Last year, I set out to study and write on every gospel reading assigned for Sundays in the ACNA lectionary. This was supposed to be both a discipline for my own study (oops!) and a service for those who follow the same lectionary as readers or preachers (sorry!).
After missing a few weeks, the pressure mounted, and I stopped. I'm going to try to get back into the groove by loosening my self-set formal parameters and simply writing about what I notice about lectionary readings.
This month, on July 16, 23, and 30, the gospel readings come from Matthew 13. So I'm going to spend a few posts working through that chapter. Here goes.
In my reading, Matthew 13 resonates with two parts of the Bible: Solomon (in 1 Kings) and James (in James). Here's how.
Students of Matthew have pointed out that, in the structure of the gospel, Jesus gives five extended discourses, each related to a discourse, or a kind of discourse, in the Old Testament:
The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) --> The Giving of the Law at Sinai (Exod.-Lev.)
The Sending of the Disciples (Matt. 10) --> The Sending of the Spies (Num.-Josh.)
The Parables of the Kingdom (Matt. 13) --> The Wisdom of King Solomon (1 Kings 1-11)
Humility and Reconciliation in the Community (Matt. 18) --> Living in the Divided Kingdom (1-2 Kings)
The Woes and the Temple (Matt. 23-25) --> Jeremiah and Ezekiel Prophesy the Destruction of the Temple
As Solomon dazzled the Queen of Sheba--monarch to monarch--with the wisdom of his peaceable kingdom (1 Kings. 10), so Jesus dazzles the crowds with the wisdom of the kingdom of heaven. Look. At Matt. 12:42, Jesus brings the Queen of Sheba to witness against "this generation", reminding them that she came "from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon", and now "behold, something greater than Solomon is here". By the end of Matt. 13, the crowds are astonished at "his wisdom" (13:54). May we be so dazzled.
On July 30, the lectionary actually has us read 1 Kings 3:3-14, which tells the story of Solomon asking Yahweh for wisdom. Consider jumping the gun and praying for that wisdom now, as a church.
As a reader, consider reading all of 1 Kings 1-11. Look at how it characterizes Solomon's wisdom--how he gets it, what it achieves, what about it impresses the Queen of Sheba. That would be good prep to read about Jesus, who calls himself "greater than Solomon" (Matt. 12:42).
The other place I'd look is James. If you haven't heard of the "Gospel Clusters", let me tell you about them. At the very least, there are clear, thematic relationships between each of the gospels and the other 23 books in the New Testament. Here they are:
Matthew goes with Hebrews and James. Both Hebrews and James, like Matthew, lean on Jewish concepts, language, and metaphors. James in particular has been called the epistle version of the Sermon on the Mount. Read it, and you'll see.
Mark goes with 1&2 Peter and Jude. It's said that Peter dictated "Mark" to Mark, and Jude reads like a condensed 2 Peter.
Luke goes with Acts (same author), which tells the story of Paul, who wrote Romans-Philemon.
John goes with 1-3 John and Revelation. These are all written either by him or by his students.
Some scholars go further, theorizing that the gospels were written as missionary documents to four distinct audiences, each of which had already received the letters which correspond with them. If you're a seminarian, you might have to write a paper about this. If you're not, you can just enjoy the thematic resonances.
For our purposes, the point is that James sounds like Matthew, and I think that reading both at the same time is a fruitful reading exercise.
Where to begin with James? The obvious place may be 3:13-18, which depicts and describes "the wisdom from above". It also calls wisdom "full of good fruits" (v. 17) and compares it to "the seed whose fruit is righteousness" (v. 18).
But where I'd rather go is one of the passages that has had my heart for years: "Putting aside all filthiness and rampant wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (1:21). I preached on this passage once, and I think the sermon stands up. This verse strikes (and hath done strook) me for a couple reasons.
One, James says very little about salvation. He mentions saving again at 4:12, but this (1:21) seems to be the only verse about how to get saved. Fascinatingly, James doesn't talk about being saved from sin, but about being saved from anger. Sit on that for a minute. Being slow to speak and quick to listen, it's receiving the implanted word which saves our souls. Got it.
Two, it's an implanted word. Words are seeds, we know: "The sower went out to sow... " and the seed is "the word of the kingdom" (Matt. 13:3, 19).
All Scripture is God's Word, but there seems to me a sense in which Matthew 13, the parables of the kingdom, are a special seed meant to be received meekly in a way that not only makes us wise, but saves our souls from anger.
The associations are imprecise and, in the case of this last one, slightly exaggerated for effect. But there's something to it that I don't want to leave untouched. James is clear: Wisdom and Anger are opposed. Paul is clear: the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light are opposed. Jesus is clear: He sows seeds, and whether anger is a problem, there are at least three other related problems: rootlessness (Matt. 13:21), spinelessness (13:21), and worldly worry (13:22).
In following posts, I'll put down some observations and reflections on parts of Matthew 13. In the meantime, join me in praying, like Solomon, and like James, to receive the implanted word with meekness. Implanted is a past participle that implies an active agent: Jesus. Jesus plants (Matt. 13). God tends a vine (John 15). Paul, and other ministers "plant" and "water" while God gives growth (1 Cor. 3).