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The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven (Bible Speaks Today)

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Michael Green: The Message of Matthew. The Kingdom of Heaven. With Study Guide by David Stone. Downers Grove, Illinois and Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000 (revised and re-worked edition of "Matthew for Today", 1988), 343 pages. Part of the IVP exegetical series, "The Bible Speaks Today". The editor of the New Testament volumes is John Stott.

When commenting on Michael Green's autobiographical look at today's church, "Adventure of Faith" (ISBN: 0007105428), I chose the title "Sane Wisdom, Deep Spirituality". I could do a lot worse than use the same words for his exposition of Matthew's Gospel. Michael Green has been both an evangelist and a pastor as well as a leading Anglican theologian, and his book reflects all these strands of his life. As a theologian he is aware of all the issues debated on in scholarly circles, and he provides a good deal of literature information for the knowledgeable both in his footnotes and in the text. As an evangelist he underscores those parts of the Gospel text which provide arguments for the uniqueness and deity of Christ as well as those which demand a personal response from the reader. And as a pastor he is careful not to ignore those passages of Matthew which challenge both the believer and the church. I have found that reading Matthew's Gospel section by section (first in the Greek, then attempting my own translation before reading the New International Version, on which this book is based), then slowly reading Green's thoughts and finally turning to the Study Guide at the end of the book to face the questions posed there has been an enlightening and spiritually edifying experience. Green's book is, in line with the purpose of the series, not a verse-by-verse commentary but a practical exposition, and I found much food for thought here. Green's interpretation of Matthew chapter 24 (Jesus's prophetical speech on the signs of the end and of his coming) I found to be particularly inspiring, just because of its sobriety and sanity. Evangelical Christians of every persuasion should find plenty of food for thought here, and that on practically every page!

So, are there no criticisms? Well, not many. I found the Introduction rather heavy going, and in the end I felt I could quite happily have done without it. Green explains the niceties of the relationship between the Gospels (as far as that is possible) and comes to the conclusion that the Apostle Matthew probably only wrote the Aramaic text that our Matthew's Gospel, which he tentatively dates around 80 A. D., is based on. All that is not particularly inspiring, and in the actual text of the exposition it never comes up again: Green constantly refers to the author of our Gospel as Matthew, which is, in my opinion, much more satisfying.

Also, Green's view of the resurrection of the saints at the time of the death of Christ (p. 302 f.) seems to me a little odd. And occasionally, Green produces sentences which you need to read several times in order to understand. But those are minor quibbles in a book which deals so marvellously with some of the most basic truths of Christianity in a way which keeps the reader's interest throughout.

Of course, Green's treatment of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to 7) is sketchy, but he points out quite rightly that these chapters have already been dealt with expertly by John Stott in his classic volume from the same series, "The Message of the Sermon on the Mount: Christian Counter-Culture" (ISBN: 0877842965), so he does not need to deal with these chapters in so much detail.

For those looking for further material on Matthew's Gospel, I can also recommend William Hendriksen's massive verse-by-verse commentary (Banner of Truth Trust; ISBN: 0851511929) and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (IVP; ISBN: 080280036X).