Here is something fun from Ulrich Luz in his little book The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew.
In short, Matthew concludes his Gospel in a manner quite unusual for Protestant sensibilities, by intermingling grace and commandments, the 'indicative' and the 'imperative' of salvation. Jesus' commandments are the Gospel that his disciples owe the world. They represent the Father's will to redeem his world. But they are not the will of a distant or unreachable God. On the contrary, the 'God with us' will remain with his community always, to the end of time, helping it, teaching it, and standing by its side as it faces new challenges.I am bringing this word to my Wednesday night bible study group at North Shore Baptist Church. We have been reading through Matthew and Luz for the last several weeks. I have enjoyed it. And we have all been challenged by Luz and our own attempts to get at the text of Matthew while sifting through our own stuff. How can you get at Matthew? Isn't that the task? Interesting. I want to know what Matthew says, not what Tripp says Matthews says...or Luz for that matter. Posted by tripp at March 24, 2004 02:38 PM