This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Matthew 2:13-23. The English Standard Version separates the verses into three portions and supplies them with the headings “The Flight to Egypt,” “Herod Kills the Children,” and “The Return to Nazareth.”
As I’ve said before, of the four Gospels, Matthew’s is the one which is most clearly organized around the theme of fulfilment of prophecy.
We don’t know how Matthew became familiar with the prophetic writings.[1] Probably, Jesus taught the prophecies about himself to his disciples, including his inner circle of twelve apostles.[2]
Last week, we saw how God convinced Joseph to accept Jesus and Mary. Today’s chapter begins with wise men “from the East,” actually astrologers, coming to worship Jesus; with the same gifts the Queen of Sheba had long ago brought to King Solomon.[3] Gifts for a king.
I’ve written about the wise men before, under the title “Why didn’t Matthew hide the Astrologers?” If the title intrigues you, do click the link – it includes both text and audio.
Today, I want to point out that Matthew says we should regard Jesus as the new Moses, leading a new Exodus, into a new Israel.
Moses is one of the key characters in the Bible.[4] At the time Moses was born, the ruler, Pharoah, had issued a law. He had decreed that midwives must kill all Hebrew male newborns. But Moses was not killed. He was saved, adopted, and raised up in Egypt.
Do you see the parallels with Jesus? At the time Jesus was born, the ruler, Herod, issued a law. He had decreed that soldiers must kill all Hebrew male children aged two years or less. But Jesus was not killed. He was saved, adopted, and raised up in Egypt.
And where did the population of Israel grow in numbers? If you know your Old Testament, you know that they grew in numbers in Egypt. Grew so large in numbers that the king considered them a threat to the security of the nation.[5] He oppressed them. They cried out to God. God sent Moses to save them, to “exodus” them out of Egypt.
Matthew says Jesus was taken to Egypt in order to grow up there safely and that this was to enable fulfilment of a prophecy of Hosea, which says,
“… out of Egypt I called my son.” [6]
Hosea applied the call to Israel, in the past. Matthew applied Hosea’s words to Jesus, in the future.
Matthew, trained by Jesus, is telling us about God’s solution to a failed state. Because that’s what Israel was. A failed state. Israel was supposed to be a model of good governance, a model of heaven on earth, a model of the kingdom of God. It was not. Therefore, it was a failed state.
What was God’s solution? God’s solution was a new Israel.
What’s the new Israel? The new Israel is Jesus.
Today, we’re in chapter two. In chapter four, Matthew will tell us about Jesus being tested in the wilderness for 40 days. In the story, we will hear echoes of the testing of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years, after the exodus, before entering the land which would be named Israel.[7]
In chapter 19, Matthew will tell us Jesus told his twelve apostles that “in the new world,” they would “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”[8]
Through the telling of the story of Jesus in the Gospels, most especially in Matthew, God is inviting us to see a new Israel: a new, gathered, governed, glorious people. A new Israel first embodied in a person, Jesus. And later, embodying a person, Jesus.
What do I mean by “later, embodying a person, Jesus”?
I mean churches: churches as outposts of heaven, as embassies of King Jesus. Centred not around banners of glory. No. Centred around the broken body of Jesus. Working to repair, heal, and bring peace to all nations.
But Jews and some Christians reject the term “new Israel.”
In 2023 the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) published a document titled “Hope for the Future: A Study Document for Renewing Jewish-Christian Relations.” This entry, from the glossary, draws our attention to both the long history of and some results of seeing the church as the new Israel. It’s the entry for “supersession, replacement.” It says,
The Christian teaching throughout almost two millennia that the church has replaced or superseded Israel in God’s plan of salvation, and that after the destruction of the Temple Judaism has no theological or religious significance other than demonstrating God’s wrath, while the church was seen as a demonstration of God’s grace.
Why does it say that according to Christian teaching, Judaism continues to exist only to demonstrate God’s wrath?
It says so in order to remind us of teaching by people like the church father Augustine of Hippo[9] that God has sentenced Jews to “wander continually as punishment for their murder of Christ their brother,” like Cain. You’ll find this on page 56 of the document.
Today, I don’t have the space or time to discuss some horrendous things our Martin Luther said about Jews.[10] You can click this link to read a short article directed to laypersons, titled “Martin Luther, Israel, and the Jewish People.” It’s on the website of “One for Israel.”[11]
Christians who live in Muslim-majority Malaysia, filled with ethno-religious rhetoric, especially in the era of the Gaza conflict, must reflect on Israel.
Are churches the new Israel?
If they are, what’s their role in the building and governing of nations? How effectively are they fulfilling their mission? Are they failed states?
And what about today’s geographical nation of Israel?
How do you read the Gospel of Matthew, the gospel of fulfilment of prophecy?
Peace be with you.
[1] Before he became a follower of Jesus, Matthew was known as Levi. He was a tax collector. He collected taxes for the Romans. The oppressors. Who treated locals like donkeys: useful tools of production.
We don’t know how long Levi worked as a tax collector before he became Matthew, a disciple, an apostle, one of the twelve members of Jesus’ inner circle. We know, from his Gospel, that he was very familiar with the biblical and non-biblical writings which gave meaning to the lives of Jews.
[2] See Luke 24:13-35, which at verse 27, says: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
[3] See 1 Kings 10.
[4] Which we call the Old Testament.
[6] Hosea 11:1.
[7] The first use of the term “land of Israel” is in 1 Samuel 13:9. Prior references are to “people of Israel” (eretz Yisrael).
[8] Matthew 19:28.
[9] He lived from 354 to 430 AD in what is now Tunisia & Algeria.
[10] “In 1984, the LWF formally renounced the anti-Jewish invective of Martin Luther’s writings and repented of its detrimental effects and consequences for the Jewish people” (from Page 19 of the LWF document).
I too have written about Luther’s attitude to Jews. In my column titled “Did the reformation succeed in the city where it began?” I discuss, among other things, the Judensau, a sculpture on the outside of the church building in which Luther preached a very large number of his sermons. It “depicts a caricature of a rabbi lifting the tail of a sow [pig] and two Jewish children suckling on the teats.” Pigs are of course considered unclean in Judaism. Luther spoke approvingly of the sculpture!
[11] About whom I know little.
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