He thought about this story again, as he had over the years, unsure that it would fit into the discussion, but moved again by its power.
Regretfully, he recognized that he was wandering away from Matthew’s text.
He was interrupted for a while by the needs of business and thoughts of Melanie, as he hoped again that he hadn’t given the impression that he wished to take over leadership of the group. His initial ponderings on the temptation narrative made him realize what a difficult situation she had been inherited.
At that very time, Melanie was meeting with the Dean of the Cathedral, ostensibly on some legal business but she was glad of the opportunity that the meeting gave to discuss her “inheritance” from Matty. “Yes,” he agreed, “it came as a bit of a surprise when I heard about it. But I have confidence that you will find your way through it. Is it Matty’s last attempt to bring you into the fold?” He laughed and she couldn’t help lightening up a bit. “But,” she said, “there is another problem.” And she explained her exchange with Al and his agreement to make an introduction the following Tuesday. “He’s totally new to it all. It is possibly the first time he has read Matthew’s Gospel.”
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “I know Al quite well from his bookstore and he is an interesting man. And think what a rare opportunity to get a take on a gospel chapter from an outsider perspective.”
Al had time later that day to return to the remainder of the text; it seemed less problematic.
Now when Jesus heard that John was thrown into prison, he withdrew into Galilee, and, leaving Nazareth, he went and settled at Capernaum, a town by the Lake on the frontiers of Zebulun and Naphtali, in order that these words, spoken through the Prophet Isaiah, might be fulfilled,
“Zebulun’s land and Naphtali’s land; the road by the Lake; the country beyond the Jordan; Galilee of the Nations!
The people who were dwelling in darkness have seen a brilliant light; and on those who were dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, on them light has dawned.”
It made sense that when John the Baptist was no longer able to continue, that Jesus would take over, with identically the same description of his preaching, Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is now close at hand.
The circumstances of John’s imprisonment were easily tracked down in Matthew 14, with the gruesome account of his beheading to satisfy the malice of Herodias. He remembered being present for a production of Strauss’s opera at the Sydney Opera House, unprepared for the shocking ending when Salome herself is beheaded at Herod’s command. His mind had wandered away again from the text and he knew that Strauss was too far removed from Matthew’s Gospel to be of significance to the task in hand.
But a question which came naturally: if Jesus inherits John’s proclamation, did he also continue the baptisms? A quick web check made it clear that this was a debating point: John’s Gospel goes to some trouble to say that “. . . in fact it was not Jesus who baptized but his disciples” (John 4.2). Yet earlier (John 3.22) it is stated that “. . . Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judaean countryside where he spent some time with them and baptized.” Al wondered if that meant that Jesus baptized his disciples and then turned baptizing over to them?
The calling of the first four disciples seemed straightforward.
From that time Jesus began to preach. “Repent,” he said, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is now close at hand.”
And walking along the shore of the Lake of Galilee he saw two brothers—Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew—throwing a dragnet into the Lake; for they were fishers. And he said to them, “Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” So they immediately left their nets and followed him. As he went further on, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee mending their nets; and he called them. And they at once left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Had they been disciples of John the Baptist, he wondered. If so, it would make sense that they might give allegiance to the one who had received the accolade, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I.” He felt that he was generally in touch with the chapter but remained apprehensive about guiding the discussion.
Tuesday came quickly enough and Al sat uneasily in his accustomed chair, waiting for Melanie to call upon him. He felt a little like a schoolboy waiting for the teacher to call him up for an oral presentation.
Things began well enough as Melanie obligingly put up the Temptation narrative on the screen.
He began: “This week, I read Matthew Chapter 4 for the very first time! I tried to put myself in the place of one of the early listeners, maybe in the first century, who was in an equivalent situation.” He looked around, relieved that they seemed to be paying close attention. “All of you, I guess, have heard many sermons on the Temptation in the Wilderness. But I am starting from scratch. It was Andrew who introduced me to the idea of Midrash last week and that got me thinking. Maybe Jesus shared with his disciples the general outlines of his experiences in the desert and then a later generation filled in the details, using texts from the Jewish scriptures.”
“Does it make sense,” he wondered, “to see the baptism and the temptation as a continuous narrative? Jesus experiences something special at his baptism, becomes aware of the possibility that he is The One and goes off into solitude to try to sort it out. The three ‘temptations’ might represent options in the fulfillment of his destiny.”
He left it to the general discussion that followed to sort out meanings for the temptations, especially with reference to modern life. Martha Henson, in particular, saw possible parallels in the life of the Church. She spoke at some length. “I wonder if the turning stones into bread might represent social action, good in itself but scarcely ‘every word from the mouth of God’ as my translation puts it. And maybe the Temple temptation is parallel to the need for extravagant display.” She paused, seeming to lose confidence. “And the temptation to find an alliance with secular power is only too well a part of the church’s history.”
She conceded that she had heard a sermon along these lines and there was some discussion with the consensus, tactfully expressed within the group, that it was all a bit far fetched. Al was impressed with the way that Melanie tried to build on Martha’s idea. “What if Jesus, at that stage, saw himself simply as the new leader of John the Baptist’s disciples? Then maybe the temptations might relate to perils of leadership. I haven’t thought out the details but I think it can work.” Martha became quite animated. “Yes,” she replied. “It is a better fit. Any leader might indeed be tempted to look after his own needs, to draw too much attention to himself or to form an alliance with the ‘Dark Side’!”
Al decided to move the discussion along, giving his own thoughts about the temptations as possible approaches to the fulfillment of the messianic destiny; Jesus, hungry and exhausted in the desert, thinking, “If I am the Messiah, how do I now proceed?” This was a cue that they, at least, needed to proceed!
Al wondered about the imprisonment of John the Baptist. “It’s mentioned here but then introduced much later in the Gospel as a new event. I know we shouldn’t look forward into later chapters but Matthew