Matthew
Matthew 2 tells the story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus’ flight
into Egypt. The writer is explicit in his use of the phrase “out of Egypt I
called my son”, but much less so in what he intends by it. His citation relates
to fleeing into Egypt, not from it. The exodus out of Egypt[1] resonates profoundly
within the identity of Israel, so much so that Matthew is able to say a lot
about Jesus at the outset of his narrative without spelling it out.[2]
“On the surface it is of course not at all obvious how Hosea
11:1 is fulfilled in Jesus escaping from Egypt. But as one reflects more deeply
on Jesus relationship to Israel one starts to see how profound the sense might
be in which Jesus, fulfills God’s call of his people out of Egypt. Out of
Egypt is this useful shorthand for evoking the challenges and the
richness of biblical theology.”[3]
Matthew’s soteriology is saturated with hints of
resurrection, not only of Jesus but a wider resurrection of the saints.[4] Matthew is the only Gospel
to use the phrase “parousia of the
son of man.”[5]
“Matthew 19:25 and parallels must refer to ‘final salvation.’ It is about a future
state of being saved as opposed to being lost, and in the imagery of the
Gospels signifies entry to the heavenly banquet instead of exclusion, a welcome
by the Son of man and entry to the heavenly kingdom instead of rejection and
consignment to eternal fire. . . . This raises the question whether ‘being saved’ refers exclusively to
a future state in the next world, or whether it can also refer to those who are
already sure of entry to the kingdom.”[6]
“Matthew also adopts the other strand of Mark's soteriology: sōzō
designates the saving of life within an eschatological horizon (Mt 16:25;
19:25; see also Mt 10:22, 24:13, 22) or salvation from God's final judgment and
eternal punishment (Mt 13:41-43; 16:27-28, 19:28, 24:29-31, 37-41; 25:31-46;
see also Mt 8:11-12; 10:28)-that is, eschatological life (Mt 7:14; 10:39,
16:25-26; 18:8-9; 19:16-17, 29; 25:46) and participation in the kingdom of
heaven (Mt 5:20; 7:21; 13:43; 18:3-4; 19:23-24; 21:31; see also Mt 5:3-12;
19:12).”[7]
“It is ecclesiology (membership in God’s people) as the
advance sign of soteriology (being saved on the last day). It is
'justification' in the present, anticipating the verdict of the future. God
will declare on the last day that certain people are 'in the right,' by raising
them from the dead; and that verdict has been brought forward into the present,
visibly and community-formingly.”[8]
So we are “saved” from a day yet unseen. It is very much akin to the exodus from Egypt. The Hebrews were not “saved” until the death angel “passed over,” but they were marked for salvation when they believed and acted in obedience (a byproduct of belief). Today, salvation has been reduced to “a decision for Jesus” which is shallow and biblically non-existent.
“The majority of occurrences in the New Testament of the
Greek verb sōzō (‘to save’) and its derivatives, especially
the noun sōtēria (‘salvation’) have to do with the ultimate salvation of
believers in Christ Jesus. The same phrase used in the stories of healing is
also used of forgiveness of sin (Luke 7.48-50 cf. 18.52), and in the account of
the paralytic (Matt. 9.2-8 par.) forgiveness of sin is a spiritual kind of
healing concomitant with the physical restoration of health. For the one
forgiven this spiritual healing is thus ‘salvation,’ in the sense of admission
into the kingdom of God understood as both a present and a future reality. The
salvation of individuals is the principal focus of the earlier New Testament
writings. In Paul this salvation is both present and future; the two are
closely linked in part at least because of Paul's expectation of a prompt
Second Coming (Rom. 5.8-11 8.18 1; 25; 18.11). So Paul can speak of those ‘who
are being saved’ (1 Cor. 1.18; 15.2; 2 Cor. 2.15), as well as those who will be
‘saved in the day of the Lord’ (1 Cor. 5.5), both Jews (Rom. 11.26) and
gentiles (1 Thess. 2.16). This same kind of realized eschatology’ is also found
in the synoptic Gospels and in Acts, though in both it is a future
salvation that dominates (Mark 8.35; 13.13 par.; Acts 15.11; contrast Luke
19.9: ‘Today salvation has come to this house’ and cf. Acts 47).”[9]
[1]
Exo 13:9, 14, 16; 18:1;
19:4, Num 23:20; 24:8; Deut 9:26; 16:1; 26:8; Jos 24:6; Jdg 6:8-9; 1 Sam 12:1.
[2]
In context (of Hosea 11),
it is obvious that God had called his “son,” Israel, out of Egypt (Exo
4:22-23). The Matthean author does not make mention of this passage blindly or
in an unjustifiable out-of-context use, he is far more sophisticated than that.
Matthew (and other gospels) makes it clear to his readers that Jesus is
undeniably the prophet like Moses from Deut 18. The details given (even
numbers) of how Jesus did almost exactly as Moses did, even down to the way he
divided the people to feed them (something Moses did in the wilderness) are to
take the reader back to the Torah in subtle ways. Most of what he did and said
comes right out of the OT. We have (in general) failed to recognize it or make
the connections because we don’t know the OT well. As the “new Moses” and
ultimate representative of Israel, Jesus relives many of the same experiences
described in the Torah that happened to Israel (God’s first-born: Then you
shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son” Exo 4:22):
Jesus survives a gruesome infanticide by a wicked king, has compassion on the
people, divides them in groups of hundreds and fifties, in the wilderness alone
for 40 days (Israel 40 years), instructed people on a mountain, climbs a
mountain with only his closest companions and has visions of glory and light,
chooses twelve disciples (12 tribes), offers himself in the peoples stead among
many other nuances. In this knowledge it should not be surprising that Matthew
makes Jesus appear as the ultimate son who is a firstborn, as he does with Mary as the ultimate “virgin Israel.”
[3]
Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and
Biblical Interpretation, ed.
Craig. G. Bartholomew (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2004), xxiii.
[4]
Matthew is the only Gospel to report the open graves of “saints who had fallen
asleep” (27:52-3).
[5]
Matt 24:3, 27, 37, 39.
[6]
Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall, “Salvation,” Dictionary of
Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 722.
[7]
Joel B. Green, “Salvation,” Dictionary of Jesus and the
Gospel's, 2d
ed. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 828.
[8]
Wright, Justification, 146-7.
[9]
Meier and Metzger, Oxford Companion to the Bible, 669.
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