Matthew 2:14-15
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
A word or two about fulfilled prophecy in Matthew’s Gospel.
Each of the four writers of the Gospels a) had various traditions and sources available from which to compose their stories about Jesus and b) wrote for different audiences that had their own distinct circumstances, questions, and concerns.
When it comes to the sources from which Matthew drew, it’s pretty clear that he knows of – and probably has a copy of – Mark’s Gospel, as he shares a lot of material found in Mark, some of if transcribed almost verbatim. It’s also very likely that he had another source that was a collection of sayings from Jesus. Many of these sayings are parables that Mark did not have but that Luke did, which is why we think they may have come from an actual collection that circulated among the earliest Christian communities but that did not survive into later centuries. Finally, Matthew also has a source (or sources) that is unique, as none of the other Evangelists seem aware of some of the stories he shares. We’ve just been working through some of that material – Matthew’s distinct traditions about Joseph.
When it comes to audience, it seems quite likely that Matthew was writing to a largely Jewish audience. Moreover, he is writing as someone who is himself Jewish and came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah who was promised and foretold in the Jewish Scriptures, what Christians came to call the Old Testament (although Matthew wouldn’t have called it that, as when he was writing there was not yet a New Testament).
I find it helpful to think of Matthew as something of a Christian scribe, cousin to the Jewish scribes he will write about. That is, he is someone who knew the Jewish scriptures well and was trying to interpret them for his community, in this case showing how Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. This is the reason that Matthew will regularly say, as he does in these verses, that something Jesus said or did or even something that happened to him – like being taken to Egypt as a child – fulfills prophecy. He wants to demonstrate how Jesus’ life – and ultimately death – coheres to the story of God and God’s people Israel and fulfills the promises God made to God’s people.
Nor is this only a general theme. Often Matthew has particular stories from Israel’s history in mind, and one of them is the story of Moses. As we’ll see later, Matthew divides Jesus’ teaching into five distinct parts, something that would remind his Jewish audience of the five books of Torah, the teaching that tradition taught came from Moses. Similarly, Jesus gives the first bulk of that teaching in the form of a sermon delivered from a mountain, again something that would remind readers of Moses and Mt. Sinai.
Here we are reminded of that part of the story of Israel where Moses leads the chosen people from bondage in Egypt, a story that the prophet Hosea – whom Matthew is quoting here – also referenced in some of his writing.
I share these brief thoughts about Matthew and his sources and audience because he will again and again reference elements of Jesus’ life that fulfill prophecy, and I think at the outset it’s helpful to pay attention to how important it was to Matthew and his community to stress that God’s work in Jesus was a continuation, and even completion, of God’s relationship with Israel. In his mind, that is, Matthew is not writing a new story, but continuing an old – and very important – one.
Prayer: Dear God, let us see and hear Matthew’s witness that in Jesus you continued the story of your love for Israel and all the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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