Matthew: The Gospel of Promised Blessings

by Matthew L. Skinner

Explore the tenderness and the tensions in the teachings of Jesus.

The Gospel of Matthew portrays Jesus and his message as full of tender compassion and urgent warning. This six-part exploration of an enigmatic Gospel takes readers into the themes, topics, and tensions at the heart of Matthew's story about the life and work of Jesus. Chapters focus on blessing and comfort, judgment and retribution, the meaning of discipleship, Jesus’ vision for the Church and world, conflicts and complaints, and how the Gospel of Matthew speaks to believers today.

The book can be read alone or used by small groups anytime throughout the year. Components include video teaching sessions featuring Matthew Skinner and a comprehensive Leader Guide.

Genres: Christian

135 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 2, 2024

About the author

Matthew L. Skinner (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He frequently contributes to popular Christian magazines and blogs and is a featured writer for ON Scripture (a weekly column carried by Odyssey Networks), the Huffington Post, and other online outlets.

Reviews

[Adam Tomlinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really hopeful for this book. Skinner is a host of sermon brainwave, a podcast I use regularly to prepare sermons, and so I was hopeful this book would help me preach this year, Year A in the RCL. It may. The book starts strong, especially with a quote from Skinner's own teacher, inviting teachers of the Bible to begin interpretive efforts not with the question "what does obedience to this look like?" but rather "what does this text promise?" a profound change.

Unfortunately, by the end of the book, Skinner seems solely focused on critiquing how Matthew wrote his Gospel, how Jesus is portrayed, and how we've missed the mark in understanding him. More than once Skinner says something like 'I reject this kind of understanding.' In reflecting on Matthew's story of Jesus' long critique of the Pharisees, in Mt 23, Skinner moves from an appropriate reminder that not all Pharisees were hypocrites, into a comment that he doubts whether Jesus really said any of this, and "if he did, I hope he'd be mortified to know someone wrote it down." and then accuses Matthew of simply grinding an ax against Jews.

This continues with his description of the verse "his blood be on us" which has, true enough, unfortunately been used to say "______is all because the Jews rejected Jesus and here's the blood curse proof." I wholeheartedly believe this to be bad theology. The problem is, Skinner basically says its unfortunate this verse is in the Bible, and he says the only way it makes sense for Matthew to include it is a way to blame the Jews for the Temple's destruction. There are other ways to interpret this verse, though. My personal favorite is the people unknowingly saying the confession of faith. We are all sinners. We all reject Jesus. Because of that our only hope is Jesus' blood on us.

Again, there was good stuff here. But it seems Skinner is very familiar with antisemitic preaching that influenced how he approaches this book. I simply haven't encountered that and I think he's more afraid of Matthew than I am.

[Patty Corwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great group study book. I learned some different perspectives on the writing of Matthew, especially in relation to the time in which the book was written. It’s great food for thought and very well written.