Bearing God's Name

by Carmen Joy Imes

  DÉJÀ VU: JESUS AS THE TRUE ISRAEL

  Matthew does far more than simply record what happened to Jesus. His gospel is creatively structured and brilliantly written. Mount Sinai looms large in his gospel! Here’s how:

  Matthew’s gospel breaks neatly into five blocks of teaching, mimicking the five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). These five blocks of teaching are preceded by an introductory story in which Jesus’ life is in danger because King Herod, like Pharaoh, is killing Jewish babies. To escape, his parents take him to Egypt. It’s an inside-out exodus story! When the coast is clear, they return to Palestine, retracing Israel’s journey from Egypt to the promised land. Next we fast-forward to Jesus’ adulthood, where he passes through the waters of baptism in the Jordan, reminding us of Israel’s crossing both the Reed (Red) Sea and the Jordan.

  After this, Jesus is sent by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, where he reenacts Israel’s wilderness wanderings (Matthew 4:1-11). The tempter comes to him three times, calling Jesus’ true identity into question: “If you are the Son of God . . .” Each time, Jesus responds by quoting Scripture. His choice of passages is not random. Jesus chooses precisely those chapters of Deuteronomy where Moses is reminding the Israelites of the lessons they ought to have learned in the wilderness, lessons Jesus knows by heart. Let’s take a closer look.

  First, the devil tries to entice Jesus to provide bread for himself. After forty days without food, Jesus is understandably hungry. Unlike the Israelites of old, Jesus does not complain or fall into despair. He trusts his Father, responding to the devil with the last line of Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Makes sense, right? But to get the full impact of Jesus’ quotation, we need the previous verse for context:

  Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

  Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. He was reliving Israel’s story. And he was demonstrating his dependence on the Father’s provision, resisting the urge to rely on his own strength. Yahweh had called Israel his firstborn son (Exodus 4:22), and he provided for their needs in the wilderness. Jesus knows that his needs will be met, too.

  Next, the devil takes Jesus to the holy city (on Mount Zion!), bringing him to the pinnacle of the temple. He tries to beat Jesus at his own game by quoting Scripture: “‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone”’” (Matthew 4:6). Satan wants Jesus to force God’s hand, testing his identity by demanding a dramatic rescue.

  Jesus won’t budge. He quotes the first part of Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” The rest reads, “as you did at Massah.” We can read the story of Massah in Exodus 17. The people are quarrelsome, demanding that Moses give them water to drink. They whine, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” (Exodus 17:3). They test Yahweh, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7). If the demand for water to prove God’s presence is inappropriate, how much more so is a risky jump from the peak of the temple? Jesus will not manipulate God’s hand to rescue him. He will not repeat Israel’s mistake.

  The devil makes a final attempt, this time appealing to human lust for power. He takes Jesus to “a very high mountain” (reminiscent of Sinai?), where he can see all the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:8). “All this I will give you,” he promises, “if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to power. If Jesus is the Messiah, all nations will eventually bow at his feet (see Psalm 2). The end result is what God has already planned, but the devil’s shortcut to that end is a direct violation of the first commandment.

  Without hesitation, Jesus paraphrases Deuteronomy 6:13, “Worship the LORD your God and serve him only.” No path to success is the right path if it violates the covenant. The end does not justify the means.

  With this, the devil leaves Jesus. The Messiah has passed the test that Israel failed. Matthew wants us to see Jesus as the new Israel. He is walking the same paths, reliving Israel’s story, but maintaining covenant faithfulness all the way. All this sets the stage for the heart of Matthew’s gospel—the five sermons given by Jesus during his ministry. Other gospel writers focus more on his miracles or his signs or his suffering. For Matthew, the core of Jesus’ ministry is his words.

  I’ve already demonstrated the centrality of the Sinai narratives to the Torah. Everything from Exodus 19 to Numbers 10 (fifty-nine chapters of material!) happens at Sinai. It’s no wonder that the core of Matthew’s Torah-shaped account is Jesus’ teaching on a mountain.

  DEAD GIVEAWAY: JESUS

  AS GREATER THAN MOSES

  Matthew’s first block of Jesus’ teaching is known as the Sermon on the Mount. That alone should be a dead giveaway. Jesus chooses a mountainside as the context for his instructions. Not only that, he starts in on the law almost immediately: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). If anyone was hoping to be done with Sinai now that Jesus is here, this is the moment of truth. He upholds the law, telling the crowds that every commandment matters and that entrance to God’s kingdom requires a righteousness even greater than that of the current Jewish religious leaders. Uh-oh.

  Then he begins to get uncomfortably specific, pointing out areas in which his contemporaries have let things slide. “You have heard that it was said . . .” he begins, addressing murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, judgment, and loving their neighbor. If they’ve tried to dodge their responsibility (“I haven’t killed anyone, so I’m basically okay”), Jesus asks them to take a closer look. He raises the bar by returning to the original intent of the Sinai instructions. “You have heard that it was said . . . but I tell you.” I tell you not even to be angry; not ever to let conflict go unreconciled; not even to look with lust; not to divorce except in extreme circumstances; not to swear oaths at all; not to resist an evil person; not to hate your enemy, but rather to love them. Jesus does not do away with the Old Testament law. He calls people back to it. And he holds them to it.

