesus is “the one” in the Third Sunday of Advent, and Jesus answers with proofs that he continues to show us in chapters 8-10.
The Church and the Kingdom. Matthew presents the Church as the first earthly version of the kingdom of heaven, with rules on how to live in it, in chapters 14-17.
The end times. We get Jesus’ description of the end times in the First Sunday of Advent, but more in chapters 19-25.
Triumph of the King. Of course the death and resurrection of Jesus and his ascension into heaven closes his Gospel in chapters 26-28.
Fourth, Jesus fulfills all the Jewish prophecies — and then goes beyond them.
Matthew stresses that Jesus is like, but greater than, the figures of the Old Testament.
Like Moses, in Matthew Jesus gives the law from a mountain, but when he cites the law, he adds, “But I say …” Matthew presents Jesus as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. In Matthew Jesus is greater than Jonah, greater than Solomon, and greater than his Temple, he also transforms the Passover — and promises a greater feast to come.
But then, in Matthew, Jesus goes even further. He opens to the whole world the kingdom that once belonged to his Chosen People, telling us that “many” will come from the ends of the earth to sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He says the vineyard he tended for his Chosen People throughout the Old Testament will get new tenants; and his once invite-only banquet is now open to the general public.
After all, as Matthew reports, Jesus is the king who has received “all authority in heaven and on earth” but whose kingdom belongs to children and to the poor, the Kingdom where righteousness comes before all else, and whose followers are deputized to “make disciples of all nations.”
And, reassuringly, Matthew assures us that Jesus says “Lo, I am always with you, to the close of the age.”
