Prophetic Tradition in the New Testament
In the New Testament, all these prophetic characteristics would converge in Jesus.
Jesus in Mark’s Gospel
Jesus in Mark was also the spokesperson of God. Mark described the fate of Jesus this way: At first, he put Jesus preaching around Galilee and the Judaean hills. He never allowed him to enter Jerusalem, until after the confession of Peter (Mark 8,27-30) and the collaboration of this confession in the Transfiguration (Mark 9,1-13). It was only when Jesus’ real identity and the mission and fate of this identity were shared, in secret, within a select group of disciples, that he then set his face towards Jerusalem. Arriving there after a long trek (Mark 11,11), Jesus chose not to sleep in the city. For Mark would never allow Jesus to sleep in the city (Mark 11,19; 14,26). In fact, the first thing he made Jesus do in the city was to let him cleanse the Temple, with the prophetic words taken from Isaiah and Jeremiah: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations (Is 56,7), but you have made it a den of robbers (Jer 7,11).
For Mark, this geographical construction was significant. Galilee and the Judaean hills were symbols of the acceptance of Jesus. It was in those places that the poor lived, the sick were looking for healing and the rich citizens from the city wandered in search of life’s meaning and direction. On the contrary, Jerusalem was the symbol of rejection. It was the center of economic, political and socio-cultural power. The Temple embodied this power that had no concern whatsoever for the poor and the sick. It had ceased to be the articulator of life’s true meaning and direction. That was why it had to be purified and be given back to God and to his people. The full quote from Isaiah recalled the internationalism of the justice and peace of Yahweh, while the phrase from Jeremiah reminded the state and the temple, and the people in general, of the class character of the mission of Jesus: in the Old Testament prophetic insight, one became rich only by stealing from the people, and in no other way! Jesus was now denouncing and subverting the recurrence of this thievery, legal brigandage and injustice in the temple commerce. And his final destiny: suffering, death on the cross and resurrection!
Like Elijah from of old, the prophetic ministry of Jesus was also a confrontation with the authorities, both temple and state. In this confrontation Jesus would articulate the deepest aspirations of the poor and the needy, aspirations that were also the deepest aspirations of God for humanity and all creation. The shortness of the Markan gospel and the use of the word “immediately” 41 times may indicate the urgency and haste with which Jesus lived his prophetic calling.
Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew
The mission of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew defined his identity. All authority in heaven and on earth was his. He sent people to make disciples, to baptize in the name of the Trinity and to teach all his commandments. For he was “Emmanuel” – God-with-us – everywhere and forever.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.
(Matt 28,18-20)
In the Infancy Narrative, Matthew brought Jesus to Egypt and back: a new Exodus. Then he presented Jesus as communicating his message on some “mountain” (Matt 5,1; 14,23; 17,1; 28,16). The “mountain” evoked in the memory of his community the giant figure of Moses, the greatest prophet and teacher in the Old Testament who received the Law from mount Sinai. Now Jesus was bringing him and his functions for liberation-salvation to completion. Furthermore, Jesus called his disciples to a close and intimate following of his own person (Matt 16, 24-26; cf. also 19,21). This is the way he was going to perfect the law and the prophets: in his person, the prescription of radical discipleship in his person, his deeds and words of blessings for the poor and the marginalized and his curses and woes, denouncing those who deceive and exploit the poor with the use of the law, power and wealth.
Matthew divided his gospel into five (5) sections that contained the teachings of Jesus about the Kingdom of Heaven (MacEleney). These are: Book 1: Ch. 3-7; Book 2: Ch. 8-11:1; Book 3: Ch. 11:2-13:52; Book 4: Ch. 13:54-19:1 and Book 5: Ch. 19:2-26:1. These books are strategically spread around the fundamental structure of Mark’s gospel, with the addition of a special Matthaean material on the Infancy of Jesus Christ and a post-resurrection narrative, the Passion-Glorification of Jesus Christ.
There is a word that Matthew used to describe what was happening in the heart of Jesus each time he encountered people “like sheep without a shepherd”: Splagchnizomai – quite often translated as compassion or pity (9,36; 14,14; 15,32; 18,27; 20.34). But this word has been used to describe what was happening inside the belly of someone who was about to puke, to vomit. It also described what was happening inside the belly of the volcano when it was about to erupt or was actually erupting. There in both bellies one could sense very mixed intense feelings of acidity and anger, of love and passion for survival and life, of weakness of the body and surrender, of compassion and pity, of empathy and solidarity.
Matthew also set the interplay of blessings (5,3-ff.) and curses (23,13-ff.), recalling the Deuteronomistic tradition (Deut 28 and 30). But this time, Jesus was using these blessing for the poor and the curses and woes were reserved for those who trample the poor. He transformed the commandments into speeches of prophetic confrontation.
Thus, for Matthew Jesus was the Teacher, proclaimed in the tradition of the Suffering Servant who suffered for the cause of Justice for all the nations. In the spirit of Ps 2,7 this beloved son would inherit the nations, the limitless space and time – to the ends of the earth – as his Kingdom. For Jesus is the only Teacher, his teachings the Magna Carta of the alternative new things in the Kingdom of Heaven, and there is no other.
Jesus’ blessings of freedom and liberation of the poor in the Beatitudes, his teaching and healing, confrontative speech and authoritative acts of expulsion of demons and the curses and woes against the powerful have been bequeathed as the legacy of the missionary Church.