  Jesus does not do away with the Old Testament law. He calls people back to it.

  Jesus is also clear about what covenant faithfulness should look like to others. Bearing Yahweh’s name does not mean that we are to make our religious observances publicly conspicuous. Jesus warns his disciples not to pray on the street corners or make it obvious that they’re fasting in order to be seen (Matthew 6:5, 16).

  He defines discipleship around obedience. It’s not enough to claim allegiance to Jesus; one must also do God’s will. Lip service to Jesus without action that flows out of an intimate relationship is falsely bearing his name (Matthew 7:21-23).

  So there’s Jesus, on a mountain, teaching with authority about the Jewish law. Are we supposed to see him as Moses? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard or read that when Jesus climbed up on the mountain to teach his disciples that he’s acting like a “new Moses” or perhaps the “prophet like Moses” described in Deuteronomy 18:9-22. In that passage, Moses had announced, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15).

  However, the point of Deuteronomy 18:9-22 is to contrast the ways that other nations seek divine guidance (e.g., sorcery and witchcraft) with the way Israel is to hear from Yahweh—through the prophets he sends
them—as well as to warn them to watch for false prophets. Moses does not anticipate a single prophet at the end of the ages, but rather a succession of prophets: Yahweh’s ongoing provision for them to know what he expects of them. New Testament passages that refer back to Deuteronomy 18 do so in reference to the line of prophets rejected by the Israelites (see Acts 3:22-23 and 7:37). If there is an expectation of an end-times prophet, the New Testament clearly identifies that prophet as John the Baptist, announcing the coming of Jesus.6 While Jesus shares some similarities with the prophets, he clearly supersedes them.

  Here’s the bottom line: Jesus is not simply a conduit of God’s teachings the way Moses was. He is the source of those teachings. He possesses authority that Moses and the other prophets never had. Moses was only a messenger. Jesus is both the sender and deliverer of the message. Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh. He doesn’t say “thus says the Lord.” His teaching comes from within: “I tell you.”

  The crowds are amazed at his authority (Matthew 7:29). As they should be.

  SABBATH SHOWDOWN: JESUS AS ONE WITH AUTHORITY

  Jesus demonstrates this authority in other ways, too. A story will help us understand the relationship between Jesus and the Sinai instructions. In Matthew 12, we join Jesus and his disciples as they walk through a field of grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, the self-appointed Jewish lawyers of the day, watch on the sidelines with narrowed eyes as the hungry disciples rub stalks of wheat between their hands to remove grain and then pop it in their mouths to chew on. The Pharisees toss their penalty flags on the field and spring into action, “Look! Your disciples are breaking Sabbath law!”

  The crux of the Pharisees’ objection to the disciples is not the behavior itself. The law clearly gave permission to eat grain from a neighbor’s field as long as it was picked by hand, not using harvest tools (see Deuteronomy 23:25). No, their objection was not to the eating of grain, it was an issue of breaking the Sabbath, a serious offense worthy of the death penalty (see Exodus 31:14). It was not unlawful to eat on the Sabbath, but harvesting grain was out of bounds according to Jewish leaders, and in their the Pharisees’ narrow view of the law, the disciples were engaged in harvesting. In other words, the law they had broken is not explicit in the Torah but falls in the category of law-breaking behavior as defined by the current religious administration.

  Jesus is unruffled. He easily beats them at their own game, shrewdly citing three Old Testament texts as justification for their actions. First, he brings up David: “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests” (Matthew 12:3-4). Of course the Pharisees had read the story of David, Israel’s rightful, anointed king on the run from the ruler whom Yahweh had rejected, King Saul.7

  Matthew has already made clear in the early chapters of his book that Jesus is the son of David (Matthew 1:1, 20), anointed by God’s Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17), who is experiencing increasing opposition from Jewish leaders (Matthew 9:3, 11, 34; 10:16-31). Surely Jesus had in mind the analogy to his own situation. The statement Jesus makes through the use of this story is subtle but radical. He seems to be suggesting that the same legal exemptions that applied in the case of David—Israel’s true king in exile—also apply to him and his disciples. No wonder the Pharisees were incensed!

  Jesus’ second example also relates to temple worship: “Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?” (Matthew 12:5). Obviously, priests must work on the Sabbath because their work is necessary for proper worship to take place. Therefore, they are innocent. Jesus follows this observation with an oblique claim: “I tell you that something [or someone] greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6). Jesus does not merely equate his ministry with the priesthood, which in itself would have been seen as blasphemous. More than that, he claims directly that he and/or his ministry is greater than the temple!8

  Then, as if he had not insulted them enough already, Jesus insinuates that they have not understood the Old Testament at all: “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent” (Matthew 12:7). His quotation about mercy points to a section of Hosea in which God judges Judah for breaking their covenant with Him, especially the priests (Hosea 6:6). In fact, Hosea accuses the priests of murder (6:9)! Is Jesus implying that the Pharisees’ failure to understand Hosea’s message puts them in the same category as these seditious Jewish leaders?

