MATTHEW'S GOSPEL AS AN INCLUSIVE STORY OF JESUS

In 8:1, after Jesus has proclaimed his programme on the Mount, the Matthean story of Jesus sets out in earnest. Matthew now begins to relate how Jesus healed the sick among God's people (see 4:23). This forms the subject of chapters 8 and 9. Jesus returns to this subject at the opening of chapter 11 (11:5–6). In between, in chapter 10, is the so-called Discourse on Mission, in which Jesus sends his disciples forth to Israel with the same authority and commission as his own. They are told to proclaim the kingdom of God, as he had done in chapters 5 to 7, and to heal the sick, as he had done in chapters 8 and 9. At first glance, therefore, it would seem that chapters 5 to 11 form a unit. But the end of chapter 11 goes beyond the previous subject matter. Jesus delivers a quite harsh address to the people, who have fully accepted neither him nor John the Baptist. The people become ‘this generation’, resembling children who cannot decide whether they want to play wedding or funeral and therefore do neither (11:16–19). This address is followed by Jesus’ denunciation of Capernaum, Bethsaida and Chorazin, which is all the more surprising as these towns have done him no harm till now. On the contrary, in Capernaum, Jesus' ‘own town’ (9:1), he was greeted by throngs of people (8:1, 18; 9:8).