V. Characteristics Matthew's is emphatically the
Gospel of the Kingdom. The main object of the evan- gelist is to portray the kingly character of Christ, and to show that in him the ideal of the King reigning in righteousness, the true Heir of David's throne, was ful- filled (comp. Augustine, De Consens. Ev. passim). Thus the tone throughout is majestic and kingly. He views things in the grand general aspect, and, indifferent to the details in which Mark loves so much to dwell, he gathers up all in the great residt. His narrative pro- ceeds with a majestic simplicity, regardless of time and place, according to another and deeper order, ready to sacrifice mere chronologj^ or locality to the develop- ment of this idea. Thus he brings together events sep- arated sometimes by considerable intervals, according to the unity of their nature or purpose, and with a grand but simple power accumulates in groups the discourses, parables, and miracles of our Lord (I. Williams, Study of GosjkIs, p. 28). From the formation and objects of the Gospels, we should expect that their prevailing char- acteristics would be indicated rather by a general tone and spirit than by minute peculiarities. Not, however, that these latter are ■wanting. It has already been re- marked how the genealogy with which Matthew's Gos- pel opens sets our Lord forth in his kingly character, as the heir of the throne of David, the representative of the royal lino of which he was the true successor and fulfilment. As we advance we find his birth hailed, not by lowly shepherds as in Luke, but by wise men coming to wait on him with royal gifts, inquiring, " Where is he that is born king of the Jews." In the Sermon on the Mount the same majestj' and authority appear. We hear the Judge himself delivering his sentence ; the King laying down the laws of his kingdom, "I say unto you," and astonishing his hearers with the "authority" with which he speaks. The awful majesty of our Lord's reproofs in his teaching in the Temple, and his denunci- ations of the Scribes and Pharisees, also evidence the authority of a king and lawgiver — " one who knew tho mind of Ciod and could reveal it ;" Avhich may also be noticed in the lengthened discourses that mark the close
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of his ministry, in which " the king" and " the kingdom of heaven" come forward with so much frequency (xxi, 31,43; xxii, 2sq. ; xxiii, 14; xxiv, 14; xxv, 1, 34,40). Nor can we overlook the remarkable circumstance that, in the parable of the marriage-feast, so similar in its general circumstances with that in Luke (xiv, 16), in- stead of " a certain man," it is " a king" making a mar- riage for his son, and in kinglj' guise sending forth his armies and binding the unworthy guest. The addition of the doxology also to the Lord's Prayer, with its as- cription of " the kingdom, the power, and the glorj'," is in such true harmony with the same prevailing tone as to lead many to see in this fact alone the strongest ar- gument for its genuineness.
But we must not in this, or in any of the Gospels, di- rect our attention too exclusively to any one side of our Lord's character. " The King is one and the same in all, and so is the Son of Man and the Priest. ... He who is the King is also the Sacrifice" (Williams, ut sup. p. 32). The Gospel is that of the King, but it is the King •' meek" (xxi, 5), " meek and lowly of heart" (xi, 29) ; the kingdom is that of " the poor in spirit," •' the persecuted for righteousness' sake" (ver. 3, 10), into which " the weary and heavy laden" are invited, and which they enter by submitting to the "yoke" of its king. He, it tells us, was to be one of ourselves, " whose broth- erhood with man answered all the anticipations the Jewish prophets had formed of their king, and whose power to relieve the woes of humanity could not be sep- arated from his participation in them, who ' himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses' " (viii, 17) (Mau- rice, Unity of N. T. p. 190). As the son of David and the son of Abraham, he was the partaker of the sorrows as well as the glories of the throne — the heir of the curse as well as the blessing. The source of all blessings to mankind, fulfilling the original promise to Abraham, the curse due to man's sin meets and centres in him, and is transformed into a blessing when the cross becomes his kindly throne ; and from the lowest point of his degra- dation he reappears, in his resurrection, as the Lord and King to whom " all power is given in heaven and earth." He fulfils the promise, " In thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed ;" in the command to "go and make disciples of aU nations," he " expands the I Air, which was the ground of the national polity, into the name of ' the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost' " (Maurice, ut sup. p. 221).
Once more, the kingdom he came to establish was to be a fatherly kingdom. The King he made known was one reigning in God's name, and as his representative. That God was the father of his people, as of him, in and through whom human beings were to be adopted as the children of God. This characteristic of the Gospel is perpetually meeting us. At every turn Matthew repre- sents our Lord bringing out the mind of (}od and show- ing it to be the mind of a Father. The fatherly rela- tion is the ground of all his words of counsel, command, warning, comfort. Especially is this the case in the Sermon on the Mount. Everj' command, as to good works (v, 16, 45, 48), almsgiving (vi, 1, 2), prayer (vi, 6, 8\ forgiveness (vi, 14, 15), fasting (vi, 18), trust and faith (vi, 26; vii, ll),is based on the revelation of a Father. The twelve are sent forth in the same name and strength (x, 20, 29). The kingdom Christ came to establish is not so much a kingdom as a family — the Ecclesia, a word found only in Matthew (xvi, 18 ; xviii, 17) — " held together by the law of forgiveness and mutual sacrifice, with their elder Brother in the midst of them, and their ^vill so identified with that which rules heaven and earth, that whatever they shall agree to aSk shall be done by their Father." This characteristic of Matthew is remarkably evidenced by a comparative survey of the usage of the evangelists. In Mark we find our Lord speaking of or to God, as his Father, three times, in Luke twelve times, in Matthew twenty-two times; as the Father of his people, in Mark twice, in Luke five times, in JIatthew twenty-two times.