  Jesus concludes his argument with a rapid one-two punch. First, he claims directly the innocence of his disciples (Matthew 12:7). Then, in case the Pharisees have missed his subtle allusions, he states that “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8). “Son of Man” is Jesus’ favorite self-designation, a veiled way of pointing to his divinely delegated authority. The plain meaning of the phrase is simply “human,” but it carries greater connotations because in Daniel’s vision (Daniel 7:13) “one like a son of man” is given an everlasting dominion and an indestructible kingdom. In the vision, this figure represents God’s holy people who will rule on his behalf (see Daniel 7:27). It is no surprise that the Pharisees are enraged and later seek to destroy him. By calling himself the “Son of Man,” Jesus’ claims are enormous: authority to set aside Sabbath laws, correctly interpret the Hebrew Scriptures, and even to reign over God’s kingdom! He is greater than the law. He is the lawgiver.

  From there he enters the synagogue where the Jewish leaders try to trap him again, asking him if it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus cleverly heals a man with just a word—something that cannot be construed as lawless behavior, even on the Sabbath. Again the situation is a slap in the face to Israel’s leaders. The man he healed had a shriveled hand, evoking the story of Israel’s ancient king, Jeroboam. Jeroboam’s hand had shriveled when he stretched it out against the true prophet of Yahweh, giving orders to seize him (1 Kings 13:4). The prophet then prayed and the king’s hand was restored. Jesus doesn’t pray. He simply tells the man with a shriveled hand to stretch it out and be restored. The incident confirms Jesus as one even greater than a prophet while exposing Israel’s leaders as the enemies of Yahweh.

  Matthew follows this story with a lengthy quotation from Isaiah 42, identifying Jesus as the servant that the prophet had announced would come. However, instead of following the Hebrew Old Testament, which reads, “in his torah the islands will put their hope,” Matthew follows the Greek Old Testament, which reads, “in his name the nations will put their hope” (Matthew 12:21, quoting Isaiah 42:4). Jesus does not set aside the Torah, but he is so much greater. It all points to him.

  The Sermon on the Mount shows that Jesus understands himself as one who possesses authority to interpret the law and give fresh revelation. His Sabbath interchange portrays him as Lord of the Sabbath, one greater than the temple, with power to heal. If his divine identity is still veiled to some, it won’t be for much longer. The mountain of transfiguration makes it obvious.

  SHINING FACES: THE TRANSFIGURATION

  This lesson concerning Jesus’ identity is confirmed in a dramatic way. He brings Peter, James, and John, his closest disciples, up a high mountain. Time after time, Jesus + mountain = something interesting. This time is no exception. When they reached the pinnacle, Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). It was a glorious revelation. This event has Sinai written all over it—the cloud, the glory, the divine voice. Moments later, they have company—Moses and Elijah. Both men are back from the dead, conversing with Jesus on the mountain. In different eras, both had conversed with Yahweh at Mount Sinai. Both had witnessed Yahweh’s glory before their very eyes, but they had only been allowed to see God’s back. Now they see his face—the face of Jesus. And it shines gloriously.

  Moses had seen Yahweh when he revealed himself to t
he exodus generation and entered into the covenant with them, appointing them as his special representatives to bear his name among the nations. Elijah had seen Yahweh when it looked like that covenant was in tatters, with only a small remnant of faithful Israelites. Moses witnessed the failure of the golden calf within days of the covenant’s beginning. Likewise, most in Elijah’s day had fallen into the worship of other gods and failed to represent Yahweh well. Like Jesus, both men “suffered rejection and hostility from the people to whom they were sent.”9 Jesus has already explained that his glory would come through suffering. Moses and Elijah could both testify to the truth of this in their own ministries. Because both men passed from this earth in supernatural fashion—Moses buried by God on Mount Nebo and Elijah transported to heaven in a flaming chariot—they came to represent the messianic age, igniting the hopes of Israel for God’s intervention.10 Now the disciples witness Jesus’ glory, God-made-flesh, as the covenant is being renewed through his ministry. Jesus is also the one who models covenant faithfulness for Israel by representing the Father perfectly.

  Peter thinks he has a bright idea: let’s put up shelters for each of you! Like King David, he takes the initiative, wanting to build a house for God, wanting to make this moment endure. Glory is a bit more of what he had in mind for Jesus rather than the suffering Jesus had predicted. But before Peter can finish speaking, God the Father answers, surrounding them with a bright cloud: “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)

  The divine voice puts Peter in his place: your job is to listen to Jesus, not to try to manage my glory. “Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5) echoes Deuteronomy 18:15-19, where the people are told to pay attention to the “prophet like Moses” who will arise.11 Jesus inherits the legacy of the prophets who reveal God’s word to the people of faith, but this particular prophet is even greater than Moses. The glory is his own. Jesus trumps both Moses and Elijah because they disappear, leaving him to carry out deliverance for Israel.12